Structure

The short story “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield has a chronological structure. The story can be separated into two parts, according to the setting. The first part of the story focuses on the Sheridans and on their garden party, while the second part of the story focuses on Laura’s interaction with the Scotts.

The story begins in media res, with the Sheridans’ preparations for the upcoming garden party: 

And after all the weather was ideal. They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it. Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud. Only the blue was veiled with a haze of light gold, as it is sometimes in early summer. (ll. 1-4)

As the example shows, the main characters are not introduced from the beginning but only referred to by the pronoun “they” (l. 2). 

A foreshadowing element is int...