Mansfield uses alliteration to emphasize Leila’s enthusiasm and naïve view of the ball when she is describing the setting. Leila’s hyperbolic, grand descriptions of the ball demonstrate her romanticized vision of it and the social world around her, building the scene up for readers. For example, Leila gushes about the decorations, the dance floor, the lighting, and the flowers using hyperbolic language and grand imagery. In addition, though, her over-enthusiastic descriptions are heightened by the use of alliteration. A key example comes when Leila first observes the dance floor:
She clutched her fan, and, gazing at the gleaming, golden floor, the azaleas, the lanterns, the stage at one end with its red carpet and gilt chairs and the band in a corner, she thought breathlessly, ‘How heavenly; how simply heavenly!
Mansfield’s choice of language when describing the floor deliberately creates alliteration with the emphasis of the /g/ sound in the phrase “gazing at the gleaming, golden floor” and later when she describes the “gilt” chairs. This triple emphasis of the /g/ sound, paired with the word choice itself, emphasizes Leila’s romanticized view of the ball by packing in multiple descriptive words with the same sounds. The effect of this alliteration is that Leila’s descriptions are even more exaggerated. Furthermore, this instance of alliteration has broader significance in the story because it describes the dance floor, a key symbol in the story.
