The Doll's House

Through free indirect discourse, Mansfield allows us to access several characters’ interiority. What is the rhetorical effect of juxtaposing adult consciousness alongside that of children?

Any toy that attracts the attention of young girls could have served as the eponymous focal point of this story. What specifically about the doll’s house elicits Mansfield’s biting social commentary? What function does this doll’s house perform, and what does it reveal about those who view it?

Most of the characters described in this insular, domestic world are female. What is the function of the few male characters? Do they possess the same interiority granted to the female characters?

To what extent does Mansfield engage with Modernist tropes?

Is there an omniscient narrator who can access every character’s consciousness, or does the narrative merely hop between diegetic characters’ consciousnesses? To what extent does this engage with Modernist styles of narration?

What is the rhetorical effect of switching between narrative points of view throughout the text?

To what extent do the children in this text consciously or unconsciously embrace hierarchies of space? To what extent is this embrace influenced by one’s social standing?

Within the text, what is the function of play for girls versus boys? How does this connect to the story’s key themes about childhood, friendship, and social standing?