Unit 3 A Dill Pickle Katherine Mansfield Group

Unit 3 A Dill Pickle —— Katherine Mansfield Group 2 Group members： 向泽慧 黄媛媛 张融雪 王红红 赵晓文 刘梦

目录 1 About the author 2 The symbolic meaning of the title 3 About the man 4 About the woman-Vera 5 Appreciation of paragraph 2

A Brief Introduction to the Writer Katherine Mansfield's Lifetime: Katherine Mansfield Murry(14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. moved to London in 1903 met and married John Middleton Murry, a well-known critic.

A Brief Introduction to the Writer The Final Years of Katherine: constantly ill seeking increasingly unorthodox cures for her tuberculosis. attempting to find a favorable climate and cure in 1922 in France. dying of tuberculosis in 1923.

The Achievements of the writer Her First Published Work: appearing in the High School Reporter and the Wellington Girls’ High School Magazine in 1898 and 1899. Her Greatest Success: Bliss and Other Stories (1920) The Garden Party and Other Stories (1922).

The Writing Style of the writer 1. being influenced by feminism: This is the most outstanding feature of Katherine 2. material and family relationships of her Middle Class characters. Mansfield‘s creative years were burdened with loneliness, illness, jealousy, alienation.

The Writing Style of the writer • notable for their use of stream of consciousness. • similar to Russian writer Anton Chekhov Mansfield depicted trivial events and subtle changes in human behaviors.

The writing style of Chekhov's Short stories • implicit Chekhov tends to depict the stories in a calm and objective way. • concise Chekhov's stories use lots of line drawings instead of complex depictions of background and sights. • plain Most of his stories are from life.

The Writing Style of the writer playful and teasing, also darkly satirical. Aestheticism ，symbolism and the aesthetic lingustic

The Comment on the Works of the Writer • capturing the essence of Chekhov’s art in stories • emphasizing atmosphere and actual life rather than an exciting plot

The Symbolic Meaning of the Title of the. Text • (1)It symbols Vera’s terrible life. • Dill pickles may have different flavors, such as sour, sweet, bitter or hot, like one’ whole life. Generally, the taste of the dill pickle is sour, like Vera’s life. • (2)It symbols the man’s untruthful love to Vera. • A dill pickle is an appetizer. To the man, Vera just can make his life more interesting. He will not marry Vera and live together with Vera for the whole life.

• (3)It symbols Vera’s experience of the man’s love. • To Vera, a dill pickle is so beautiful and wonderful. But she has never seen a dill pickle. Even she does not know what a dill pickle is. Similarly, she does not know what the man’s love is. • (4)It symbols the Vera’s physical and economic changes. • When the dill pickle is put for a long time, it will get bad. After six years, Vera’s body and economy are not as well as before.

(5)It symbols feminine miserable lives. • A dill pickle can not be a main course. It suggests the low position of the women. Women are attached to men. （6）It symbolizes care and help among people. • A dill pickle is not expensive, but many people love it. Everyone can enjoy and share it. It suggests that people are glad to share something wonderful with each other.

(7)It symbols Vera’s sad feelings with her imagination broken. • When she met the man, she was very happy. But the man’s words made her disappointed. The distress in her heart is just like that cold dill pickle.

About the man • The flower message of daffodils is narcissitic and self-absorbing. It hints the man was self engrossed and lived in his own world. （ Paragraph 1） • When Vera talked with him about the weather, he interrupted her. It reflects his selfishness, hypocrisy and indifference. The action of tapping on the table shows his arrogance. （Paragraph 8 -9）

About the man • He attached importance to sensory enjoyment and liked to show himself off. (P 22) • Talking about the journey shows the man was selfishness and fickle. (P 30) • The cream showed he was mean. (P 66)

About the man • It showed his heartlessness and insularity. (Paragraph 52) • He belittled Vera to build himself up. he was wiseacre and selfishness. (Paragraph 64). • The man‘s action of drawing gloves indicated his frivolity and childishness. (Paragraph 56 ) • It showed his hypocrisy. (Paragraph 49)

