The Woman At The Store Analysis

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The Woman at the Store is a 1912 short story written by Katherine Mansfield. The story is written in first-person and uses setting and atmosphere, characterisation and discusses the theme of outsiders in order to portray a desolate land filled with despair and peculiar characters.
Firstly, the setting and atmosphere are both crude and gruelling. From the very first line, an image is already envisioned in the reader’s mind and the tone of the story is set. “All that day the heat was terrible.” immediately informs the reader that the travellers are uncomfortable and that their journey throughout the entire day, a long period of time, has been difficult. The reader is also given the impression that the travellers are in a harsh landscape, where everything is against them: The wind slithers like a snake and the horses are sick and coughing. To add to their harsh reality, the land is further proved desolate by their uncanny silence and them not enduring it, but “shambling on”, emphasizing their struggle to combat nature. All of these elements demonstrate how the travellers are in terrible conditions and the bleak tone. On the contrary, when they encounter the woman, the tone of the story is lightened as the sun produces “a vivid light over the scene”, which signifies a glimmer of hope.
Secondly, the characterisation invoked by the use of language and description helps the reader to further capture the scene in question and assists in complementing the characters with the setting

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