Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Her First Ball, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Youth, Novelty, and Aging
Gender and Society
Illusion, Delusion, and Reality
Summary
Analysis
In the cab on the way to the ball, Leila imagines that the armrest is her dance partner and watches the scenery “waltzing” by. Her cousins, the Sheridans, exclaim how strange it is that Leila has never been to a ball before, and Leila replies that she grew up in the country. While the Sheridans are nonchalant about the ball, Leila is thrilled by every little detail—she even mourns when her cousin Laurie throws away the tissue paper from his new gloves, wishing she could keep it as a memento. As Laurie and Laura plan their dances and Meg compliments Jose’s hair, Leila is almost moved to tears; she is an only child, so she’s never had a conversation like this before.
Even before arriving, Leila develops a romanticized idea of what the ball will be like, imagining the carriage as her dance partner and viewing the passing scenery as if it’s waltzing. This shows how imaginative Leila is, and it also sets the stage for her to consistently view things as being more exciting than they actually are. Quickly, this tendency appears; she wants to keep the tissue paper from Laurie’s gloves as an exciting memento of her evening, for instance, but not only is this tissue paper utterly ordinary—it’s also literally trash. When Leila interprets the small talk between her cousins as evidence of their closeness, it's obvious that her fanciful misreadings of reality come from her profound desire for a different, more exciting life. Leila wishes she had siblings, so she imagines that all sibling interactions are evidence of a deep bond (no matter the clear reality), and she wants to be a glamorous society woman, so she imagines that every aspect of the ball must be wonderful and worth cherishing—even the tissue paper from Laurie’s gloves.
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At the drill hall, Laura tells Leila to hold onto her so she doesn’t get lost, while Leila is busy admiring everything: the beauty of the lights and the clothes and the happy couples. They enter the ladies’ dressing room, which is crowded and noisy. All the girls inside are prepping for the ball while competing for the only mirror and dressing-table. They’re tying ribbons, checking their hair, stuffing their dresses with handkerchiefs, and yelling out for “invisible hairpins” and needles. Leila doesn’t seem to mind the chaos and thinks that the women are “all lovely” because they’re laughing.
Despite knowing nothing about what balls are like, Leila has already decided that every aspect of the ball must be glamorous. This means that she sees the ladies’ room not as a scene of nervous chaos (which it is), but rather as a lovely choreography of beautiful women dressing together for the dance. For example, she sees the women’s nervous laughter not as evidence that they’re stressed out, but as a marker of their beauty. This scene also establishes the dynamic between women in the story; here, women are not helping one another or enjoying each other’s company—instead, they’re competing for mirror space, complaining about their looks, and trying to make themselves as attractive as possible to men. In other words, this is not a moment of female bonding, since all the women seem to care about here is themselves and the men they’ll soon meet. In this moment, the women are obviously creating an illusion—stuffing their dresses and using “invisible hairpins” to make themselves look more attractive than they are—which parallels Leila’s consistent mistaking of everything around her as being more exciting and beautiful than it actually is. Leila is completely caught up in illusion and imagination—she cannot see her situation for what it is: a somewhat banal dance that is stressing everyone out.
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The girls receive dance programs, which tell them when specific dances will take place. Meg then ushers Leila to the drill hall. Surrounded by noise and colorful decorations, Leila presses close to Meg and remembers that earlier in the night she almost didn’t want to attend the ball, preferring to stay home and listen to the cries of baby owls calling “more pork” outside. But now she feels overcome by joy, drinking in the flowers, lights, and the “gleaming, golden floor.”
