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As for the roses, you could not help feeling they understood that roses are the only flowers that impress people at garden parties; the only flowers that everybody is certain of knowing.
The weather is perfect for the Sheridans’ early summer garden party. Their garden is blooming with hundreds of roses. Mansfield personifies the roses, saying that they understand that they are the only flowers that impress people at garden parties. The Sheridans also know this, which is why they have so many in their gardens, to impress people. Further, the roses symbolize the Sheridans themselves. The family also wishes to impress people. And like the roses, they impress people with their showiness. Additionally, roses are not native to New Zealand. Like the Sheridans, they are transplants.
She was still, listening. All the doors in the house seemed to be open. The house was alive with soft, quick steps and running voices. The green baize door that led to the kitchen regions swung open and shut with a muffled thud. And now there came a long, chuckling absurd sound. It was the heavy piano being moved on its stiff castors.
After speaking with Kitty on the telephone, Laura takes a calming breath and listens to the sounds of the house. The description shows Laura’s special sensitivity. She needs a moment of quiet in her busy day. She is attuned to the subtle sounds of her home, sounds that make her house feel alive. The baize door is packed with meaning. Baize is a wool or cotton fabric, similar to felt and often colored green. One of its earliest uses was in covering billiard tables, a practice that continues today. Starting in the 1700s, wealthy British homes featured baize tacked to doors between the staff quarters and the family’s living space as soundproofing insulation. Green baize doors symbolize the dividing line between wealthy homeowners and their working-class staff. The Sheridans’ baize door shows both their wish to separate themselves from the lower classes and their desire to emulate the British upper class.
That really was extravagant, for the little cottages were in a lane to the to themselves at the very bottom of a steep rise that led up to the house. A broad road ran between. True, they were far too near. They were the greatest possible eyesore, and they had no right to be in that neighbourhood at all. They were little mean dwellings painted a chocolate brown. In the garden patches there was nothing but cabbage stalks, sick hens and tomato cans.
Jose has accused Laura of being extravagant for suggesting they cancel the party. Extravagant is an interesting word for Jose to use since the Sheridans’ party is the very definition of extravagant—that is, “lacking in moderation” or even “spending much more money than necessary.” The narrator is ironic in agreeing with Jose, then, in describing the far-from-extravagant poor part of the neighborhood. Whereas the Sheridans live in a big house with grand gardens, the Scotts live in “little cottages.” The poor Scotts live both literally and figuratively in the shadow of the wealthy Sheridans. The “broad road” is the symbolic dividing line between rich and poor in the neighborhood. And still, the cottages are too close and too ugly. The poor people’s homes are an affront to the aesthetic of the rich. They would rather have the poor out of sight and out of mind. The image of the meager garden patches starkly contrasts with that of the Sheridans’ well-maintained garden. The Sheridan garden is for show. The Scott garden is for sustenance. And from the description, the poor garden does not even provide that.
She found herself in a wretched little low kitchen, lighted by a smoky lamp.
Laura has entered the Scott home to deliver her basket of leftover party food to the grieving family. With few words, Mansfield paints a vivid picture of the Scott’s kitchen. It is ”wretched,” meaning miserable, unhappy, and very poor in quality. Low can mean that it had a low ceiling, causing a closed-in, claustrophobic feeling. But it can also mean humble, small, depressed, or even lacking dignity. The room is lit by only one lamp, which emits smoke. The smoky lamp gives readers an impression of a room that is poorly lit. The air is low-quality and hazy. The surfaces are likely grimy and blackened with soot. This kitchen is very different from the kitchen Laura is used to. Although Mansfield does not directly describe the Sheridan kitchen, readers can easily envision it as being large enough to comfortably hold multiple people and multiple trays of sandwiches and cream puffs. The interactions of Laura, Jose, and Cook create a happy atmosphere in the Sheridan kitchen. The atmosphere in the Scott kitchen is much more depressing, which is suitable for a home visited by death.
