Perspectives

Literary perspective

The short story “The Dress” by Julia Darling is a modernist short story. First, the language used by the author is…

...

Works with the same theme 

The short story “Mink” by Marina Warner looks at the relationship between a mother and her daughters. In the story, the sisters Beatrice and Ricky are fascinated with their mother’s passion for fashion and with her desire to own a mink fur. When her husband refuses to buy the mink fur, the woman is determined to work and save money to buy one herself. 

In many ways, “Mink” is similar to “The Dress”. In both stories, the characters become obsessed with a clothing item that has an almost magic influence on them. In “The Dress”, Flora sees the dress as the embodiment of elegance and confidence, which are features that she lacks and envies about her sister. In “Mink”, the mother – Donna – becomes obsessed with the mink fur, which she sees as a symbol of power, sexuality, and femininity. Neither Flora nor Donna give up on their dream of obtaining the dress and the fur and do everything they can to see their wish come true. 

In the end, both the dress and the mink fur end up in a state of decay. However, for the characters, the piece of clothing is less important than the values it symbolizes. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story “Tomorrow is too far” also explores the theme of sibling rivalry. In Adichie’s story, the rivalry and jealousy between the narrator and her brother are caused by parental favoritism and sexism and it ends up having tragic consequences. In “The Dress”, Flora’s jealousy of her sister does not seem to come from their parents’ preferential treatment, but it nonetheless deeply damages the relationship between …