Mansfield uses auditory imagery, specifically onomatopoeia, to describe the goings-on inside the Sheridan home. Onomatopoeia is when the words used to describe something imitate the sound associated with that thing. For example, the piano in the house makes a “Pom! Ta-ta-ta Tee-ta!” sound, and the cook, “like an agitated hen,” clucks “tuk-tuk-tuk.” The inclusion of this descriptive language is significant, as it extends the nature of the garden—a lush, beautiful place—into the Sheridan home.
This auditory imagery also contributes to the story’s wondrous mood and captures Laura’s youthful, innocent point of view as she admires small details that the adults around her might not notice. Moreover, as with Mansfield’s use of simile to compare characters to animals, the imagery emphasizes the sense of liveliness in the Sheridan Estate, a result of their privilege as members of the upper class who do not have to confront death in the same way that working-class people do.
The story uses visual imagery to describe Laura’s view of the Sheridan home:
The green baize door […] two tiny spots of sun, one on the inkpot, one on a silver photograph frame, playing too. Darling little spots. Especially the one on the inkpot lid. It was quite warm. A warm little silver star. She could have kissed it.
This imagery reflects Laura’s naivety and innocence. Laura feels a sentimental fondness as she observes the objects in her home. By describing the “darling little spots of sun” “playing” around the room, rather mundane objects (“the green baize door,” “the inkpot lid,” “a silver photograph frame”) are infused with a sense of lightness, frivolity, and childlike wonder. The whimsical nature of the imagery also creates a feeling of liveliness and vitality in the story, which, later, is in direct contrast with Scott’s death and the harsh realities of life in the Cottages. Laura senses this contrast when she leaves the familiarity of her home and approaches them:
Here she was going down the hill to somewhere where a man lay dead, and she couldn’t realize it. Why couldn’t she? She stopped a minute. And it seemed to her that kisses, voices, tinkling spoons, laughter, the smell of crushed grass were somehow inside her.
The story suggests that beauty and pleasure—represented by “kisses, voices, tinkling spoons, laughter, the smell of crushed grass”—are distractions that prevent Laura from transcending class boundaries. Despite her desire to consider what life is like for the Scotts and other people outside her class, Laura is unable to shed the influence of her privileged upbringing.
