- It seems an important question to ask what the bald, fat man's
motivation is? Is he being malicious, facetious, or just mindlessly
thinking out loud? Did he target Leila? And for what?
-
Whatever the case, his bitter assessment of the life and the dance
(archetypally a metaphor for life already) has a deflating effect on
Leila. But how are we to take the ending?
Many readers determine that Leila's youthful, upbeat spirit triumphs
in the end despite the attempts of the fat man to discourage and depress
her. We leave her dancing again and not even recognizing the man. But
what has changed between the earlier pages and the last sentences?
The final perspective here involves just that: perspective. What has
changed is that whereas earlier Leila had noticed every aspect of the
experience in animated detail, now "all became one beautiful flying
wheel" (724), a blur, one might say. And not recognizing the fat man
seems slightly grim, no? Leila has gone from hyperconsciousness, however
dorky, to semi-consciousness, never preferable. We catch her at the end
of the story in the process of fulfilling the fat man's prophecies: she
is now unthinkingly caught up in the routine; and she is losing her
personality, which means here her perspective.
Works Consulted
Kobler, J.F. Katherine Mansfield: A Study of the Short Fiction.
Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990.
Mansfield, Katherine. "Her First Ball." Classic Short Fiction. Ed.
Charles H. Bonner. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986. 721-725.
Parkin-Gounelas, Ruth. Fictions of the Female Self: Charlotte
Brontë, Olive Schreiner, Katherine Mansfield. NY: St. Martin's
Press, 1991.
Literature