Setting

The short story “The Doll’s House” by Katherine Mansfield is set in the physical setting of New Zealand, in an unnamed town.

Time setting

As the events in the short story are supposedly inspired by Katherine Mansfield’s childhood in New Zealand, we can assume that the time setting of the events is sometime in the late 1800s (as Mansfield was born in 1888).

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Physical setting

The physical setting focuses less on the town or city and more on the doll’s house that the Burnell sisters receive from Mrs. Hay. The doll’s house is clearly beautiful and expensive and was probably carved with much care and attention to details:

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Social setting

The social setting shows how the higher classes try to detach themselves from the lower ones. The Burnell sisters had to be placed in the same school as the poorer children in town, to their parents’ disappointment:

For the fact was, the school the Burnell children went to was not at all the kind of place their parents would have chosen if there had been any choice. But there was none. It was the only school for miles. And the consequence was all the children in the neighborhood, the Judge’s little girls, the doctor’s daughters, the storekeeper’s children, the milkman’s, were forced to mix together.

Although some of the people depicted in the fragment above are not part of the wealthiest class and are seen as inferior by those who are rich, they are tolerated. However, the richest draw the line and refuse to talk...

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