Miss Marsalles

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Recommended: Characteristics of short story

1. a) In The Dance of The Shades, the first three sentences of the story achieve characterization through its brief descriptions of Miss Marsalles, as well as the narrator’s mother. For example, the story begins with the narrator questioning whether Marsalles decided to have another party because of her “musical integrity” or her “bold yearning for festivity”. In both regards, however, the narrator conveys her belief that Marsalles is a lonely yet positive woman, as she longs for interaction, which in this case is in the form of a party. Her words “musical” and “integrity” also collectively have interesting connotations. On one hand, the term "musical" is used not in its literal meaning, but as a way to describe the mentality of Marsalles: …show more content…

The only surprising moment of this story was when the special needs girl really surprised all the guests, doing a tremendous job on the piano, playing the song The Dance of the Happy Shades. This really surprised all Marsalles’ guests, but Marsalles, being the woman she was, just smiled and clapped for the girl, as she was the one who taught her to play the piano that well. And after that event took place, one has a much clearer view of not only Marsalles and the narrator as characters, but the story as a whole. Marsalles, for one, is now viewed as someone who looks for not appearance or beauty, but for what’s inside: someone’s true talents and identity. In addition, Marsalles seems like she understand what life is really about, as she appreciates everyone for who they are, regardless of the fact that the special needs kids were mentally disabled. One can also view the narrator differently. For one, the narrator’s impression on the girl was very much indicative of what all the other guests felt: they all felt that she was going to fail miserably, as she didn’t even seem human in their eyes. This could very well lead us to the assumption that she is very much is part of the “larger society”, in that she doesn’t view people with disabilities as real humans, but perhaps another race. However, towards the end of the story, one can take a different view on the narrator. She readily admits that the performance was very well done, and even questions if it was a trick played on her to make her feel stupid for judging by appearance. So in the end, she really does admit that she was wrong in a sense, that one should not judge someone on appearance, but rather take the approach that Marsalles takes. For these reasons, this moment really gave readers a better understand of not only Marsalles and the narrator, but the story as a

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