Themes:

Female Solidarity: The central theme is the bond between women, despite societal pressures and competition.
The narrator cherishes the rose as a symbol of a rare moment of unity and generosity between two women.
Jealousy and Rivalry: The tension between the narrator and the fair-haired girl showcases the societal tendency to pit women
against each other for male attention.
Male Gaze and Objectification: The story highlights how women are viewed through the eyes of men and how this shapes
their social dynamics.
Youth and Beauty: Both women’s value is perceived to 14 be tied to their physical appearance, reflecting societal norms.
Transformation and Growth: The narrator evolves from enjoying the attention to appreciating the quiet solidarity between
women.
Memory and Symbolism: The rose represents hope, solidarity, and the enduring power of positive female relationships.
Loneliness and Connection: The narrator and the fair-haired girl experience isolation in a male-dominated environment but
find a fleeting connection. The Woman's Rose
The description of the fair-haired girl (“great dreamy blue eyes,” “wavy fair hair”) and the narrator’s perspective on her
enhances the contrast between the two.
(1899)
Contrast: Between the narrator and the fair-haired girl, both in their physical appearance and social standing, amplifies the
narrative tension.
Irony: The narrator initially enjoys male attentionOlive Schre
but later iner
realizes the shallow nature of this admiration. The white rose,
initially a token of rivalry, becomes a lasting symbol of unity.
First-Person Perspective: The story is deeply personal, allowing the reader to connect with the narrator’s internal conflict and
growth.
Foreshadowing: Early mention of the rose and the narrator’s emotional connection to it hints at its significance in the story.
Tone:Schreiner
Shifts from novel The Story of
was areflective and nostalgic
South African to known
writer best empathetic and
for her affirmative,
outstand mirroring
ingly original the
and narrator’s
gripping emotional journey.
when cynicism was
an African Farm. In this story, a woman looks back to her youth and remembers an occasion
ive tale.
overcome andfemale solidarit y triumph ed over petty competition. This is a symbolic affirmat
Men fail to see the beauty and perfection where there is
something new
I have an old, brown carved box; the lid is broken and tied with a string. In it I keep little
squares of paper, with hair inside, and a little picture which hung over my brothe r's bed
when we were childre n, and other things as small. I have in it a rose. Other women also
have such boxes where they keep such trifles, but no one hai my rose.
When my eye is dim, and my heart grows faint, and my faith in woman flickers, and
her present is an agony to me, and her future ~ despair, the scent of that dead rose,
as
withered for twelve years, comes back to me. I know there will be spring; as surely
the birdsImagery: it when
know Vivid they see above the snow two tiny, quiveri ng green leaves. Spring
descriptions of the items in the box, such as “a little picture” and “hair inside,” evoke a tactile
fail us.of memory. The line “the scent of that dead rose... comes back •to me” creates sensory imagery that
cannot sense
There were other flowers in the box once; a bunch of white acacia flowers, gather ed by
highlights the emotional weight of the rose.

