The Dolls House and My Oedipus Complex - Essay Example

Comparison Between “The Doll’s House” and My Oedipus Complex.”

Katherine Mansfield’s “The Doll’s House” and Frank O’Connor’s “My Oedipus Complex” are two short stories that reflect on unique societal settings and children coming of age. The complexity of children interacting with their peers is central to the thematic designs of the stories. Despite the difference in the point of view of the narrators, the stories demonstrate universal themes that reflect on society and how particular behaviors are tolerated in society. Mansfield’s main themes are social stratification, child innocence, alienation, and cruelty, which are demonstrated chronologically in the story. On the other hand, O’Connor’s main themes are child innocence and cruelty, alienation, coming of age, father and son, and adulthood. From the two stories, some ideas are interwoven despite being projected by narrations varying in context and form. The literal devices that have been implemented by the authors depict the profound application of rhetorical appeals that transform the audience into an imaginary world of the children in characterization. Mansfield’s and O’Connor’s short stories are comparable in their thematic design and implementation of literal appeals that make their purposes well-attended to.

Anita Desai’s statement that “Work is the business of adults, but play is often considered the business of children,” is demonstrated by the two short stories, and each piece has its setting. From both stories, children have no boundaries and limitations to what they engage with. All they accommodate and create is more time for play and discoveries as they come of age. Despite the changes that children encounter and barriers, they do not succumb to orientations that are disorienting, and they play regardless of the restrictions. Children lack understanding of may social issues, and they play around with them, but adults are focused on real problems and limits. Contrary, adults are immersed in routine chores that are tailored towards home arrangement and provision to the kids. In Mansfield’s story, the parents are busy working and are often absent from the story. For instance, The Kelveys’ mother is a washerwoman and works hard to provide for the family despite the impoverished lifestyle that they lead. The father is not in the home and is rumored to be in prison. The other has to work to provide for her children. Contrary, the children are often playful and engage with others. For instance, the Burnell children are all playful while their parents are working. This also demonstrated by O’Connor. Larry plays while his father works in the military, and the mother is absorbed in the domestic chores.

Mansfield’s and O’Connor’s short stories are comparable in terms of the universal theme of childhood innocence and cruelty. This idea is prevalent in both stories, and the occurrence of events led to different topics but have a correlational pattern. In Mansfield’s story, the theme of childhood innocence is both depicted by Kezia Burnell and Else and Lil Kelvey. Other wealthy children have segregated and alienated the Kelveys children because of their social class. They are victims of their low socioeconomic status, which downgrades them to the rejected children in the school. These Kelveys children are innocent and are paying an exorbitant price. Kezia is another character that builds-up the theme of childhood innocence in Mansfield’s story. The Burnells children are warned against allowing the Kelveys children to the doll’s house or anywhere near the courtyard. However, Kezia and Isabel break the rules and let these innocent kids come and have a look at the doll’s house. The Burnells children show that discrimination is not part of children’s motive, and they establish their innocence through the story.

O’Connor’s story also establishes the incidences of childhood innocence. Larry likes playing, and he seeks for his mother’s attention for he is a child and does not understand any adult orientation. He insistently distracts his father, and he thinks that the return from the war is disastrous as he will not enjoy the big feathered bed anymore. An innocent boy is characterized, looking for affection and wrongly concluding that his father was winning in the game. Another incidence of innocence is Sonny’s victimhood to his brother’s cruelty. Larry pinches him to wake him up, and his father has diverted attention as the mother has ignored both Larry and his fathers. Sonny’s innocence is depicted, and despite Larry’s action being evil, he is an innocent young boy who ha no understanding of the outcome of the pinching exercise.