Leila is overwhelmed by the ball’s beautiful decorations, which she sees as evidence of the delirious joy and glamor around her. But this passage makes an important revelation: she wasn’t always as carried away by excitement about the ball as she is now. Earlier that very evening, in fact, Leila almost skipped the dance altogether, preferring to stay in her childhood home in the country. When she thinks about staying home, she focuses on the sounds of baby owls—these baby owls symbolize Leila’s innocence, and her initial desire to skip the dance was a desire to remain innocent rather than entering adulthood through the ball. However, now that she’s at the ball, her attitude has changed entirely; she finds her barely-younger self almost incomprehensible, and she wouldn’t trade being at the ball for anything. The fact that the owls cry “more pork” is noteworthy—while this is just how the owl’s natural cry strikes human ears, it seems to be an expression of hunger and desire. Even though Leila feels quite far from these owls now, Mansfield is subtly suggesting that Leila and the owls are not so different: like the owls, Leila is naïve and hungry—in her case, hungry for new experiences. But her inability to see the true, banal nature of the ball marks her continued innocence, even as she feels grown up. Leila’s love of the “golden floor” is another example of her being overly impressed by something totally common, and her attitude towards the floor comes to reflect her attitude towards her own future. In this moment, her future seems bright and exciting, just like the dance floor—but soon that will change.
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The men are already inside, and the girls stand in a group on the opposite side of the room while the chaperones, “smiling rather foolishly,” head towards the stage. Meg asks the other girls to help Leila find partners, and though they agree, they seem not to see her; instead, they’re focused on the men across the room. Leila wonders why the men are just standing around instead of approaching the women. But eventually, all at once, the men walk over to them.
There are three distinct groups in the ballroom: the young men, the young women, and the older chaperones. These groups remain separate, establishing a clear social order. When Leila immediately dismisses the chaperones as “foolish,” it shows that she has internalized the notion that older women are unimportant. When Meg asks the other girls to help Leila find partners, they’re too focused on the men to pay much attention to Leila or to each other. They’re obviously eager for the ball to begin, and the men are the ones who decide when that happens: the men have to fill out the girls’ dance cards, and the girls need partners to dance, which puts the men in a position of power. The men, meanwhile, are stalling—maybe to increase the women’s suspense. Their gender gives them the power to toy with the women, while the women have to wait.
Themes
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Leila meets a few young men, and then an older man, fat and balding, approaches her to claim a dance. His program is already very full, so Leila tells him not to bother finding a spot for her, but he does anyway. After he finishes writing his name on her program, he remarks that he may know Leila “of yore” before disappearing into the crowded dance floor.
The old man is an affront to Leila’s vision of a glamorous and exciting ball: he’s much older than anyone else, and he’s uglier than the young men Leila meets. She can’t incorporate his odd and unpleasant presence into her idea of a perfect ball, which is perhaps why she tries politely to get him to leave without signing her dance card. When the man asks if he’s seen her before, he’s obviously mistaken since this is her first ball, but his comment has significance. He has clearly attended enough balls that the young women he’s met have all blended together in his memory, with Leila indistinguishable from any of them. This passage shows a flaw in Leila’s romanticized image of the ball: she believes her time at the ball is special and unique, but she’s the only one who thinks that. To everyone else, she’s just like all the other young women.
Themes
As the dance begins, Leila remembers her dance lessons at boarding school. These lessons were often miserable—the girls were tormented by a strict dance teacher, and the dance hall was dusty. The ball is a sharp contrast to the lessons, and Leila listens to the beautiful music and watches dancers glide across the floor in growing anticipation—eventually, she comes to feel that if her first dance partner doesn’t arrive, “she would die at least, or faint.”
Like the preparation in the ladies’ room, Leila’s dance lessons were just a means to an end: attracting men in the future. Taking dance lessons with her friends wasn’t a fun bonding activity in itself—it was actually somewhat unpleasant, and its value for Leila lay solely in preparing her to impress future men. In this moment, the dancing has already begun and Leila is waiting on the sidelines for her first partner to claim her. She’s entranced by the dancing and the music and she wants badly to be dancing herself, but as a woman she’s somewhat powerless: she can’t dance alone, she can’t find her partner herself, and she can’t select a different partner from the one on her dance card. Instead, her only option is to wait helplessly for her partner to arrive, feeling like she might die if he doesn’t, which is a tremendous amount of power for him to have over her.
