Mr. Browne
Does the name "Browne" symbolise the colour brown which is the colour of buried things? The name might reflect Mr.Brown's personality. I notice that Ziyang also annotates about the name "Lily", and we have lots of other characters in this story, so maybe we can research name symbolism of the story.
It was always a great affair, the Misses Morkan’s annual dance.
Skillful writers like using contrast in their stories. The title is "the Dead", however, the story begins at a dance party. It reminds me of the Garden Party which also uses the party to contrast with the death theme.
Going down the stairs his glasses became so dimmed with moisture that he had to take them off and polish them.
In the previous paragraph, there is a similar sentence "a mist gathered on his glasses so that he had to take them off and polish them with his pocket-handkerchief." I think the motion reoccurs in the story is to suggest the dazed status of Mr. Doran.
wise innocence
It's oxymoron again. I think it corresponds to the "perverse madonna" in the previous plots.
wise innocence
It's oxymoron again. I think it corresponds to the "perverse madonna" in the previous plots.
she said “I seen” and “If I had’ve known.”
Joyce uses the poor grammar of Polly to tell that she has barely received an education. I'd like to know if there is a way to figure out the Right/Wrong Sentence Ratio of characters according to English grammar and try to prove the set of the person. We can use such technology to analyse almost all the novels that contain characters of different classes or education background. I guess it will work just like the Type/Token Ratio.
a little perverse madonna.
Here, Joyce is using oxymoron again. How can Madonna be perverse? I mean, Madonna can refer to Mary, the mother of Jesus! It seems that Joyce is really good at using such descriptions. For example, "pleasantly Confused” in Eveline, "too excited to be genuinely happy" in After the Race. Maybe Joyce thinks Irish people are an oxymoron themselves since all the stories talks that Dubliners live a seemingly happy yet blind, dead and paralyzed life. Is it possible to use computational analysis for searching oxymorons and make a list?
They led her up to the table amid laughing and joking and she put her hand out in the air as she was told to do. She moved her hand about here and there in the air and descended on one of the saucers. She felt a soft wet substance with her fingers and was surprised that nobody spoke or took off her bandage. There was a pause for a few seconds; and then a great deal of scuffling and whispering. Somebody said something about the garden, and at last Mrs. Donnelly said something very cross to one of the next-door girls and told her to throw it out at once: that was no play. Maria understood that it was wrong that time and so she had to do it over again: and this time she got the prayer-book.
Some background information: Hallow Eve games is an Irish tradition. In the game "players are led blindfolded to a table where saucers have been arranged. If the blindfolded participant chooses the prayerbook, he or she is supposed to join the priesthood or become a nun within the year. If the ring is chosen, marriage is foretold. Water means a long life, while clay means death". So now we see what is "a soft wet substance" and how Maria connects to the title. I have two hypothesis about the title: a) "Clay" is a metaphorical death of Maria's life since it has been so dull and unexcited, thus corresponds to the motif "paralysis" of the whole book. b) "Clay" symbolises the compliant and submissive characteristics of Maria, just like clay.
innocent-looking grey eyes
Eyes can always express a lot of feelings and emotions. Why not do a computational analysis to ngrams like "adj+eyes" to see what the eyes are like in Joyce's stories?
was too excited to be genuinely happy
Since "excited" means a state of extremely happy, how can it be not "genuinely happy"? We can find all the "too...to..." structure in Joyce's novel and see how he use such phrases to build his story.
All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart.
James Joyce is really good at metaphors. I wonder if it is possible for computational methods to collect metaphors like this since there are no signal words like "like" and "as".
His parents went to eight-o’clock mass every morning in Gardiner Street and the peaceful odour of Mrs. Dillon was prevalent in the hall of the house. But he played too fiercely for us who were younger and more timid. He looked like some kind of an Indian when he capered round the garden, an old tea-cosy on his head, beating a tin with his fist and yelling:
There are many contrasting elements in the first paragraph: the younger and timid children who never won the battle versus the fierce and robust Joe Dilon; the quite parents versus the yelling child. I'm wondering how these elements will help to drive the story.
poor James
"Poor James" appears six times in the story. It helps to emphasize the dull life and miserable destiny of the character. I'm interested in finding the "adj. + names" ngrams in all the stories to find out the typical character figure of the book.
Quite suddenly he hadn’t the energy, he hadn’t the heart to stand this gaiety and bright movement any longer; it confused him. He wanted to stand still, to wave it away with his stick, to say, “Be off with you!”
In previous classes, we have discussed the conflicts that happen in the beginnings of Mansfield's stories. Here the contrast between 'spring' and 'hadn't the energy' also seems like a trigger of conflict. Is this the typical technique that the author use? How many stories in this book have the same pattern?
Oh, how I’ve done that window of a Saturday! Not really, of course, madam, just dreaming, as you might say. I’ve done it for Christmas—motto in holly, and all—and I’ve had my Easter lilies with a gorgeous star all daffodils in the middle.
Flowers appear again in Mansfield's short story! I think here the lilies and daffodils symbolise the harmony of family. We can use worldnet to do a research about flower symbolism of all the stories in her book.
And now that little ancient fellow was climbing down endless flights that led to a glittering, gay dining-room. What legs he had! They were like a spider’s—thin, withered.
Such a description of Mr.Neave's inner world is unique. It's like reality and imagination collapse into the same dimension. It reminds me of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka which also use the technique of alienation of men. I'd like to use stylometry to compare the two stories.
little careful steps
It is interesting that "little" and "pink" appear quite often in this story. I think such words may give readers an impression of youth. I would like to use ngram to search for the phrases that contain these words and try to answer what the author wants to emphasize through the repetition of such words.
