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Literary Devices
Dialect
Explanation and Analysis—Class Differences:
Though Else and Lil Kelvey do not speak much in the story, when they do, Mansfield captures it in dialect. She does this by subtly changing the language and grammar that the girls use. The fact that Mansfield does not do this for the Burnell sisters’ speech suggests that this is her way of communicating the class differences between the two sets of girls.
The following passage juxtaposes the way that Mansfield uses dialect for Lil and standard speech for Kezia:
Lil gasped, then she said, “Your ma told our ma you wasn’t to speak to us.”
“Oh, well,” said Kezia. She didn’t know what to reply. “It doesn’t matter. You can come and see our doll’s house all the same. Come on. Nobody’s looking.”
Here, Mansfield has Lil refer to her mother as “ma” rather than “mother” and says “you wasn’t to speak to us” rather than “you aren’t supposed to speak to us,” two examples of a more informal speaking style. Kezia, in contrast, uses standard grammar in her response.
This is not the only example of the Burnell sisters speaking more formally when compared to their lower-class peers. Earlier in the story a schoolmate yells, “Yah, yer father’s in prison!” at the Kelveys (rather than, “Your father’s in prison!”) and later in the story Else says, “I seen the little lamp!” (rather than, “I’ve seen the little lamp”).
Related Themes:
