Marriage a la Mode

“The new Isabel looked at him, her eyes narrowed, her lips apart. […] She laughed in the new way.”

The adjective “new” is used to describe Isabel and her way of laughing. Isabel’s new personality has been hinted at as snobby and materialistic, and Katherine Mansfield uses imagery here to enhance that characterization through the laugh. Her “narrowed” eyes—a description often used to describe someone scrutinizing or mocking something—foreshadow her mean behavior toward William.

“The familiar dull gnawing in his breast quietened down. […] The exquisite freshness of Isabel. When he had been a little boy, it was his delight to run into the garden after a shower of rain and shake the rose-bush over him. Isabel was that rose-bush, petal-soft, sparkling and cool. And he was still that little boy. But there was no running into the garden now, no laughing and shaking. The dull, persistent gnawing in his breast started again.”

Mansfield uses juxtaposition here, contrasting William’s nostalgia for his childhood and love for his wife with his anxiety. He associates Isabel with the sweetness of his childhood through this rosebush metaphor and is frustrated by the current state of things. Comparing Isabel to a rosebush foreshadows her cruelty, as roses are beautiful but have sharp thorns. Additionally, the reality of their conflict is made clear through William’s “gnawing in his breast,” a physical manifestation of his anxiety that is more real than his memories.

“He stood in the middle of the room and he felt a stranger.”

Mansfield uses a metaphor here to describe the alienation William feels from his wife, comparing him to a stranger, even though this is his house. This estrangement from his wife reflects the larger Modernist preoccupation with societal alienation.

“Every morning when he came back from chambers it was to find the babies with Isabel in the back drawing-room. They were having rides on the leopard skin thrown over the sofa back, or they were playing shops with Isabel’s desk for a counter, or Pad was sitting on the hearthrug rowing away for dear life with a little brass fire shovel, while Johnny shot at pirates with the tongs. Every evening they had a pick-a-back up the narrow stairs to their fat old Nanny.”

Here, William depicts a scene of cozy yet chaotic domesticity. Instead of appearing inconvenient, it exudes William’s happiness with their family life through the contentment of childlike innocence. William recognizes the old house was “inconvenient,” but he was perfectly happy there. The descriptions of the house also intervene with Isabel’s insistence that it was small or insufficient, the leopard skin (and owning a multistory home in London) pointing to luxury.

“But the imbecile thing, the absolutely extraordinary thing was that he hadn’t the slightest idea that Isabel wasn’t as happy as he. God, what blindness! He hadn’t the remotest notion in those days that she really hated that inconvenient little house, that she thought the fat Nanny was ruining the babies, that she was desperately lonely, pining for new people and new music and pictures and so on.”

William berates his inability to see Isabel’s unhappiness, and the gulf in their perceptions and emotions reflects the Modernist preoccupation with alienation. Her “pining for new people” immediately precedes the introduction of her friends, who don’t seem to be as sophisticated as she yearned for. Likewise, Isabel’s yearning for new music and pictures here contrasts with her behavior in the country, where she and her friends don’t do anything artistic.

“William couldn’t help a grim smile as he thought of Isabel’s horror if she knew the full extent of his sentimentality.”

William’s reflections have characterized Isabel’s disdain for anything sentimental, and his repetition of “sentimentality” here regarding his feelings highlights the gulf between the couple. The juxtaposition of “grim” and “smile” also reflects this unhappiness.

“‘Oh my dear!’ Isabel laughed. […] ‘[Y]ou must bring them something next time. I refuse to part with my pineapple.’”

Isabel subverts maternal expectations by keeping the pineapple meant for the children. Pineapples are imported and were relatively rare in England at the time; like the foreign toys, this exotic fruit represents Isabel’s yearning for sophistication and a more cosmopolitan life. Pineapples also traditionally symbolize hospitality, so it’s ironic that William’s gift of fruit is co-opted by his ill-behaved guests, who later insult him.

