Garden Party: When Heaven and Hell Collide

One may often refer to a specific event, place, or instance in time, as either heaven or hell on earth. This has become a common phrase in today’s society, but many may argue its true meaning, and what heaven or hell on earth really represents or symbolizes. What qualities or characteristics ultimately decide whether something can be considered heaven, or its opposite, hell? The phrase itself is more metaphorical than literal, comparing both euphoric and joyful experiences, and dangerous and destructive experiences to the two divine realms of heaven and hell. In the short story The Garden Party, Katherine Mansfield successfully symbolizes, personifies and displays heaven and hell on earth, and their ultimate human interaction through the story’s setting, characters, and events which take place.

The contrast between the Sheridan residence and the poverty stricken neighbourhood of cottages below is quite evident and distinct. When one is introduced to the Sheridan residence, it is on a completely ideal day. The weather is perfect, windless, warm and clear. The skies are blue, and sunlight immerses everything around. Our immediate association here is positive. The ideal summer setting allows us to associate the setting here with things such as light, youth, joy, and romance. The home itself is described as enormous, elaborate, and evidently upper class. The garden where the party takes place is quite extravagant. It is lined with flowers of all different varieties, the grass is a rich green, and there is room for leisure and display with a tennis court, a band and a marquee. The Sheridan garden also symbolizes much more than just beauty and perfection, but also relates to the biblical setting of the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden represents flawlessness and excellence. It was literally the closest man ever came to a heaven on Earth. Both gardens are lined with nature and all it’s beauty, and Mansfield even mentioned many trees bearing fruits, similar to the various fruits, foods and ideal resources God supplied Adam and Eve with in the Garden of Eden. The neighbourhood of cottages located below the immense Sheridan residence however is quite the opposite. The little dwellings outside the Sheridan house were ultimately described as eyesores. The houses are dark, dusky, and insignificant in size. The neighbourhood has no real flourishing vegetation and natural beauty, but cabbage stalks, sick animals and garbage dispersed in large amounts in the roads and properties. Overall, the neighbourhood is depressing and obviously poverty stricken. The association here is immediately with darkness, death, division, and an ultimately unhappy setting. The atmosphere here can directly be linked to that of hell’s. The darkness here consumes the people and the property with negative images, associations, lifestyles and emotions. Ultimately, it is a feared place which all people attempt to avoid at all costs.

The characters of the two respective settings further contribute to the symbolism and identification of heaven and hell. The Sheridan’s and their company are all upper class and wealthy people. They are all very proper, formal and appear to follow a strict etiquette. Their formality and strict obedience to proper etiquette is directly linked to the whole idea of heaven on earth. They all follow a strict, yet reasonable set of rules, morals, traditions, and values, just as one would follow to achieve a form of self-fulfillment to reach the destination which they ultimately seek; some form of afterlife bestowing one with eternal contentment and joy. They are also very extravagantly dressed, with expensive clothing and accessories. These people believe in the greater things in life, and seem more materialistic than most. They also frown upon the lower or lesser peoples, which can symbolize the selected few who are destined or even living in hell metaphorically. On the other hand, we have the population that live in the poverty stricken neighbourhood below. These people are portrayed almost as lesser beings. They are of older age, and clearly not in a great state of health. Mansfield illustrates them as mysterious, as she constantly refers to them wearing shawls, and having covered faces. The people are evidently less civilized, as children swarm everywhere, play in the doorways and men hang around