''The Doll's House''

The principle weapon the privileged people wield against the Kelveys is shame, a mentally abusive method. To ensure the Kelveys understand their lower social standing, the popular girls differentiate themselves from the Kelveys by shaming them for their poverty, homemade recycled clothing, mother's profession, and father's presumed status as a prisoner. Mansfield illustrates how the shaming impulse operates when Lena Logan shows off the other girls by walking over to Lil and Else Kelvey to ask if Lil is going to grow up to be a servant. When Lil smiles in return, not reacting to the insult, Lena grows indignant at her inability to shame Lil. To save face, Lena shouts at Lil that her father is in prison, a statement considered by the other girls so "marvelous" in shaming potential that they become giddy with delight. Mansfield does not show Lil's reaction to the statement. Instead, Mansfield waits until the end of the story to show Lil being overcome with shame when Aunt Beryl shoos her and Else out of the Burnells' courtyard. Mansfield writes: "Burning with shame, shrinking together, Lil huddling along like her mother, our Else dazed, somehow they crossed the big courtyard and squeezed through the white gate." In this passage, Mansfield shows how the emotion of shame has a physical effect on Lil's body, contorting her into her mother's huddled position. Ultimately, the line suggests that the piling on of class-based shame Lil experiences will guarantee she grows up with the same lack of respect and opportunity as her mother.