The Singing Lesson

by

Katherine Mansfield

Miss Meadows Character Analysis

Miss Meadows is a thirty-year-old singing teacher at a girls’ school who is engaged to marry Basil. She arrives at school on the day of the story feeling despair because Basil has left a note breaking their engagement. Miss Meadows seems to be a sensitive person who can feel a great connection to both the weather and music, but she also responds to her unhappiness by becoming cruel to others, spreading her despair to the students. For instance, her sadness causes her to ignore her favorite student, Mary Beazley, and even dictates her choice of songs for her students to sing. As Miss Meadows becomes increasingly emotional about the end of her relationship with Basil, though, her memories of the actual relationship makes it clear that she is sadder about being single at thirty than she is about losing Basil himself. When Miss Meadows later gets a casual, chatty telegram from Basil saying that she should ignore the break-up letter and that he has bought a hat-stand for their future home, Miss Meadows is not angry at him for thinking so little of her emotions. Instead, she is overwhelmed with joy—a joy that, as with her sadness, seems more motivated by the prospect of avoiding becoming an unmarried spinster than it is about actually being married to Basil.

Miss Meadows Quotes in The Singing Lesson

The The Singing Lesson quotes below are all either spoken by Miss Meadows or refer to Miss Meadows. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Despair and Cruelty Theme Icon
).
The Singing Lesson Quotes

With despair…buried deep in her heart like a wicked knife, Miss Meadows [...] trod the cold corridors that led to the music hall. Girls of all ages […] bubbling over with that gleeful excitement that comes from running to school on a fine autumn morning, hurried, skipped and fluttered by.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker)
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 267
Explanation and Analysis:

“You look fro-zen,” said she. Her blue eyes opened wide; there came a mocking light in them. (Had she noticed anything?)

“Oh, not quite as bad as that,” said Miss Meadows, and she gave the Science Mistress, in exchange for her smile a quick grimace and passed on.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), The Science Mistress (speaker)
Page Number: 267
Explanation and Analysis:

She knew perfectly well what they were thinking. “Meady is in a wax.” Well, let them think it! Her eyelids quivered; she tossed her head, defying them. What could the thoughts of those creatures matter to someone who stood there bleeding to death, pierced to the heart, to the heart, by such a letter-

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker)
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:

“I love you as much as it is possible for me to love any woman, but, truth to tell, I have come to the conclusion that I am not a marrying man, and the idea of settling down fills me with nothing but” and the word “disgust” was scratched out lightly and “regret” written over the top.

Related Characters: Basil (speaker), Miss Meadows
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] what was Mary’s horror when Miss Meadows totally ignored the chrysanthemum, made no reply to her greeting, but said in a voice of ice, “Page fourteen, please, and mark the accents well—”

Staggering moment! Mary blushed until the tears stood in her eyes.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), Mary Beazley
Related Symbols: Yellow Chrysanthemum
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:

“The headmaster’s wife keeps on asking me to dinner. It’s a perfect nuisance. I never get an evening to myself in that place.”

“But can’t you refuse?”

“Oh, well, it doesn't do for a man in my position to be unpopular.”

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), Basil (speaker)
Page Number: 269
Explanation and Analysis:

“And then in the second line, Winter Drear, make that Drear sound as if a cold wind were blowing through it. Dre-ear!” said she so awfully that Mary Beazley, on the music stool, wriggled her spine.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), Mary Beazley
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:

But nobody had been as surprised as she. She was thirty. Basil was twenty-five. It had been a miracle, simply a miracle, to hear him say, as they walked home from church that very dark night, “You know, somehow or other, I’ve got fond of you.’” And he had taken hold of the end of her ostrich feather boa.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), Basil (speaker)
Related Symbols: Ostrich Feather Boa
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:

The head mistress sat at her desk. For a moment she did not look up. She was as usual disentangling her eye-glasses, which had got caught in her lace tie. “Sit down, Miss Meadows,” she said very kindly.