Ours, I think—
I notice there are a lot of "-" and "..." in Mansfield's writing, especially in this story. What is their function? What occasions do they usually appear? Are they used for evoking the reader's imagination? I'd like to find all these marks in this story to discover why the author has such a writing habit.
Her grandma’s umbrella?”
Grandma's umbrella with the swan neck frequently appears in the story. I think the author is using the umbrella as a symbol for grandma, and the swan neck for Fenella. Because umbrella is always used to represent a shelter, and the swan neck is just as fragile as Fenella who just lost her mother. The umbrella needs the swan neck to support and decorate it just as grandma needs Fenella; the swan neck also needs the umbrella to protect it just as Fenella needs her grandma. I'm going to search for all the context of "umbrella" to further prove my hypothesis.
Here and there on a rounded wood-pile, that was like the stalk of a huge black mushroom, there hung a lantern, but it seemed afraid to unfurl its timid, quivering light in all that blackness; it burned softly, as if for itself.
The description of the lamp is very novel. How can a lamp "afraid to unfurl its timid, quivering light"? Is this suggesting Fenella's inner world? In this sentence, the "light" and "lamp" are obvious contrast to "black" and "blackness". We can choose the light and the shade as a motif and create a dispersion plot to show the positions of relevant words in the story and see what we can find.
No, it was too difficult. “I’ll—I’ll go with them, and write to William later. Some other time. Later. Not now. But I shall certainly write,” thought Isabel hurriedly.
Interestingly, the story reminds me of a lot of other classic stories examining the theme of marriage, such as The Grasshopper by Chekhov, Madame Bovary by Flaubert, and Lady Chatterley's Lover by Lawrence. In these stories, the heroines have similar characteristics but quite different destinies. I'd like to use PCA to see to what extent these novels' styles are alike.
And in spite of her position, her father’s wealth
It seems that class difference is a common theme in Katherine Mansfield's short stories. So I guess this description is a trigger of the theme in this story.
Why did he have to suffer so? That’s what she couldn’t understand. Why should a little angel child have to arsk for his breath and fight for it? There was no sense in making a child suffer like that.
Ma Parker asks herself a lot of questions in the story. What're the most frequent words and the constant topic of these questions? We can extract all the interrogative sentences in the story. I hypothesize that such sentences help to create a reader's empathy effectively, and they probably talk a lot about life.
“Hennie,” she said, “take those flowers away.” She pointed with her puff to the carnations, and I heard her murmur, “I can’t bear flowers on a table.”
Carnation is the most popular floral gifts for Mother's Day. So the girl's dislike of carnation may symbolize her dislike of her mother. I'd like to analyze all flowers that appear in Mansfield's short stories and figure out their meanings.
your tie reminds me fearfully of the bow-tie that cats wear in pictures!
"Bow" appears a lot of times in the story. I think it has two meanings: a) Mr. Dove bows to Mrs. Dove, which can be seen as the imbalanced position of the Anne and Reggie. b) Reggie wears his bow-tie to propose to Anne. But it reminds Anne of cats. So bow-tie may also refer to the unconfidence and weakness of Reggie.
“the one in front, she’s Mrs. Dove. She looks at Mr. Dove and gives that little laugh and runs forward, and he follows her, bowing and bowing. And that makes her laugh again. Away she runs, and after her,” cried Anne, and she sat back on her heels, “comes poor Mr. Dove, bowing and bowing... and that’s their whole life. They never do anything else, you know.”
Anne's words may suggest the relationship between Anne and Reggie. I think Reggie will be refused when he confesses his love to Anne; or even if he is accepted by Anne, they are not able to lead a happy life, just like Mr.&Mrs. Dove.
“I can’t think how they manage to live at all,” she said slowly. “Who?” demanded Josephine. And Constantia said more loudly than she meant to, “Mice.”
These lines are really interesting. Constantia shows her empathy on mice. Why the author put such a plot in forming the story? Is the mice a metaphor or hint? My hypothesis is that since the daughters are the main characters, the mice may refer to the daughters who have difficulties in lives without their father.
Josephine thought of her dark-red slippers, which matched her dressing-gown, and of Constantia’s favourite indefinite green ones which went with hers. Black! Two black dressing-gowns and two pairs of black woolly slippers, creeping off to the bathroom like black cats.
There are three colour appear in this paragraph: dark-red, indefinite green, and black. The dark-red and indefinite green probabaly represent the charateristics of the two girls, and the black represent their father's influence on them. I mean, the two girls should have had coloured life ("green", "red"), but they are influenced by their father, so adjectives "dark" and "indefinite" are added before the colour. And now they are so helpless because of their father's death and their life becomes even darker just like they think the nightgowns should be "dyed" to "black".
“Do you think father would mind if we gave his top-hat to the porter?”
From the first paragraph we may assume this story starts at the death of the Colonel. But when the two daughters of the Colonel discuss about the hat, they still consider their father's opinion. Why is that? Does this mean their love and respect for their father? Or mean that their father has such a great influence on them that even after his death they can't help but still care about his opinion?
the piano sounded more desperate than ever
I think the piano can be seen as a metaphor of Laura's feeling to the workers (the lower class). At the beginning, "The piano burst out so passonately" represents Laura's curiosity and empathy to the lower class. But this sort of feeling faints at last just like the piano "more desperate than ever".
But what life was she couldn’t explain. No matter. He quite understood.
Laura is Laurie's brother. They are born in the same family and they belong to the same class. So Laurie can understand Laura from the very beginning, but he also knows that only when his sister go through the experience by herself can she fully understand the cruelty of reality.