The Doll’s House

Though Else and Lil Kelvey do not speak much in the story, when they do, Mansfield captures it in dialect. She does this by subtly changing the language and grammar that the girls use. The fact that Mansfield does not do this for the Burnell sisters’ speech suggests that this is her way of communicating the class differences between the two sets of girls.

The following passage juxtaposes the way that Mansfield uses dialect for Lil and standard speech for Kezia:

Lil gasped, then she said, “Your ma told our ma you wasn’t to speak to us.”

“Oh, well,” said Kezia. She didn’t know what to reply. “It doesn’t matter. You can come and see our doll’s house all the same. Come on. Nobody’s looking.”

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