The Tragedy of the Female Protagonist in The Singing Lesson

The Singing Lesson is one of Katherine Mansfield's excellent short stories.Same with her other love stories,Mansfield still adds a pessimistic tone to love in this work.The heroine does not hold an equal status in the relationship with her fiancé,and her blind choice will bring her inevitably a failing marriage.However,the essential cause of her tragic fate is not her shallow and foolishness,but the heavy oppression of a patriarchal society.Via the analysis of the heroine's dramatic performance in the singing lesson,this paper reveals the misfortune of the heroine in love and her coming marriage,and the deep harm the patriarchy society did to females' existence and their spirits.