In "The Doll's House," Mrs. Kelvey is the mother of two girls, Lil and Else. A single mother whose husband is in prison, she must work hard to maintain a home for herself and her daughters. While the well-off members of the community employ her as a washerwoman, they draw a distinction between the Kelveys’ status and their own. The Kelvey girls go to school with much wealthier children, including the Burnell girls who receive the luxurious doll house. However, Mrs. Burnell does not allow her daughters to socialize with Lil and Else outside of school.

The Kelveys are apparently so poor that they cannot afford to buy new clothes for the girls or even new fabric from which Mrs. Kelvey could sew their clothes. Instead, they rely on cast-offs that the women who employ her give her. Mrs. Kelvey’s creativity is shown in the way that she re-purposes these clothes, cutting them up and sewing outfits for her daughters.

Unfortunately, the mother is powerless to intervene in the cruel social hierarchy of the school, and may be unaware of the harsh treatment her daughters endure. The other girls bully and taunt Lil and Else, who apparently do not tell her but bear this abuse in silence.