Mansfield's Gun - A failure.

Here's what I think about Mansfield's use of Chekhov's Gun in The Garden Party.
I wrote this for my literature course and thought it was entertaining enough to post online.
I really hope they don't do a plagiarism search and find this bad boy!

What I would have really liked to say, but didn't because it defeats the purpose of the assignment; She probably didn't even consider using Chekhov's technique because she clearly butchered it. However, if she did think about it; how dare she abuse such an amazing mechanism.

Here goes...

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov — The most prolific short story author ever — developed the brilliant rule of thumb to cut the crap and illuminate portentous images and symbols. Having read the better part of Chekhov’s entire anthology — I’m rather keen on his “Gun” for it is prevalent in such plays as A Marriage Proposal and Uncle Vanya. (He wrote way more than just four.) Furthermore, Chekhov’s Gun is frequent in The Lady With The Little Dog. (Hint: It’s not the dog.)
Chekhov’s Gun is easy to spot if you are reading with tuned senses. I was once told to read a story with my antennas up. Those wise words motivate the exact technique required to spot Gun motifs in The Garden Party. For example, have you ever watched the beginning of a movie where the camera pans around to specific articles that become important later on? The director is utilizing Chekhov’s policy that, “One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.” A poor example of this can be observed at the beginning of the film version of Steven King’s Hearts In Atlantis — don’t pay attention to that part, it’s useless.
And I digress.
The important part to remember is that while reading Mansfield’s The Garden Party we must systematically scan for peculiar descriptions or great detail of otherwise unimportant items. While I read this fantastic short story I was struck by a fervent description of the freckled worker. His eyes that were “such a dark blue!” and his sweet disposition altered Laura's initial opinions on the insignificant lower class. Reading this story so carefully, and having experienced Chekhov’s Gun before, I swept up this knowledge of the worker because I was sure it would become important later.
While I am still confident the freckled worker is the Gun, I think Mansfield misfired it. Personally, I think she made a critical mistake by choosing an equivocal lower class person as the dead man. While it is certainly a barbarous thought, I would rather the freckled worker killed. I think that because Laura had obtained a familiarization with the lower class through the freckled worker — the ending revealing him as the one who died would BANG, invoke serious emotional convictions towards the lower class. The ambiguous man just did not do it for me. I was frustrated that Mansfield could have used the freckled man for it was lined up so perfectly. She even went as far as to describe the eyes again, “his eyes were closed; they were blind under his closed eyelids.” By just adding the word blue to that sentence, Mansfield’s bullet would have been straight and true.
So yes, Mansfield does utilize Chekhov’s Gun. And yes, the Gun is a lower class worker that fires. However, Mansfield’s execution does not do all that it can for the reader. Just like in Hearts Of Atlantis it appears that Mansfield picked up a gun that she had never fired before and hit me in the leg, rather than the heart. While I will still likely bleed to death over realizing what she is trying to achieve, it is hardly as sudden an effective as a fatal blow.