"The Little Governess" is a 1915 short story by

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the Literary modernism, modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world and have been ...

. It was first published in ''

Signature A signature (; from , "to sign") is a depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. Signatures are often, but not always, Handwriting, handwritt ...

'' on 18 October 1915 under the pen name of Matilda Berry, and later reprinted in '' Bliss and Other Stories''. The text is written in the

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

mode, without a set structure, and with many shifts in the narrative.

Plot summary

After receiving advice from the lady at the Governess Bureau, a young and naive English

governess A governess is a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching; depending on terms of their employment, they may or ma ...

(referred to throughout as "the little governess") is off on the train from France to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, from where she will go to a new house for work. The governess has never been abroad before, and is duly forewarned of the dangers by the lady at the Governess Bureau, who tells her to "mistrust people at first". She is harassed by a porter on the way to her train, and once aboard, by a group of rowdy French men. The porter, dissatisfied with the pay that he has received, tears away the 'Ladies Only' sign on the carriage that the governess sits. An old man, "at least ninety", sits in her quarter, and the pair begin talking. She finds out he is German; he lets her look at his newspapers. Then the train stops because of a hitch on the track, and he buys her some strawberries; the train gets going again. He insists on showing her around Munich and she agrees. At the station, he walks her to her hotel, and she sees the shabby room she was supposed to stay in all day and wait for Frau Arnholdt to take her to her new house. They take a stroll in Munich, then go to a museum, then to the

Englischer Garten The ''Englischer Garten'' (, ''English Garden'') is a large public park in the centre of Munich, Bavaria, stretching from the city centre to the northeastern city limits. It was created in 1789 by Sir Benjamin Thompson (1753–1814), later Coun ...

. She doesn't have the time and wants to return to her hotel, but he suggests having an ice cream before she leaves. She gushes, telling him that "this has been the happiest day of my life." She has begun to perceive the old man, who is a Regierungsrat (senior civil servant), as a sort of grandfather. After the ice cream, he insists that she comes up to his apartment, to see his home and receive an

attar of roses Rose oil (rose otto, attar of rose, attar of roses, or rose essence) is an essential oil that is extracted from the petals of various types of rose. ''Rose ottos'' are extracted through steam distillation, while ''rose absolutes'' are obtained th ...

, "for remembrance". When up in his apartment, he offers her wine, and kisses her without her consent. In shock (''"It was a dream! It wasn't true!"'') she runs out into the street and takes a cab back to the hotel, where she is told Frau Arnholdt came and left when the manager told her he did not know when she would be back.

Themes

Feminism

According to Sydney Janet Kaplan, the story "seems a response to women's victimization, isolation and lack of support for one another". Kaplan notes that it may be inspired by Mansfield's own experiences of international solo travel as a woman. The governesses' plight is Mansfield's attempt to highlight, through the portrayal of a naive and trusting young woman being misled and exploited, the systemic sexual oppression of the time, which leads ultimately to her employment being jeopardized.

Footnotes

External links

Full text
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Governess, The Modernist short stories 1915 short stories Short stories by Katherine Mansfield Works originally published in literary magazines