On Artistic Maturity in The Road from the Colonus and The Garden Party

張瀟

When we judge whether a literary piece is artistically mature or not，we always take into consideration the artistic techniques or literary forms essentially applied to develop theme and characterization：

The short story The Road from the Colonus is artistically featured by symbolism，including the symbolism of space and myth，as well as intertextuality.The story was centered on an aging character Mr Lucas who strived to appear “young” and tried every means to break away from others in their journey in Colonus.In his minds eye，Colonus was such an ideal，tranquil and holy paradise and he had realized his lifelong dream visiting there.Therefore，the place of Colonus was symbolized as Mr Lucas spiritual shelter since by staying there，he could temporarily escape from his dull，monotonous life in London without friendship and love.In the second part of the story set in London，quite conspicuous is that Mr Lucas was thrown into deep depression when they got home.Water in Greece was holy，whereas in London it became noisy especially when mingled with the noises of dog barks and the children next door.Therefore，Colonus in Mr Lucas mind was a paramount paradise and leaving there was tantamount to his dream shattered.

Moreover，the author also took full advantage of intertextuality by the allusion of the myth of Oedipus.In this sense，there is a compact correspondence between the modern text，the short story The Road from the Colonus and the ancient text，the myth.The symbolism of myth lies in that Mr Lucas is symbolized as Oedipus and his daughter Ethel is symbolized as Antigone.Oedipus found a refuge in Colonus in the wake of being exiled with the accompaniment of his daughter Antigone and he eventually died there and the presence of his grave was said to bring good luck to the Athens.Quite similarly，the story goes that Mr Lucas went to Colonus accompanied by Ethel thus the connections of the two stories are established.It can be also easily found that similar to the myth that ancient Oedipus refused to leave Colonus，Mr Lucas also refused to leave there when he promised to send his offerings to the shrine.The intertextuality may help us to comprehend Mr Lucas depression at the end of the story，remaining so aloof even though he was told by Ethel that they must have been killed by a disaster as it happened the following day after they had left and he still remembered being thrown stones by the children of the Khan as they thought they would lose money when the travelers were gone.He would rather die peacefully in Colonus as Oedipus did than continue his life in London with his impression of sacred Colonus cannot be held sway or replaced by its barbarous and catastrophic nature.

The short story The Garden Party is also quite artistically mature in the characterization of the girl Laura who is in a state of growing awareness.Bogged down in the conflict between sympathy and lack of sympathy and growing up in the environment of bourgeois banality as is embodied in the description of the garden party，the middle-class little girl got out of her way to get in contact with the outside world in order to make a difference，breaking the ice between the middle class and the lower class.At the beginning of the story，she showed so much affinity and friendliness to the workmen and tried to find identification with them and present herself as an adult for she thought it ungraceful to greet the “impressive” workmen with the bread-and-butter in her hand.This lays a solid foundation for her sense of sympathy to be gradually intensified and the following plots in the story to unfold.

In the wake of the news delivered that a man living blocks away was killed in a traffic accident，the dialogues between Laura and her sister and mother are quite effective in the characterization.There are sharp contrasts of the girls anxiety as she believed they couldnt possibly have a garden party with a man dead just outside the house and her sisters and mothers aloofness.Having heard Lauras intention to “stop everything”，her sister Jose derided her “absurd” and “extravagant” idea as putting herself in the shoes of the middle-class guests，she believed nobody expected them to stop the garden party.More shocking is the reply when Laura told her mother that a man just had been killed——“Not in the garden？” she cared about nothing but the party going on in the garden.Eventually，she agreed that Laura could go to the dead mans house with nothing but leftovers that she claimed to be “uneaten”.Therefore，the selfishness of her sister and mother serves as a foil to the revelation of Lauras sympathetic nature.

At the end of the short story，Lauras journey to the dead mans house，both physical and psychological，indicates the loving figure was getting more and more mature as she was approaching the world of reality.