Themes
Leila’s dance partner does arrive, and he immediately compliments the floor. She responds that it’s “beautifully slippery,” which surprises him. He politely agrees, but he seems confused. He steers skillfully—it’s so different from dancing with other girls at boarding school, who always collided and stepped on each other. Though Leila notes that the man “sounded tired,” he tries to make small talk again, asking Leila if she was at another ball last week. Leila replies that this is her first ball, and though she elaborates, he hardly responds. The two stop dancing and sit down; Laura passes Leila and winks, which makes Leila notice that Laura’s partner isn’t speaking to her, instead picking a thread off his sleeve.
Ever since she arrived at the drill hall, Leila has felt enchanted by the glistening, slippery floor. Because of this, when her partner compliments the floor, Leila thinks that he feels the same way she does: that everything about this evening is amazing. However, the awkward interaction that follows makes plain the reality of the situation: this man doesn’t care about the floor at all, and he’s just making small talk. He’s not particularly interested in Leila, even as she thinks her own experience is fascinating. The young man’s lack of interest in the floor (and in Leila) reflects his fatigue with attending balls and his weary outlook on the future: unlike Leila, he does not see a future full of glamorous and exciting events, but rather a future full of repetitive small talk and interchangeable dance partners. This is another indication that Leila’s own excitement will soon fade. And her excitement at their elegant dancing seems to be another misinterpretation of what’s going on: their awkward, tired conversation can’t be much better than dancing with female friends at boarding school, even if he’s not stepping on her feet, but Leila still insists that what’s happening is new and perfect.
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Leila begins to dance with a new partner, who also asks her about the floor and about whether she was at another ball. Leila again explains that this is her first ball, but this partner is as uninterested as the last. This is strange to Leila, who finds the ball thrilling: the night sky, which at home was “mournful,” is now “dazzling bright.” Leila can picture herself at “the beginning of everything,” her life full of possibilities.
Clearly, making small talk about previous balls and the quality of the dance floor is routine; Leila’s second partner asks the same questions as the first, and Leila responds the same way. While Leila does notice this, she refuses to try to make sense of it. Instead of seeing this as evidence that this dance isn’t actually that exciting or novel, she focuses on how “thrilling” everything else seems and pushes the conversation from her mind. Leila directly connects her excitement in the current moment to her future, believing that her life has just begun and that her future will be much like the present: full of excitement and glamor. However, there’s mounting evidence that the excitement of her first ball—when everything is new—can never be re-created. After all, everyone she has met so far seems somewhat bored and unimpressed by the whole scene, which suggests a different future: one in which she is quickly jaded and discontented, just like everyone else.
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Leila and her partner go to get ices, and when they return, the old man approaches Leila and ushers her to the dance floor. His appearance shocks her. He’s old enough to be onstage with the chaperones, and he’s shabby—there’s a button missing from his glove, and his coat is wrinkled and dusty. The man immediately guesses that it’s Leila’s first ball; he knows because he’s been attending them for 30 years. To be nice, Leila says it’s great that he’s still attending.
Earlier, Leila observed the “foolish” chaperones, who were separate from the action on the dance floor. Based on his age and appearance, Leila notices that the old man should be with them—the dance floor is a place for young people. Even worse, the old man doesn’t fit with the ball’s glamorous decorations: his clothes are shabby and dusty. It’s clear already that Leila’s experience with this out-of-place man is going to unpleasantly disrupt her illusion of a perfect ball. Ironically, this man is the first person who seems to pay attention to who she is; while he initially thought he recognized her from before, he now correctly guesses that it’s Leila’s first ball. However, this isn’t because they have a unique connection—it’s because he’s been attending these events for so long that he can tell by a woman’s behavior when she is new. In this way, he’s merely confirming that Leila is just like everyone else, no matter how special she feels. For her part, Leila seems to pity him for attending balls for so long, which suggests that she feels superior as a result of her youth.
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The old man holds Leila closer and says that she obviously won’t be able to attend balls for as long as he has. He points to the older women sitting onstage and says that Leila will soon be one of them, “smil[ing] away like the poor old dears up there” and watching her own daughter dance. Just like those women, Leila will complain that a “dreadful man” tried to kiss her daughter at the last ball, but inside she will feel devastated that men no longer want to kiss her anymore and she’ll complain about how dangerous the slippery floors are.
