The Doll’s House

A post about Katherine Mansfield and her short story, The Doll’s House :

In 1840 the Brits began the colonization of New Zealand, islands inhabited by the Māori people. Somehow representatives of the United Kingdom managed to get the Māori chiefs to sign a treaty giving the Brits sovereignty over these islands. But later there were disputes over the differing translations of the Treaty. This led to the New Zealand Wars. Along with their presence, the British brought with them infectious diseases that greatly diminished the indigenous population. Plus the Brits imposed their own economic and legal system, their elitist class hierarchy, and confiscated much of the Māori lands causing the indigenous population to live in poor and unhealthy conditions.

Katherine Mansfield was born in New Zealand in 1888 to a socially prominent family. Although she was ambivalent towards the Māori, she recognized the violence of colonial history and the repression of the Māori population. So to escape the colonial mood and focus on her own, she moved to London and never went back to New Zealand except in her writings based on childhood memories. “The Doll’s House” is one such story… Read more: Art for housewives