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Else Kelvey
The aunt of Isabel, Lottie, and Kezia Burnell, Aunt Beryl is the sister of Mrs. Burnell and lives with the family in their country home. This implies that she is unmarried and needs to depend on the family financially. Aunt Beryl criticizes the doll’s house when it first arrives, thinking that it smells so strongly of paint that it could make someone ill. Later, she catches Kezia showing the dollhouse to Lil and Else Kelvey and scolds them cruelly, shooing the Kelveys away and slamming the doll’s house closed. She is in some kind of relationship with Willie Brent, which she wants to keep a secret.
Aunt Beryl Quotes in The Doll’s House
The The Doll’s House quotes below are all either spoken by Aunt Beryl or refer to Aunt Beryl. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Doll’s House Quotes
For, really, the smell of paint coming from that doll's house…was quite enough to make any one seriously ill, in Aunt Beryl's opinion. Even before the sacking was taken off. And when it was….
There stood the doll’s house, a dark, oily, spinach green, picked out with bright yellow. Its two solid little chimneys, glued on to the roof, were painted red and white, and the door, gleaming with yellow varnish, was like a little slab of toffee. Four windows, real windows, were divided into panes by a broad streak of green. There was actually a tiny porch, too, painted yellow, with big lumps of congealed paint hanging along the edge.
But perfect, perfect little house! Who could possibly mind the smell? It was part of the joy, part of the newness.
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The first description of the doll’s house does not make it seem particularly nice or valuable. In addition to its strong odor, the house has garish coloring, clunky exterior features, and lumps of paint caked on the porch. While Aunt Beryl focuses all of these imperfections, thinking it smells enough to make someone sick, the Burnell sisters are more innocently absorbed in the novelty and excitement the doll’s house brings to their lives. Later, the other girls in the village will all jockey for position in hopes of being invited next to see the doll’s house, clumps of paint and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecat
"Off you go immediately!" she called, cold and proud.
They did not need telling twice. Burning with shame, shrinking together, Lil huddling along like her mother, our Else dazed, somehow they crossed the big courtyard and squeezed through the white gate.
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Though Kezia and Else were innocent enough to want to play together with the doll’s house, Aunt Beryl, who is much older and set in the ways of society, reacts strongly when she sees her Kezia with the lower-class Kelvey girls. Her violent reaction reflects just how prejudiced one can become over time when constantly steeped in the same classist views of society. When Lil and Else scamper off through the white gates, they leave the Burnell home and return to their status as outsiders, just where Aunt Beryl wants them. Lil notably runs off in a way that resembles Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam volupta
The afternoon had been awful. A letter had come from Willie Brent, a terrifying, threatening letter, saying if she did not meet him that evening in Pulman's Bush, he'd come to the front door and ask the reason why! But now that she had frightened those little rats of Kelveys and given Kezia a good scolding, her heart felt lighter. That ghastly pressure was gone. She went back to the house humming.
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After Aunt Beryl scolds Kezia and shoos the Kelveys away, the narrator reveals that her outburst was not merely provoked by the Kelveys having been inside the courtyard, but also by having received a letter earlier that afternoon from Willie Brent. Though Willie’s identity is not made explicitly clear, it is implied that he and Aunt Beryl are in some kind of secret relationship. His threat to come to the front door if Aunt Beryl does not meet him would expose this relationship. Aunt Beryl finds it terrifying that he would do such a thing, suggesting that she would be Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Expli
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Aunt Beryl Character Timeline in The Doll’s House
The timeline below shows where the character Aunt Beryl appears in The Doll’s House. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Doll’s House
...feed-room to let it air out. It smells strongly of paint, so much so that Aunt Beryl thinks it could make someone sick.
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...house for them. When Kezia begins to give them a tour of the small house, Aunt Beryl suddenly yells at Kezia from the back door for letting the Kelveys inside. Aunt Beryl...
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Aunt Beryl , it is revealed, had had a terrible afternoon due to a letter she received...
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