Related Characters: Miss Wyatt (speaker), Miss Meadows
Page Number: 271
Explanation and Analysis:

“Oh, no, thank you, Miss Wyatt,” blushed Miss Meadows. “It’s nothing bad at all. It’s”—and she gave an apologetic little laugh—“it’s from my fiancé saying that . . . saying that—” There was a pause. “I see,” said Miss Wyatt. And another pause. Then—“You've fifteen minutes more of your class, Miss Meadows, haven’t you?”

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), Miss Wyatt (speaker), Basil
Page Number: 271
Explanation and Analysis:

“It ought to sound warm, joyful, eager […]”

And this time Miss Meadows's voice sounded over all the other voices—full, deep, glowing with expression.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker)
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Singing Lesson LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Singing Lesson PDF

Miss Meadows Quotes in The Singing Lesson

The The Singing Lesson quotes below are all either spoken by Miss Meadows or refer to Miss Meadows. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Despair and Cruelty Theme Icon
).
The Singing Lesson Quotes

With despair…buried deep in her heart like a wicked knife, Miss Meadows [...] trod the cold corridors that led to the music hall. Girls of all ages […] bubbling over with that gleeful excitement that comes from running to school on a fine autumn morning, hurried, skipped and fluttered by.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker)
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 267
Explanation and Analysis:

“You look fro-zen,” said she. Her blue eyes opened wide; there came a mocking light in them. (Had she noticed anything?)

“Oh, not quite as bad as that,” said Miss Meadows, and she gave the Science Mistress, in exchange for her smile a quick grimace and passed on.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), The Science Mistress (speaker)
Page Number: 267
Explanation and Analysis:

She knew perfectly well what they were thinking. “Meady is in a wax.” Well, let them think it! Her eyelids quivered; she tossed her head, defying them. What could the thoughts of those creatures matter to someone who stood there bleeding to death, pierced to the heart, to the heart, by such a letter-

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker)
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:

“I love you as much as it is possible for me to love any woman, but, truth to tell, I have come to the conclusion that I am not a marrying man, and the idea of settling down fills me with nothing but” and the word “disgust” was scratched out lightly and “regret” written over the top.

Related Characters: Basil (speaker), Miss Meadows
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] what was Mary’s horror when Miss Meadows totally ignored the chrysanthemum, made no reply to her greeting, but said in a voice of ice, “Page fourteen, please, and mark the accents well—”

Staggering moment! Mary blushed until the tears stood in her eyes.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), Mary Beazley
Related Symbols: Yellow Chrysanthemum
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:

“The headmaster’s wife keeps on asking me to dinner. It’s a perfect nuisance. I never get an evening to myself in that place.”

“But can’t you refuse?”

“Oh, well, it doesn't do for a man in my position to be unpopular.”

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), Basil (speaker)
Page Number: 269
Explanation and Analysis:

“And then in the second line, Winter Drear, make that Drear sound as if a cold wind were blowing through it. Dre-ear!” said she so awfully that Mary Beazley, on the music stool, wriggled her spine.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), Mary Beazley
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:

But nobody had been as surprised as she. She was thirty. Basil was twenty-five. It had been a miracle, simply a miracle, to hear him say, as they walked home from church that very dark night, “You know, somehow or other, I’ve got fond of you.’” And he had taken hold of the end of her ostrich feather boa.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), Basil (speaker)
Related Symbols: Ostrich Feather Boa
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:

The head mistress sat at her desk. For a moment she did not look up. She was as usual disentangling her eye-glasses, which had got caught in her lace tie. “Sit down, Miss Meadows,” she said very kindly.

Related Characters: Miss Wyatt (speaker), Miss Meadows
Page Number: 271
Explanation and Analysis:

“Oh, no, thank you, Miss Wyatt,” blushed Miss Meadows. “It’s nothing bad at all. It’s”—and she gave an apologetic little laugh—“it’s from my fiancé saying that . . . saying that—” There was a pause. “I see,” said Miss Wyatt. And another pause. Then—“You've fifteen minutes more of your class, Miss Meadows, haven’t you?”

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker), Miss Wyatt (speaker), Basil
Page Number: 271
Explanation and Analysis:

“It ought to sound warm, joyful, eager […]”

And this time Miss Meadows's voice sounded over all the other voices—full, deep, glowing with expression.

Related Characters: Miss Meadows (speaker)
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis: