Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding, by Katherine Mansfield

SUMMARY, by Josep Guiteres

In this story we have the themes of gender roles, domination, submission, control, identity and tradition.

Throughout the story, Frau Brechenmacher is always at the disposal of her husband.

When her husband arrives home, the Frau has already prepared all the clothes for him to go to the wedding, making sure that he would be ready before her.

Even the Frau uses her daughter Rose to help her to prepare his husband’s things for the wedding. In reality, she is teaching her how to serve her husband.

When the couple goes to the wedding, he walks in front of her it as if there was a hierarchy that the Frau had to follow, that is, the Herr occupies first place in the entire story.

When they arrived at the place where the wedding was being held, the Frau sat next to her friend Frau Ledermann, who told her that it was very striking that her skirt was open at the back; but she was so attentive to her family that she forgot to take care of herself.

At the wedding it seems that men and women are separated as if each one had their own place in this event.

According to the conversation between the two women, the bride, who already has a daughter, did not want to marry anyone, but agreed to marry due to the traditional composition of the family.

When the Herr gave the gift to the bride and the groom, of all those present, the Frau was the only person who did not laugh, possibly because for her the gift symbolizes the result of her life.

When the couple arrived home, the Frau prepared dinner for her husband, an obvious sign of submission to the man. The Frau went to bed and curled up like a child, and this position tells us that she has not grown since she has not had the opportunity to develop her own life.

QUESTIONS

-They leave the children alone in the house. How has our concept of safety changed? Can you tell an example of it that shocks you?

-The father was the top authority in the family, and he had the monopoly of violence. How has it changed?

-How do you know the Brechenmacher family is a low-class family, and what details show us that they pretend to be of a higher class?

“Giving her [the bride] the appearance of an iced cake all ready to be cut and served in little pieces to the bridegroom sitting beside her.” What in a current wedding ceremony goes on showing the male domination, according to your view?

What stories with illegitimate children do you know? Tell us a summary of one of them.

How could be possible that a woman is more male chauvinist than a man?

Herr Brechenmachen carries “the coffee pot to the bridal pair… She lifted the lid, peeped in, then shut it down with a little scream”. What was inside the coffee-pot? What can be the meaning of this present?

-How can you imagine Frau Brechebnmachen wedding night?

 

VOCABULARY

muddled, cinders, fir, saucers, overawed, bows, perspiration, froth, wedged, dandle, clout


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