- Pictures (short story)
Pictures is a 1917 short story by
Katherine Mansfield . It was first published under the title of "The Common Round " in the "New Age" on 31 May 1917 and later as "The Pictures" in "Art and Letters " in Autumn 1919. It was then reprinted as "Pictures" in "Bliss and Other Stories". [Katherine Mansfield, "Selected Stories", Oxford World's Classics, explanatory notes]Plot summary
Miss Moss wakes up in the morning and she is hungry because she didn't have dinner the night before, nor is she going to have breakfast : she cannot afford it. Then her landlady turns up and gives her a letter hoping that that would be the rent, but it is note from an employment agency, saying they will get back to her. The landlady walks out with the letter. Then Miss Moss goes for a walk in the streets of
London ; she sees a milkboy; she walks into a café where a waitress is saying to the cashier that she was given a brooch the day before. Miss Moss cannot have tea because the café is closed however. Then she goes to Mr Kadgit's but his charwoman tells her he is not there because it is Saturday. Next she goes to Mr Bithem's, an employment agency, and he tells her there is no work for her. She then decides to go into a café and there a stout man sits beside her and then they leave together.Characters
*Miss Ada Moss, a
contralto singer. She is unemployed and penniless.
*Minnie, the landlady. Miss Moss describes her as 'cockroach'.
*the milkboy
*the waitress
*the cashier
*Mr Kadgit
*the charwoman
*Mr Clayton, a jester.
*the chorus
*Mr Bithem
*the stout gentlemanMajor themes
*unemployment
Literary significance
The text is written in the
modernist mode, without a set structure, and with many shifts in the narrative.References to other works
*The song "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" is mentioned; it is perhaps best known as sung by
Al Jolson . [Katherine Mansfield, "Selected Stories", Oxford World's Classics, explanatory notes]
*The song "Heart of Oak " is also mentioned, denoting bravery.Footnotes
External links
* [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/mansfield/bliss/pictures.html Full Text]
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