Humiliation and Bullying in Katherine Mansfield's Short Story ‘The Doll’s House’: A Critical Study

Atheer Makki AbdAli Al-Jasim & Saud Ghalib Abed,  

English Department, College of Education for Human Sciences, University of Karbala, Karbala, Iraq & Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, University of Karbala, Karbala, Iraq

This research paper provides a thorough examination of the themes of humiliation and bullying in Katherine Mansfield's short story, 'The Doll's House.' Through a critical analysis, the paper seeks to uncover the socio-cultural implications embedded in the narrative and demonstrate how Mansfield's portrayal of these themes extends beyond the temporal setting to shed light on the complex nature of human relationships. Hate speech, colloquially referred to as 'HS,' has emerged as a significant and widely discussed issue in recent times. In the realm of children's literature, this form of speech is often used to convey specific messages and ideas that the authors hope to convey. This paper focuses on Katherine Mansfield's work, 'The Doll's House,' utilizing theories from social and literary theory to deepen the analysis. Specifically, by examining the various speech acts employed to convey class-based hate speech, as well as implicatures and instances of impoliteness in the narrative, this study aims to provide a comprehensive and qualitative understanding of this phenomenon. To facilitate the analysis of the data from Mansfield's short story, this research adopts a pragmatic perspective, taking into consideration the situational context and the speaker's intention. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been used to analyze the data, with a qualitative approach being particularly conducive to examining the intricacies of HS in this specific story. The results of this study reveal that hate speech exhibits various characteristics that are challenging to fully comprehend without considering the context in which it is utilized. Furthermore, this form of speech may manifest in both explicit and implicit ways, often serving not only to insult but also to shame and demonstrate disapproval.

Keywords: Humiliation, Bullying, Hate Speech, Impoliteness, Speech Act Theory

The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The Ninth International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature (WWW.LLLD.IR), 1-2 February 2024, Ahwaz.