In explaining why he’s able to be on the dance floor despite his age, the old man reveals a central truth of the story: he’s male, which grants him freedom and social value that older women don’t have. As a woman, Leila won’t be able to dance at balls 30 years from now—she’ll have to observe the dancing from a distance, since she wouldn’t be a plausible romantic partner for a man. The old man doesn’t seem to find this unfair, and instead, his comments reveal his negative view of women his own age. He tells Leila that as an old woman she’ll be miserable, simply because she’ll no longer be desirable to men. She’ll value men so much, in fact, that she’ll be secretly jealous of her daughters when they’re assaulted by “dreadful” men. Even the dance floor, which currently represents Leila’s hope for the future, will become a bitter reminder of her youth—instead of being “beautifully slippery,” as Leila now perceives it, the floor will seem dangerous. Since this speech comes from the old man (who may himself be one of the “dreadful” men he mentions), it’s unclear how much of his speculation is self-serving or true. He’s likely unmarried, and he might only be guessing at the feelings of older women—but nonetheless, it’s true that the older women seem cast aside at the drill hall and that none of them are present on the floor.
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Leila laughs at the old man’s comments, but she’s inwardly upset. What he said rings true to her—this ball might be “only the beginning of her last ball.” Suddenly, the music sounds sad, and she mourns that happiness can’t last forever. She stops dancing and goes to lean against the wall; inside, she’s a small child throwing a tantrum because the man ruined everything. The old man tells Leila not to “take [him] seriously,” and she scoffs.
The old man’s words shatter Leila’s illusion that the ball is her entrance into a glamorous and exciting future. While she was previously able to ignore anything that didn’t fit her perfect narrative, this man has ruined everything by telling her something unpleasant that nonetheless rings true to her: that her future is actually bleak. After he says this, she can no longer ignore the evidence around her, and even the music—which previously excited her—makes her sad. Knowing that her youthful bliss can’t last, Leila can no longer enjoy the ball. She stops dancing and reflects on how her first ball, which once felt so special, actually marks the start of her inevitable aging—her “last ball” will come sooner than she thinks, and then she will be a sad and foolish chaperone watching enviously from the stage. Her inner tantrum hints that she wants to return to childhood, when she wasn’t aware that she would grow old or unhappy. Though Leila tries to hide her distress from the old man, it’s visible, and he attempts to comfort her in vain.
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The ball continues around Leila, but she no longer wants to be part of it, instead reminiscing about being at home listening to the baby owls. Soon, however, a new song begins and a new partner finds her. Leila decides to dance until she can find Meg and escape, but she is soon swept up in the music and the beautiful decorations, which resemble a “flying wheel.” Leila’s partner bumps into the old man as they dance. The old man apologizes, but Leila simply beams at him—she doesn’t even recognize him now.
Earlier in the story, Leila dismissed her desire to stay at home listening to baby owls, which was really a desire to remain innocent. Now that the old man has made her aware of her future, she wants that innocence back. But instead of leaving the ball and returning home, she continues dancing, and once she’s dancing again, she fixates on the beautiful decorations and regains some of her old joy. However, Leila has not returned to the same state she was in at the beginning of the ball; when Leila and her partner spin, the decorations resemble a “flying wheel.” Leila probably isn’t conscious of the association, but it’s clear that the wheel imagery is significant—the decorations are a reminder now of time passing, as hands would wheel around the clock, or as life cycles spin onward. So even as Leila recaptures her youthful joy, she is subtly remembering that time passes. At the very end, when she bumps into the old man, Leila claims to have forgotten who he is, suggesting that she has returned to her innocence and is once again a girl enjoying her first ball. But it’s not credible that she has forgotten a man whose words shook her to her core just moments ago—instead, this seems more like the moment when she insisted that she had forgotten her desire to stay home with the owls, even as she was remembering that desire and feeling longing for home. Leila wants to forget this man and the unpleasant truths that he told her, so she’s repressing the experience and trying to delude herself into believing that her happiness will last.
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