The Doll's House: Preface

The Doll’s House was written by Katherine Mansfield in the fading years of her life. It was written to address the social injustices she witnessed growing up in New Zealand, a society with a very strict and rigid social class system.

The Rocking Horse Winner: Preface

In "The Rocking-Horse Winner," a young boy, Paul, perceives that there is never enough money in his family, he sets out to find a way to get money through luck. He discovers that if he rides his rocking-horse fast enough, he will somehow "know" the name of the winning horse in the next race.

He begins to make money and secretly funnel this money to his mother, but the desire for more money only grows more intense instead of going away. He finally rides his rocking-horse so furiously in order to discover the winner of the Derby that he falls into illness and dies, just as the winning horse earns his family an enormous fortune.

The Characters that take place in the story:

• Paul: Boy who knows that his mother does not love him or his sisters even though she outwardly shows affection and treats her children kindly. After Paul receives a rocking horse one Christmas, he rides it often and develops a strange intuitive power that enables him to correctly predict the winners of horses races. At racetracks, he wins thousands of pounds that he sets aside to defray his mother's debts.

Misery or The Lament: Preface

Anton Chekhov's short story of a father and his great despair for his dead son has many translations. The most commonly used translation is "Misery." In one word the title accurately summarizes the mood the story carries, and leaves it's reader to contemplate the harshness of human nature. 

Written in 1886, "Misery" portrays the overwhelming grief of Iona Potapov, a Russian sleigh-driver, and his futile attempts to share with strangers the despair in the loss of his son. The story takes place almost a week after his son's death. Disturbing and inconclusive, "Misery" is not unlike a documentation of human suffering, specifically in the loss of one's child. Chekhov achieves a detailed portrayal of one man's grief, his attempts to ease his heartache, and his final comfort in sharing his story with his horse.

The Characters that take place in the story:

Iona Potapov is the main character in this story. Other characters are a military officer, three young men, a house-porter, a young cab-man and Iona's horse.

The Model Millionaire: Preface

By Oscar Wilde

The story took place in England in about 1900, in a real world. You can feel a sort of an atmosphere in the story. The main character, Hughie Erskine, lived in a poor place and his friend, Alan Trevor, lived in a middleclass-place. Not in a rich place but neither in a poor place. Hughie Erskine had a girlfriend, Laura Merton, who lived with her father in a “rich” place. You can feel the difference between the 3 persons and their 3 places. 

The Characters that take place in the Story: 

• Hughie Erskine: Hughie is the main character in the story. Hughie didn’t have a job, but he was a lovely man with charm and a big heart. Example: Hughie gives the beggar (Hausberg) a sovereign because he thought that Hausberg was poor. 

• Alan Trevor: Alan was Hughie’s best friend. Alan was one of the few painters at that time.