Setting

Physical setting

The events of the short story “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield take place in New Zealand, as we can determine from the mention of the karaka trees, which are a species of evergreens native to New Zealand. Some of the events take place on the Sheridans’ property, where they host a garden party. Part of the property is described at the beginning:

As for the roses, you could not help feeling they understood that roses are the only flowers that impress people at garden-parties; the only flowers that everybody is certain of knowing. Hundreds, yes, literally hundreds, had come out in a single night; the green bushes bowed down as though they had been visited by archangels. (ll. 6-11)

The description at the beginning of the story shows that the events take place “in early summer” (l. 4) and that the weather is “ideal” (l. 1). The g...