Katherine Mansfield (Kathleen Mansfield Murry) was born in Wellington, New Zealand, into a middle-class colonial family, educated in Great Britain. Mansfield's creative years were burdened with loneliness, illness, jealousy, alienation - all this reflected in her work with the bitter depiction of marital and family relationships of her middle-class characters. Her short stories are also notable for their use of stream of consciousness.
The story ‘Sixpence is third-person narration and the narrator is heterodiegetic and do not take part in the plot, but his knowledge and prerogatives are unlimited. In the story there is the inner monologue when Dicky’s father blames himself that he has whipped ‘his little man’.
In the extract prevails the form of a dialog and the level of formality is closer to colloquial rather than to neutral. In the text are used short simple sentences, elliptical sentences, contracted forms and illiterate constructions; for example ‘But Dicky wouldn’t come.’, ‘And away he flew;’ The author used colourful adjectives to create imagery; for instance, to describe Dicky are used such adjectives as ‘sensitive’, ‘affectionate’, ‘obedient’, ‘marvellously sensible’.…
