Her First Ball

"Her First Ball" is told from the perspective of a third person narrator; this is the point of view. The third person narrator describes the sights and sounds of the ball in detail and this...

In this story of pictorial intensity, the story of a young country girl's introduction "to the beginning of everything," there are a few characters of consequence and others who briefly appear:...

The question isn't so much "what is Sheridan girls" as it is "who are the Sheridan girls." They are first of all, the sisters with whom Leila is going to the ball. They are secondly, the sisters of...

The old man brings a touch of negativity to Leila's first dancing experience. However, his words constitute important social commentary. First, female beauty (and by extension, youth) is greatly...

The old man serves as a reminder that life is not perfect. Even in Leila's dreamy environment, there is a reality check when the old man claims that Leila will too grow old and find herself sitting...

A story of musicality and pictorial intensity, "Her First Ball" describes Leila's excitement at the idea of attending a ball where she will get to dance with young men rather than the other girls...

In Katherine Mansfield's "Her First Ball," the beginning of the short story tells us about Leila's state of mind, and the importance of this moment in her life. We find that Lelia is inexperienced....

When we look at poetic devices in the narrative of the story Her First Ball the most salient one is definitely imagery. Imagery is the license used by writers to appeal to all the five senses so...

One useful way to connect both of these texts is through the principal theme of disillusionment and how it is explored in the case of both of the central characters depicted in these stories. For...

Leila of Katherine Mansfield's "Her First Ball" is an naive young lady who comes from the outback to the city to attend her first ball. She "floated away like a flower that is tossed into a pool"...

Leila is impressionable. She is as innocent as is a white lily. She is dancing at her first ball. The night is magical. The evening dancing leaves her breathless. Leila is naive. She is...

For Leila, her entrance into the ball are significant because they represent a girl's first foray into the conditioned world of what it means to be a woman. Leila is possessed by a sense of...

Leila, the main character of "Her First Ball" is indirectly described as a girl who lives in an area that is quite isolated from the excitement of the city. In fact she even says that her closest...

Many of Katherine Mansfield's narratives are characterized by what has been described as "pictorial intensity," evoking various states of happiness, longing, or despair. "Her First Ball" certainly...

In "Her First Ball," Mansfield describes a bittersweet moment of innocence and maturation. Having grown up in the country, 15 miles from the closest neighbor, Leila's experience at the ball is more...

An absolutely lyric piece of writing, "Her First Ball" is composed using the tempo of a waltz with its wording. In this story, Katherine Mansfield relates Leila's first experience of the...

This is an interesting question to consider. Generally, Mansfield is famed for the way in which she depicts the powerless position of women in a patriarchal society, and so this would suggest that...

The theme of "Her First Ball" is one related to the pangs of growing up, one might say it is the lighter side of a coming of age story. Leila attends her first ball, all nerves and dreams, and...

Figurative language, such as metaphors which make implied unusual comparisons between unlike things and personification, which gives inanimate objects human-like characteristics, lends imaginative...

In contrast to the imaginative delights of Leila on the night of her first formal ball as she "floats away like a flower that is tossed into a pool" is the sudden interruption of the old fat man,...

In Katherine Mansfield's poem entitled, "Her First Ball," the author uses the language of the story in several way. In particular, the words she chooses add a sense of excitement to the story. The...

Mansfield presents Leila's thoughts as buzzing with anticipation and excitement both before and during the ball. Being able use a narrative voice that captures how Leila feels and appears to the...

Young, ingenuous Leila has arrived from the outback to the city where she is attending her first formal ball to which her friends, the Sheridan girls, have invited her. Aware of her lack of...

The theme of this postmodernist tale, set sometime before 1921 though first published in 1921, is a classic coming of age theme. Mansfield describes a young woman's first encounter with the wider...

In Katherine Mansfield's story "Her First Ball", the theme of the loss of innocence is treated by using contrast in the description of the different instances that bring out the natural spark of...

When Leila attends her first ball, she revels in the excitement of even insignificant things such as the tissue paper that holds the gloves of her cousin Laurie. Her romanticized perception of the...

Mansfield reveals Leila's thoughts through narrator commentary, indirect speech, free indirect speech, and sensory and psychological reactions. She opens the narrative with narrator commentary in...

The most pronounced element of Mansfield's style is the close proximity of the involved, subjective narrator. Narrators may be distanced or close in proximity, as they may be objective or...

Leila is certainly not worldly as are some of the other girls or world-weary as is the fat man. As the title of Mansfield's story denotes, Leila is inexperienced and naive, having grown up in the...

At the end of “Her First Ball,” the protagonist, Leila, enjoys a wonderful dance with a curly-haired young man. Only a few minutes earlier, however, she had thought that her evening would be...

One way in which Leila could be characterized is being overwhelmed with so much in the moment. Leila is overcome with the reality of what the moment presents. The ball, the pomp and celebrated...

The thoughts of the old man as he dances with Leila are actually very well mapped out for the reader through what he says to her. He is clearly reminiscing about his youth and how quickly old age...

The importance of the setting in the stories "The Destructors" and "Her First Ball", as well as in the play The Fly in the Ointment is that they provide the backdrop to a series of events that will...

Beneath his point that time is a thief who robs young ladies of their naivete and youthful joie de vivre, the older fat man pronounces much more about himself than he does the concept of the...

A short story about maturation and coming of age, Katherine Mansfield's "Her First Ball" uses as one of its primary themes the conceptualization of life as it is, and not as our circumstances, or...

Katherine Mansfield's "Her First Ball" is what is known as a coming-of-age story. This means that the main character will experience an event that will change his or her perspective for good. The...

This is a very interesting question to consider, and I have provided you below with links to the enotes study guides on both of these excellent short stories. My initial response to this question...

I would want to start by looking at the way that story begins before the ball actually starts, with Leila's trip to the ball in the cab with the Sheridan girls. What this does is that it allows the...

Locked into the human soul there is always an envious part that encourages its being to drive a gratuitous nail of cruelty into those who have what others have already lost, an envy of the joie de...

“Her First Ball” by Katherine Mansfield is realistic fiction written in the form of a short story. Katherine Mansfield writes the story of a young lady who is attending her first ball. This...

I think if I were responding to the question I would want to refer to how Leila feels isolated at the beginning of ball through her lack of experience and then feels isolated again and alienated...

Written with the tempo of a waltz, Katherine Mansfield's "Her First Ball" relates the bittersweetness of growing up. Upon her arrival at the ball, the main character Leila is thrilled with the...

The contrast between Leila's life before the ball and what is happening at the ball help to highlight the distance from where she was to where she is now. On one hand, the contrast helps to...

Katherine Mansflied's story of "pictorial intensity" presents an ingenue from the outback who attends her first ball. Mesmerized by the magic of the night, the innocent Leila perceives The road...

Not only is it Leila's first ball, but as the exposition of "Her First Ball" illustrates, there is a novelty to everything surrounding this event because of her inexperience of urbane life. For...

Your essay plan needs to consider what about the theme of loss of innocence you want to write about. That will become your thesis statement. Next you will need to decide what details and quotes...