Katherine Mansfields Six Years After :: essays papers

Katherine Mansfield's Six Years After In the short story ‘Six Years After’ written by Katherine Mansfield. There are many stereotypes (mostly aimed at men) and role-playing (played by men). When it comes to men and women, men are always the ones taking care of things or being ridiculed. In this essay I will prove that role-playing is what the author is trying to point out as the key theme in this short story. The steward plays the role of a host type of character. He was doing everything he could do in his power to make this couple as comfortable as possible. He went out of his way to put up chairs where there was available shelter, and tried to place them in a spot with the least amount of smell as possible. Another example of role-playing in this novel is when the Husband goes to tip the steward for his excellent work. The husband’s wife tries to tell him what kind of money he should tip the steward, but the husband just listens and tips what he thought the steward should get. This is a classic example of the man being in charge as the man of the house. The man has to show everybody that he is in charge and what he does goes. After the husband tips the steward, he asks his wife if she thinks that is a good tip. The wife simply agrees. When the wife does this it reinforces the husband’s ego of being the one in charge. On the third page of this story, the wife makes fun of her husband by telling him that his hat makes her snicker. She tells him that he looks like a burglar. obviously he was not very amused. He tries to justify his hat by telling her that the hat that he was wearing is one of the best hats he has ever owned. He also mentions that the hat had very rich white satin lining. He believed that this was the hats better attribute. He then took off his hat and then made her touch the lining. Regardless of the fact that the hat made his wife snicker, he turns the conversation around and tries to convince her that the hat is nice. That is lined with very rich white satin. Surely it must be good! â€Å"how often had she rubbed between finger and thumb his coat, his shirt cuff, tie, sock, linen handkerchief† this quote shows that the husband is always doing this when his wife makes a comment about something.