Dance of the Happy Shades Themes

In “Dance of the Happy Shades,” a story set in southern Ontario during the mid-20th century, a teenage girl—the narrator—and her mother struggle with their discomfort at an awkward party thrown by the elderly music teacher, Miss Marsalles. The girl’s mother places great importance on social etiquette. As a result, even though she dreads the annual music recital, she politely agrees to attend the event and tries to hide her unease with…

“Dance of the Happy Shades” is ultimately about people who are othered by their society. Miss Marsalles and her sister are two such people. Both women are unmarried and childless, contrary to societal norms for women. Moreover, their old age sets them apart from the younger, modern women; the elderly sisters seem to belong to a distant, antiquated past. Combined, these factors lead to the Marsalles sisters’ isolation from society. Their shared impoverishment and the…

While “Dance of the Happy Shades” doesn’t depict death itself, in its beginning the story associates the Marsalles sisters with imagery of death. The older Marsalles sister is a mere shadow, and her ill health after a stroke makes her fragile. The younger Miss Marsalles is elderly, “grotesque,” and separate from the “people who live in the world,” as if she isn’t a living person but rather a strange ghost from a time long past…