The Singing Lesson

The Singing Lesson
Katherine Mansfield writing style and her psychological story of human

character has been appreciated. The story “The Singing Lesson” comes from her
personal experience of despair, sadness, reliance, desperation and happiness.
The narrative technique of employing interior monologues not only makes the
story engaging, but also helps reader form an intimate connection with the
protagonist.
The story begins on a dramatic note with the protagonist Miss Meadows on a
petulant mood. With despair – “buried deep in her heart like a wicked knife”,
Miss Meadows walks down the cold corridor to the Music Hall amidst a
multitude of girls with “gleeful excitement”. The cold corridors are symbolic of
the coldness that has gripped Miss Meadow’s heart. The science Mistress stops
her, and remarks on how cold the weather is. As Miss Meadows was in a
petulant mood everything seems to irritate her, especially the sweetness of the
Science Mistress. She hated the Science Mistress for her cheerfulness, beauty
and charm. She gave the Science Mistress “a grimace” in exchange for her
sweet smile and passed on.
Miss Meadows assumes her place on the platform and demands silence from the
students. She felt that the children knew that she was in a foul mood. She
transformed her despair to anger towards the children. Miss Meadows was so
disturbed that the thoughts of the children were of little consequence and she
did not keep eye contact with them.
It is then that the reason for Miss Meadow’s despair is revealed: a letter from
her fiancé, Basil, stating that he had discovered that he was not a marrying man
and the idea of settling down fills him with regret. Miss Meadows could see that
he had written “disgust” but then scratched it out lightly and wrote “regret”. The
thought of Basil’s cruel break up letter prompts Miss Meadows to be cruel to
Mary Beazley. For the first time, instead of greeting Mary Beazley and
accepting the chrysanthemum, she ignores Mary Beazley and orders the
students to open their books to page number 32.
Miss Meadows asks the students to sing a lament without expression, the result
was tragic and the lyrics described the sadness of the passing season of autumn
turning into “Wi-i-nter Drear”. Even though they sang without any expression,
she felt that “Every note was a sigh, a sob, a groan of awful mournfulness.” Her
mind wanders off to her fiancé’s letter. The letter had struck her out of the blue,
for just in the previous letter Basil wrote about the furniture that he had
purchased for their life together.
She asks the students to sing the lament again but with emotions. She recalls the
last time Basil had visited her, he wore a rose on his buttonhole of his bright
blue suit. Miss Meadows’s memory of the happy times of their courtship shows
that there was no personal attachment between them; she does not recall
anything about his personality that she liked beyond being glad that he was
good looking. Subsequently it is revealed he chose to go to dinner with the
Headmaster’s wife for reasons of social advancement. Miss Meadows is able to
see the hollowness even in nature- the willow trees outside had lost half their
leaves and the “tiny ones wriggled like fishes caught on a line”. Willow tree
symbolizes stability and adaptability, it encourages loss and sadness. In the
midst of hollowness there is always optimism.
Miss Meadow’s internal turmoil finds in reflected in her teaching method. She
wanted the girls to use their imagination and find meaning in the lyrics. She
transfers her despair to the children through cruelty. The joy that the girls felt
initially had evaporated. This is ironic as the Music Teacher is supposed to
bring joy and happiness into the classroom.
Finally the source of Miss Meadow’s is revealed – she was 30 and Basil was 25.
She ponders over how the engagement had been a miracle in the first place. She
believed that she was now too old to find a desirable marriage again. The
science mistress had not believed it at first. Although the letter said that Basil
loved her as much as it was possible for him to love a woman, Miss Meadows
knew that he did not love her after all – not even to have cared enough to strike
off “disgust” better so that she could read it. She fears that she would now have
to leave school and go somewhere where nobody knew about her broken
engagement. This highlights the fact that the marriage was out of social pressure
and it was a relationship of convenience.
At this point, Monica, a little girl walks into the classroom and informs Miss
Meadows that Miss Wyatt would wish to see her. Miss Wyatt informs her that a
telegram had come in for her. Since telegrams were sent to the school only for
urgent bad news Miss Meadows thought that Basil had committed suicide. But
the telegram had good news, Basil asks her to ignore the previous letter and that
he had purchased new furniture. It was a short telegram and Basil does not
apologize nor does he realize the grief that he has caused to Miss Meadows.
Upon reading the telegram Miss Meadows is ecstatic as her engagement is not
broken.
(write two lines about Miss Wyatt saying that telegrams must be sent only in
case of bad news… and how Miss Meadows was not bothered by that remark
due to her extreme joy)
“On the wings of hope” Miss Meadows heads back to her class. She accepts the
yellow chrysanthemum to hide the smile on her face and asks the girls to sing a
summer song/ joyous song urging them to sound “warm, joyful, eager”. Her
voice sounded “full, deep, glowing with expression”. Miss Meadows continued
her class with a vivacious attitude.
It is very surprising to see that she can accept Basil so easily when he was so
cruel to her. MM joy was as extreme as her sorrow was. Just as her despair
seems disproportionate to the situation her joy is clearly dangerous. Her mood
swings reflect that her mental health is entirely dependent on her relationship
status. Her choice of music changes as per her moods. The music serves as an
outlet without having to divulge her private thoughts.

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The Singing Lesson

Katherine Mansfield writing style and her psychological story of human

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