Miss Marsalles

“The Dance of the Happy Shades” by Alice Munro

1. a) 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 positive and bold woman who does things out of heart and soul. More specifically, her words “musical” and “integrity” 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: harmonious

For a number of reasons, Miss Marsalles very much emerges as a character with whom readers can empathize. One of the reasons has to do with Marsalles’ motive. Deep down, she believes she can see into children’s hearts. More specifically, she is described as “indestructibly” believing that “[a]ll children need music”, and that all of them “love music in their hearts” (Munro 287). Marsalles just wants children to grow healthily and happily, just in her perspective. And besides, there really is no harm in throwing parties for children where everyone can enjoy and relax. That really is one legitimate reason by which one can pity and empathize with Marsalles. The problem, however, arises in the eyes of Marsalles’ guests. They genuinely feel that she is not able to support these parties not only financially and physically, but emotionally, as she is overworking herself just to satisfy some fallacy in her mind. One strong example of this was when Mrs. Clegg, the narrator’s mother, and the narrator, examine the excess of food placed on the table. Right away, they notice that the sandwiches and little iced cakes Marsalles had left on the table had likely been there for hours, as Clegg recounts that “[she desperately] tried to tell [Marsalles] not to put [the food] all out ahead of time” (Munro 294). This is not only confusing and irritating to the characters of the story, but also pulls the heart strings of the readers, as they recognize how much pressure she faces to please her guests. And finally, one of the most prominent reasons readers can sympathize with Marsalles for having these parties is because she is an old woman. She is close to passing away, and so she may feel that she needs to provide as much as she can before she goes away. This is demonstrated when she invited special needs students from Greenhill School to her party, surprising, and even angering, everyone who attended. She did not need to invite these “outsiders”, but perhaps felt that doing so would