The Dinner Party is a fictional short story written by Mona Gardner. In India, a colonial officer and his wife host a dinner party and invite army officers and government attaches along with their wives, and an American naturalist. A spirited discussion sparks up between a young girl and the colonel, in which the girl believes that woman have outgrown the fright-from-seeing-a-mouse era, but the colonel denies that and says that men have more control than women in every situation. Then, the American notices that the hostess is very still and summons a native boy over to her, who then leaves the room in a hurry and places a bowl of milk on the veranda outside of the room. Knowing at that point that there is a cobra under the table, he creates a game for the guests to see who has control by staying still for three hundred seconds. When he starts counting down the last twenty seconds to finish the game, the cobra emerges from under the table, going towards the bowl of milk outside, and the American locks it out of the room. After the ordeal, the American asks the hostess, Mrs. Wynnes, how she knew that the cobra was in the room, and she replies with, "because it was crawling across my foot."
Characters
There are a few characters in this short story. These characters are:
The American naturalist; is the one who knew that there was a cobra in the room and made up the game to keep the guests from getting bitten by the cobra.
The colonial officer (Mr. Wynnes); is the host of the dinner party and opposes the young girl's statement, saying that men have more control then women.
Mrs. Wynnes (the hostess); is the one who demonstrated that women can have the same amount of control as men when the cobra crawled across her foot.
Lastly, the young girl; is the one who brought up the conversation of women's control.
Setting
The setting of this story takes place in India (states it in the first sentence), in the late evening/night (takes place during dinnertime), and takes place in the early 1900's (they had a servant who was a young boy).
Conflict
The conflict of this story is that there is a cobra (antagonist) in the dinner room, which no one is aware of. So, the American must devise a way to keep all of the guests calm and still so that the cobra does not bite any of them, while also trying to get the cobra to go to the bowl of milk outside on the veranda.
Conclusion
The conclusion to this story is that while all of the guests were playing the American's game, when the American started to count down the final twenty seconds, the cobra comes out from under the dinner table, goes to the bowl of milk on the veranda, and the American locks it out of the room.
Irony
Within this story, the author used situational irony (When what happens is different from what was expected). She does this by opposing what the colonel said, which was that men have an ounce more of control in any situation than women, so when Mrs. Wynnes told the American that the cobra crawled across her foot, it showed that women can have as much control as men in the same situation, opposing the colonel's statement.
Theme
The theme of this story is control in situations of both men and women. This story tells us that in every situation we are placed in, we must take control of it and make the best of it.
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