Comment closely on the following extract, concentrating on the presentation of the different attitudes of Herr and Frau Brechenmacher.
The Extract from Frau Brechenmacher’s wedding encapsulates the theme of the short story; the struggle of women in an entrenched patriarchal society. A middle aged Mother accompanies her middle class husband to a local town wedding. She considers her marital situation with dissatisfaction tempered with resignation. Herr has very little consideration for his wife. Mansfield explores the Frau’s character and the state of her relationship with symbolism, clever narrative technique and deliberately ambiguous language.
This extract is taken from a typical Mansfield story that explores human reactions to normal situations. The slice of life concerns a middle aged German Postmaster and his family preparing to attend a local wedding. Early in the story, we see things from the daughter’s perspective, but in this section, the reader is allied with the mother until the climax of the story.
Mansfield, in typical fashion, is concerned with the inequity of life for Women in the early twentieth century. As usual, she dandles the issues in front us much as Herr Brechenmacher ‘dandles’ the ‘treasures’ before the newlyweds. Mansfield isn’t bombastic or didactic; she is much more subtle at conveying the complexities of the Fraus’ unfulfilled status in life. We gather that before she was married, Frau had ideas, dreams and strength. Like Leila from another Mansfield story ‘Her First Ball’, Frau used to be ‘an innocent one’. Early in the marriage, she would assert her strength and independence with a ‘clout on the ear’ for her new husband. Clout is a highly suitable sounding verb for a substantial attack on her domineering husband: more aggressive and painful sounding than ‘thump’ or ‘hit’. We ascertain, however, that now things are different, things are ‘stupid’, as woman are treated ‘all over the world the same’. Frau is trapped in society that allows women little power, or independence or respect. She reflects that the mere contemplation of liberation or equality is futile. In a classic modernist Mansfield narrative technique, Frau’s stream of consciousness wonders ‘‘Na, what is it all for?’ and, such is the pointless of these thoughts, to ‘stop asking herself that silly question.’ Frau is not so much bitter, as that implies missed opportunities; she is simply unfulfilled, exasperated and resigned to the reality of her marriage.
Furthermore Frau’s confidence and general self esteem are also in a poor state. In a moment of paranoia she senses that ‘people were laughing at her, more people than there were in the room even’; scorning her for a lack of strength to see through her wifely duties and fulfil the woman’s role. At the climax of the story, in a classic act of shame and low self esteem she shields her face and ‘put her arm across her face like a child’. Mansfield’s ambiguous language as the Frau ‘expected to be hurt as Herr
Brechenmacher lurched in’ creates an undertone of violence as the male either ‘lurches’ into the room, or as is subtly implied, ‘lurches’ into the Frau with a clumsy, selfish act of sexual penetration. Either way the poor woman covers her face in shame.
Finally, to highlight the general state of Frau’s attitude, Mansfield uses a nice touch of symbolism. Frau sees her marriage as ‘White and forsaken’ just like the ‘road from the railway station to their house’. The colour white suggests her innocence, but it also highlights that there is no colour in their life together.
In contrast to Frau’s insecurity and unfulfilled state, her husband is confident as he entertains the wedding reception with his joke, teasing the new bride with baby’s clothes that symbolise how tough her married life will be. This is a cruel act of foreshadowing that only the Frau ‘did not think it funny’. His bombast can be seen as selfish and arrogant as he ‘alone remained standing’ as the centre of attention at someone else’s wedding. In addition to Herr’s insensitive showing at the wedding is his performance at home.
Mansfield uses more symbolism to convey Herr’s attitude to his wife. He is a man in a patriarchal society and clearly doesn’t spare much thought for his wife. He ‘broke’ the bread, just like he broke his wife as he claims that he ‘soon taught’ her the way of a ‘man’s’ world, as if women need breaking and teaching to serve a man. His attitude to his food reflects that of his marriage, ‘he chewed greedily’. Mansfield draws an analogy between his boots that he ‘flung’ into a corner and his wife’s happiness. Such verbs have highly negative connotations and illustrate his disregard for his wife.
Overall Herr is proud that he managed to temper the ‘trouble’ his wife caused; as if it is a deviation from god’s natural order that a woman should have ideas and power of her own. He treats the memory of his conquest lightly as he ‘tilted back in his chair, chuckling with laughter’.
Mansfield covers with subtly a deep rooted problem with human European behaviour over the past few thousand years. She does this through the characters in this short extract and her skilful narrative and descriptive technique. Both characters have different attitudes as their lives are vastly different; Frau is essentially a slave, and Herr is the master and like so many instances in History, unwilling to even recognise the inequality. Their journey back from the wedding encapsulates their situations in life, Herr ‘strode ahead’ and Frau ‘stumbled after him’.