WORKSHEET 2: “The Voyage”

COMPREHENSION

1. Summarise the story in no more than 10 lines.

2. How do we get to know Fenella’s reason to travel?

ANALYSIS

3. What is the main theme in “The Voyage”?

4. How would you divide the structure of the short story? (Clue: do not focus on events
but on symbolism and the theme). Are the events told chronologically?

5. Does “The Voyage” have a closed ending? Discuss.

6. How is the protagonist described? What do we know about her, her personality, etc.?

7. How is Mrs.Crane described? What do we know about her, her personality, etc.?

8. What type of narrative voice (who speaks?) does Katherine Mansfield use in this
story? What type of focalization (who perceives?) does “The Voyage” present?

9. Explain some of the main symbols that appear in the story: stars, umbrella, voyage,
darkness, sea…

10. What literary device (or figure of speech) is being used in these expressions? They are
all literary devices you have in your notes:
a. "... as well as her luggage strapped into a neat sausage" (p.1)
b. “the cold pale sky was the same colour as the cold pale sea" (p.6)
c. “the hooves of the little horse drummed over the wooden piles, then sank softly
into the sandy road” (p.7)
d. “there was not even a feather of smoke” (p.7)
e. “a white cat that had been folded up like a camel” (p.7)
f. "the sea still sounded asleep as slowly it turned on the beach" (p.7)
g. "The fringe of grey bobbles danced at her eyebrows"(p.4)
h. "…with drenched sleeping flowers on either side" (p.7)
i. Add one more example of literary device that you can find in the text.

11. After this analysis, can you summarise (briefly) some of the reasons that lead us to
consider this short story as modernist?