Sense of Class in 'The Garden Party'

'The Garden Party' by Katherine Mansfield suggests opinions on class differences in a society as one of its many themes. Its major character Laura belongs to the upper class. However in her neighbourhood, there live many lower (working) class poor families. Laura's and her family's view on life of lower class people has a significance in understanding of the story. Thus, although ambivalent, the story presents upper class's perspective toward life of lower class nearby them.

Laura, one among three daughters of Sheridan family, appears most sensitive toward pains of lower class. She has a kind of dissatisfaction with herself for belonging to upper class, "she despised stupid conventions." She feels very happy when she talks to workers during preparation of the party. For her, "they looked impressive."  She wishes that they would be her friends, "why couldn't she have workmen for friends rather than the silly boys she danced with…" On the other hand, her mother and sisters are too proud to belong to upper class and they want to show it off.

Laura is shocked when she hears the news of death of Scott, a working class neighbour during their preparation of the party; and she requests her parents and sisters to postpone it, "we can't possibly have a garden party with a man dead just outside the front gate." But, they consider Laura's proposal "extravagant." While other members of the family suspect the death as a result of heavy drinking, she tries to know the actual cause ignoring their speculations. This very incident is quite strong to prove that she is more sensitive than other members of her family regarding sympathy over working class.

Otherwise children of Sheridan family are forbidden to set foot on areas of those poor class people. However, Laura and her brother Laurie have tried to walk through sometimes. "It was disgusting and sordid. They came out with a shudder. But still one must go everywhere, one must see everything", they thought.

But her sympathy toward poor doesn't stand for longer time, and it seems that Laura is just romanticizing pains of lower class. Once the mother offers her a beautiful hat, she gives up her proposal of stopping the party and gets lost in her own fantasy. She looks herself in the mirror and makes fussy excitements about that mere hat. Now, she too feels that her proposal to stop party was really "extravagant." Now, situation of the deceased's family "seemed blurred, unreal, like a picture in the newspaper" to her. She just now decides that she will remember it again after the party is over.  

Once the party is over, the mother suggests providing left-over foods of the party to family of Scott. Laura doesn't like this idea initially but later she does follow her mother's order and goes to the mourning house carrying the left-over foods in a fancy party dress. This very incident is so strong that it clearly shows ambivalence and psychological conflict within Laura. On one hand, she feels sympathy and sorrow over pains of a nearby neighbor. On the other hand, she is ready to provide left-over foods in party dress, which will signify herself as a member of elite class. They surely will make her distanced from those poor class mourning woman and children. The narrator interestingly comments when Laura sees the dead man, "What did garden parties and baskets and lace frocks matter to him? He was far more from all those things." This time she can't feel as intense sympathy as she had initially felt.

Thus, although in surface the story seems to portray Laura as s sympathetic, moral and a more "humane" character, it is blurred as the story progresses. Initially the readers understand that the story tries to "erase" class distinction as Laura. But as it moves forward, the story involves into flashy fantasies of upper class life as Laura gets lost over her hat. Thus, the story is essentially about upper class's perspective toward lower class people. But at the same time this perspective is "blurred, unreal, like a picture in the newspaper."