!he strong hand of a man, as we passed. down a _village street on a sultry_ afterno on, when
It had rained, and the drops fell on us from the leaves of the acacia trees. The flowers were
damp; they made mildew marks on the paper I folded them in. After many years I threw
them away. There is nothin g of them left in the box now, but a faint, strong smell of dried
acacia, that recalls that sultry summe r afterno on; but the rose is in the box still.
It is many years ago now; I was a girl of fifteen, and I went to visit in a small up-
c~untry town. It was young in those days, and two days' journe y from the neares t village;
~h~l population consist ed mainly of men. A few were ma£?e d, and had their wives and
abodren, but most were single. There was only one young girl there when I came. She was
Ii ut 5e:venteen, fair, and rather fully-fleshed; she had large dreamy bl~e eye~ and wavy
rt hair; full, rather heavy lips, until she smiled; then her face broke into dimples, and
~ her White teeth shone. The hotel-k eeper may have had a daught er, and the farmer in
eeoutskirts had two, but we never saw them. She reigned alone. All the men worshi pped
r. She was the only woman they had to think of. They talked of her on the stoep, at
Listing- men will obsesss over desire of
Literary Devices: Reigned, worship - described by narrator women
Symbolism: The rose symbolizes female camaraderie and hope in the face of cynicism. The box containing mementos
represents memory and emotional resilience. 149
Imagery: Rich descriptions, such as the "white rose" and the "sultry summer afternoon," evoke vivid mental pictures.
 Alliteration and Repetition: Phrases like "her present is an agony to me, and her future despair" emphasize
emotional intensity.
Metaphors: The dead rose’s scent evoking “spring” serves as a metaphor for hope and renewal.
14 The Woman's Rose
Narrative Structure: The flashback structure emphasizes the enduring emotional impact of the event.
th
the market at the hotel· they watched for her at st reet corners ; ey hated the ma
bowed to ;r walked with down the street. They brough t flowersthto the front door;~~:
th ey dared. Partly, ther
offered her ~heir horses; they ~e~ged ?er to ~rry em when th t woman they k
was someth ing noble and heroic in this devotio n of men to e beS
natural in it, that these men, shut off from the world ' shne\\
P artly there was somethi ng · h • Id h ouJ,
pour at the feet of one woman the worship t~at hot_ erwise wfou ave been given t,
O one another. If she hac
t~enty; and partly there was somethi ~g mean 1n t e~r envy
FALLen into notiions
of patriarchalraised her little finger, I suppose , she might have marned ~ny one out of twenty of thern
socierty
Then I came. I do not think I was prettier? I do not think I was so pretty as she was
I was certainl y not as handsom e. But I was vital, and I was new, and she was old-the)
all forsook her and followed me. They worship ped me. It was to my door that the flowe ~
came; it was I had twenty horses offered me when I _could only ride one; it was for~;
they waited at street corners; it was what I said and did that they talked of. Partly I liked
she does not
it. I had lived alone all my life; no one ever had told me I was beautifu l and a woman.
like the reduction
of women I believed them. I did not know it was simply a fashion, which one man had set
and
feels guilt
the rest followed unreasoningly. I liked them to ask me to marry them, and to say, No.
I despised them. The mother heart had not swelled in me yet; I did not know all men
were my children , as the large woman knows when her heart is grown. I was too small
to be tender. I liked my power. I was like a child with a new whip, which it goes about
crackin g everywhere, not caring against what. I could not wind it up and put it away. Men
were curious creatures, who liked me, I could never tell why. Only one thing took from
empowered not bear that they had deserted her for me. I liked her great dreamy
enough to my pleasure ; I could
protect women blue eyes, I liked her slow walk and drawl; when I saw her sitting among men, she seemed
development
OF A SILENT me much too good to be among them; I would have given all their compliments if
toBOND
she would once have smiled at me as she smiled at them, with all her face breaking into
radiance , with her dimples and flashing teeth. But I knew it never could be; I felt sure she
hated me; that she wished I was dead; that she wished I had never come to the village.
She did not know, when we went out riding, and a man who had always ridden beside her
came to ride beside me, that I sent him away; that once when a man thought to win my
favour by ridiculing her slow drawl before me I turned on him so fiercely that he never
dared come before me again. I knew she knew that at the hotel men had made a bet as to
which was the prettier, she or I, and had asked each man who came in, and that the one
who had staked on me won. I hated them for it, but I would not let her see that I cared
about what she felt towards me.
Contrast: The fair-haired girl is described as “fair, fully-fleshed, with dreamy blue eyes,” in contrast to the narrator’s newness and
vitality, which She and I never spoke to each other.
captivate the men.
If we met in the village street we bowed and passed on; when we shook hands we did
so silently, and did not look at each other. But I thought she felt my presence in a rooill
just as I felt hers.
Irony: The narrator, who enjoys malefor
At last the time attention,my goingsimultaneously
came. despises
I was to theleave theirnext
men forthe day. Some one I knew gave
superficial
admiration and competition over the two women.
a party in my honour, to which all the village was invited. d
It was midwinter. There was nothing in the gardens but a few dahlias ane
chrysan themum s, and I suppose that for two hundred miles round there was not a ro\
to be bought for love or money. Only in the garden of a friend of mine, in a sunny corne
Foreshadowing: The tension between the women, though unspoken, foreshadows the pivotal moment of solidarity later in the story.
Imagery: Descriptions of the village life, the “stoep” (veranda), and the men watching at “street corners” create a vivid sense of the
setting 150
Dialogue: The brief exchange between the women is poignant and reveals a mutual acknowledgment of their
shared humanity.
 divine relationsihp- ETHEREAL
dressed in white etc
black and white The Woman's Rose 14
dresed

between the oven and the brick wall, there was a rose tree growing which had on it one
bud. It was white, and _i~ had been promised to the fair haired girl to wear at the party.
The evening came; when I arrived and went to the waiting-ro om, to take off my
mantle, I found the girl there already. She was dressed in pure white, with her great white
arms and shoulders showing, and her bright hair glittering in the candle-lig ht, and the
white rose fastened at her breast. She looked like a queen. I said "Good-ev ening," and
turned away quickly to the glass to arrange my old black scarf across my old black dress.
Then I felt a hand touch my hair.
"Stand still," she said.
• • I looked in the glass. She had taken the white rose from her breast, and was fastening
it in my hair.
"How nice dark hair is; it sets off flowers so." She stepped back and looked at me. "It
looks much better there!"
. I turned round.
"You. are so beautiful to me,~' I said.
"Y-e-s,". she said, with her slow Colonial drawl; ·"I'm so glad."
We stood loo~ng at each other. .
'

.Then they came in and swept us away to dance. All the evening we did not come near
to each other. Only once, as she passed, she smiled at me. .
The next morning I left the town. , · -
• I never saw her again.
Years afterward s I heard she had married and gone to America; it may or may not be
so-but the rose-the rose is in the box still! When my faith in woman grows dim, and it
seems that for want of love and magnanim ity ·she can play no part in any future heaven;
ffien the scent of that:.-RM-~ wieered thing ~omes back:-sp ring cannot fail us.
· Matjesfontein, South Africa.

Note
p, 149
Symbolism: The white rose, initially worn by the fair-haired girl, symbolizes purity and
generosity. By giving it to the narrator, the girl asserts their shared humanity over
competition.
Dialogue: The brief but meaningful exchange between the women, with lines like “How nice
dark hair is; it sets off flowers so,” signifies a mutual acknowledgment and respect.
Imagery: The fair-haired girl, dressed in “pure white, with her great white arms and
shoulders showing,” evokes the image of a queenly, almost ethereal figure.
Tone: Shifts to one of warmth and resolution, as the tension between the women dissolves
into mutual admiration.
Metaphor: The rose’s enduring scent is a metaphor for the lasting impact of the girl’s act of
kindness.