Both Mansfield’s and O’Connor’s stories show cruelty from different characters. For instance, in Mansfield’s plot, the children at school have been taught to distance themselves from the Kelveys children. Similarly, Aunt Bery shouts at Else and Lil, which frightens them, and they flee the scene of confrontation. O’Connor’s story shows that Larry’s father is cruel. For example, when they go walking in town, he ignores Larry. Similarly, Larry is not all innocent, and he confesses to pinching Sonny when he could not stop crying. He says, “Sometimes to keep him awake I pinched him as well” (4). Larry is cruel towards his younger brother Sonny, and he shows the cruelty that he had been shown by his father before. The two stories show that children can be innocent as unconsciously be cruel, but as they come of age, they change their perspective.

Coming of age is another universal theme between the stories. Their comes time for characters in both stories to realize that their actions should change. Mansfield’s story illustrates this theme through the Burnells children. Kezia comes to a point where she realizes that the rules set by her parents, limiting the Kelveys interacting with them is obnoxious. She welcomes Lil and Else to view the doll’s house without regretting her parents would be disappointed. On the other hand, O’Connor’s story demonstrates that age brings changes, and Larry’s development illustrates the theme of coming to maturity. From a young age, Larry is affiliated with his mum and feels he rightfully belongs to her. However, he faces competition from his father, who steals all the attention. However, when Sonny is born, both Larry and his father come of age, and they change their relationship as they both face alienation. Larry understands that his mother has diverted the attention to the infant, and his father can not compete with Sonny as he did with Larry.

There is a point of view variation between the stories, and Mansfield’s story uses an omniscient point of view where the narrator. The narrator enters the minds of different characters at different times in the story and tells the story from a specific perspective. Through this style, Mansfield persuades the reader to analyze the life lives of different characters in the story. Thus the development of the first theme depends on this style. O’Connor’s story is expressed from the first-person point of view. The words flow from the thoughts and utterly instances between Larry and his parents, and the memory is a recount f his childhood experience. Larry’s hostilities towards his father are expressed from his mind, and the words are directly from him. O’Connor ensures that the credibility of the story stand and the audience analyzes it as an epitome of existing scenarios in society. Therefore, the two stories have different points of view, with one being expressed from the first-person point of view and the other by an omniscient point of view.

The tones of the stories are different, as O’Connor’s story uses an ironic and humorous tone, while Mansfield’s optimism and tone of disappointment. O’Connor’s tone sarcastic since whatever the father and the soe were fighting for ends up not being their for them. From the title of the story, a reader is led to believe the Oedipus complex is the subject of the story, but O’Connor implements these literary skills with proficiency. Humor is a typical tone in the story as readers are called into laughter, and comic occurrences are presented. On the contrary, Mansfield’s tone is full of disappointment, and other children or neighboring parents do not accept the Kelveys children. They are discriminated against due to their social status and as disappointed as the end of the story when Aunt Beryl chases them. Furthermore, Mansfield’s changes the tone when Kezia intervenes and breaks the rules. It becomes explicit that children can change, and the Kelveys children will have opportunities to be accepted with other of higher socioeconomic statuses.

The success of both stories s credited to the profound application of rhetorical appeals and other literal devices to convey the universal themes. Both stories use pathos to engage the reader into emotional consideration. When the Kelveys children as alienated due to their poverty, the reader is recalled to evaluate social stratification in society. Similarly, Larry is maltreated by the father at some intence, and the mother does nt pay the attention that he needs. The stories also implement ethos as the credibility of the narrators assured, as one is omniscient, and the other one is told from the first-person point of view, indicating they have sufficient information on the narration. Finally, the authors use imagery and allusion to create the perception of the settings that the events take place. Therefore, symbolism, metaphors, similes, and irony have all been used at different instances to add flavor to the meaning of the stories despite their universality.

Conclusion

“The Doll’s House” and “My Oedipus Complex” short stories by Katherine Mansfield and Frank O’Connor, respectively, evaluate child development, and different societal factors affect them. Some universal themes of the stories are shared among them, including childhood innocence and cruelty, coming of age, and alienation. The authors use rhetorical appeals such as pathos and ethos, to accomplish the writing. Additionally, literary devices such as symbolism, metaphors, similes, imagery, and allegory, and irony have been used in short stories. The story has thematic cues that are applicable in society, and the subjects of review are far-reaching among audiences.