About the man • We may guess that the man didn't get a higher educational qualification, even a secondary education due to his ignorance of natural knowledge. (Paragraph 12 -13) • We may infer that he had low taste and boring hobbies. (Paragraph 15) • The man was British. (Paragraph 25)

About the woman--Vera • Nationality: the United Kingdom eg: • “Do you remember that first afternoon we spent together at Kew Garden? ”(para. 13) • Ethnic background: She is British. eg: • “Do you remember that first afternoon we spent together at Kew Garden? ”(para. 13)

About the woman • Age: middle-aged eg: • “And then, after six years, she saw him again. ”(para. 1) • “You were saying--the older one grows--” • “The colder, ”she laughed. (paras. 11 -12)

About the woman • Profession: Maybe her job is low paid and busy. Because she was unable to travel and she said she has no time for music. (paras. 26 -31, 39) • Interest in life: She wants to travel. She is eager to get free life. (paras. 26 -31, 42)

About the woman • Appearance: She is beautiful , has beautiful voice, look well, wore the veil, and her clothes had high fur collar. eg: • “You look so well. I’ve never seen you look so well before. ” • “She raised her veil and unbuttoned her high fur collar. ” (paras. 5, 6)

About the woman • Education: well-educated(She used to know a lot of flowers)(paras. 13, 34 -38) • Family: Her family has come down in the world. From leisure class to middle class, but now in a very difficult situation. (paras. 34 -39) • Hobby: like playing piano, love music (paras. 34 -38)

About the woman • Personality: • 1. She was glad to see her former lover. It can show that she was affectionate. eg: • “She smiled, he frowned. ”(para. 2) • 2. From the text, we can find that Vera is poor, but she doesn’t ask the man for help. So I think she has a strong self-respect. • 3. She is imaginative. (paras. 41, 43)

About the woman • 4. She is sensitive. • She refused the man because she think the man’s behavior was childish and he never considered others. (paras. 13, 14) • When the man shared his travel experience with the woman, she listened carefully and imagine that she have been to there(paras. 41, 43) • 5. She is considerate. She start to change her mind about what happened in that afternoon. She is very consider others’ feelings. (paras. 13 -16) •

About the woman • 6. At the beginning, Vera had the thought of renewing their relationship, but finally she chose to leave. From this, we can feel her love for life. • Habits: She can’t stand cold weather. (para. 7) eg: • "Really? " She raised her veil and unbuttoned her high fur collar. "I don't feel very well. I can't bear this weather, you know. " • "Ah, no. You hate the cold. . " • "Loathe it. " She shuddered. "And the worst of it is that the older one grows. . . (paras. 6 -8)

Appreciation of paragraph 2 This article is very attractive. Today, I’d like to appreciate the second paragraph from three aspects.

• Here is the second paragraph： He must have felt that shock of recognition in her for he looked up and met her eyes. Incredible! He didn't know her! She smiled; he frowned. She came towards him. He closed his eyes an instant, but opening them his face lit up as though he had struck a match in a dark room. He laid down the orange and pushed back his chair, and she took her little warm hand out of her muff and gave it to him.

Function The sentence “He must have felt that shock of recognition in her for he looked up and met her eyes. ” indicated the man was indifferent to their relationship. And this paragraph does foreshadowing for following content that the man was selfish and hypocritical.

Diction Next sentence “He didn't know her! She smiled; he frowned. She came towards him. He closed his eyes an instant, but opening them his face lit up as though he had struck a match in a dark room” described a series of behaviors with several verbs such as know, smiled, frowned, came, closed, opening to reflect the inner feelings of the man.

Rhetoric The sentence “his face lit up as though he had struck a match in a dark room” uses simile to depict the man’s radiant face just like a match which illuminates a dark house.

Thank you!