“‘Oh no! Oh no!’ cried Isabel’s voice. “That’s not fair to William. Be nice to him, my children! He’s only staying until to-morrow evening.”

William overhears Isabel and her friends talking about him. She utters this sentence recommending that her friends, whom she calls “my children,” put up with William. This bit of direct dialogue makes it clear that Isabel is in a hurry to be left alone with them and is not really happy to have William around. Her calling them “my children” reinforces Moira’s remark that she is like Titania, the fairy queen from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and is holding court for her friends. This comment highlights the absurdity of William and Isabel’s household situation since their actual children are absent for the whole story.

“‘There’, said Isabel triumphantly, setting the suit-case down, and she looked anxiously along the sandy road. ‘I hardly seem to have seen you this time,’ she said breathlessly. ‘It’s so short, isn’t it? I feel you’ve only just come. Next time—’ The taxi came into sight. ‘I hope they look after you properly in London. I’m so sorry the babies have been out all day, but Miss Neil had arranged it. They’ll hate missing you. Poor William, going back to London.’ The taxi turned. ‘Good-bye!’ She gave him a little hurried kiss; she was gone.”

This passage illuminates Isabel’s anxiety and discomfort with her husband. Every word she utters is just a pleasantry; there is no real communication or feeling being shared.

“The train was in. William made straight for first-class smoker […] but this time he let his papers alone. He folded his arms against the dull, persistent gnawing, and began in his mind to write a letter to Isabel.”

William is on his way back to London alone, and any positive emotion he felt on the train trip to the country is now gone. He is too distracted to work and starts composing a letter for Isabel instead. His feeling of anxiety and estrangement is represented through repetition—the word “gnawing” reappears here—showing that being with Isabel only reinforces his negative emotions.

“‘My darling, precious Isabel.’ Pages and pages there were. As Isabel read on her feeling of astonishment changed to a stifled feeling. What on earth had induced William…? How extraordinary it was… What could have made him…? She felt confused, more and more excited, even frightened. It was just like William. Was it? It was absurd, of course, it must be absurd, ridiculous. ‘Ha, ha, ha! Oh dear!’ What was she to do? Isabel flung back in her chair and laughed till she couldn’t stop laughing.”

This passage highlights Isabel’s surprise and confusion while reading William’s letter, and her racing thoughts, represented through sentence fragments and ellipses, highlight her conflicting emotions. She cannot understand what has led William to write such a letter, which she calls a love letter but expresses his hurt feelings, and her laughter feels panicked rather than happy or lighthearted.

“But, to their surprise, Isabel crushed the letter in her hand. She was laughing no longer. […] she looked exhausted. […] she stammered.”

As this passage makes clear, Isabel’s previous laughter and derision are contrived. Her husband’s letter has made her feel ashamed, exhausted, and bewildered. She is serious now, and her friends have never seen these emotions from her—while she invests herself in their relationship, it’s based on superficial enjoyment rather than honesty or emotional connection.

“[S]he had run into the house, through the hall, up the stairs into her bedroom. Down she sat on the side of the bed. ‘How vile, odious, abominable, vulgar,’ muttered Isabel. She pressed her eyes with her knuckles and rocked to and fro. And again she saw them, but not four, more like forty, laughing, sneering, jeering, stretching out their hands while she read them William’s letter. Oh, what a loathsome thing to have done. How could she have done it! ‘God forbid, my darling, that I should be a drag on your happiness.’ William! Isabel pressed her face into the pillow. But she felt that even the grave bedroom knew her for what she was, shallow, tinkling, vain…”

Isabel has an epiphany after reading William’s letter—she realizes how poorly she has been treating her husband and is ashamed. She is keenly aware of her friends’ vulgarity and her fault in allowing them to ridicule him. At the same time, she also feels her own vanity is exposed. She feels observed and found out, rebuked even by her bedroom, which seems to accuse her of her shallowness. Her negative feelings become amplified through figurative language, her four friends ballooning into 40. This is Isabel’s anagnorisis, the moment she understands her true way of being.