Analysis of The Waltz

The short story, The Waltz, written by Dorothy Parker is a rather entertaining story that highlights the thoughts of a woman who is asked to dance. The journey follows the thoughts and actions of the woman and her dance partner as they attempt to "Waltz". In an attempt to further analyze the story
and it's messages, several aspects of the story will be focused on. In "The Waltz", Dorothy Parker creates a short story that provides comic relief, serves as a lesson for young women, and sarcasm.

It becomes apparent that conformity to societal standards is a problem in both today's society and in past times. In "The Waltz", Dorothy Parker tells of a woman being asked to dance and reluctantly saying yes. This dance in essence is the symbol of feminism and the conformity to men's standards of the Victorian era. Conformity to societal expectations, and specifically has been a theme of womanhood since the Victorian era. However, the theme of this short story is meant as a thought inducer to many readers. While many women can relate to being guilted into a dance, the possibility that they could say no to the dance has been the progress of woman's rights and their place in society today. In the short story, the woman is guilted into the dance, yet she has thoughts of complaint throughout the dance.

It is particularly important to consider the setting of this story, which is set in 1944, and is still considered an era of 'male dominance'. The dance is construed as very formal in the story, as the couple are waltzing to live band music at a ball. The mood of the dance floor can be described as somber and elegant, whereas the woman's thoughts about her partner are quite negative.

The real story begins when the woman is asked to dance, and reluctantly says yes. The woman has minor conflicts with her thoughts when the couple begin to dance. She illustrates how off rhythm her partner is, how awkward his approach is to dancing, and how she would much rather be sitting down. Her thoughts of regret, however, are not voiced. When the woman gets kicked in the shin and stepped on while attempting to waltz, she describes her sarcastically chosen words to her dance partner. When the music ends, the woman is glad, but reluctantly says otherwise to her partner, and they dance again to the waltz, dancing to the point of exhaustion, rather than the woman saying she would not like to dance.

The point of view of this story is told from the first person point of view of the woman. Readers can read her thoughts and actions, but can not tell what other's in the story are thinking. Through the use of this viewpoint, it allows for the sarcasm for the sarcasm of the woman's thoughts to be displayed in the story. "I should say I'm not tired. I'm dead, that's all I am." is just one instance of the woman's use of comical interpretations of the situation.

The main character, the woman is a rather flat character. Through the duration of the short story, her negative thoughts towards her dance partner do not change, yet she still does not have the courage to tell her partner she does not want to dance. This is evidenced in the story through the use of italics, which represent the words she speaks to her partner, and are the opposite of what she is thinking. " No, of course it didn't hurt." Her comments come off as sarcastically snarky to the reader because they know that she really doesn't want to be nice to her dance partner.

Irony in this short story is abundant. Dorothy Parker included many instances of verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony. The story includes verbal irony in the spoken language of the woman, where she says things that are nice and encouraging to her dance partner, but she really means the opposite of these things. "The Waltz" is dramatically ironic because of the audience's knowledge of the woman's real thoughts on her dancing partner, who thinks that she thinks positively of him. Lastly, the story includes situational irony because the woman does not think that she would ever have to leave her seat at her table, yet she is dancing with a horrible dancer for a large portion of her night.

I believe the symbol of this short story is the dance, and more specifically the Waltz. Dances and balls have long been reigned by men, which would escort women to the dance/ball. I believe that this story attempts to broadcast the issues of a male dominated society through the use of the woman being asked to dance when she really did not want to. Reluctantly, she danced with her partner and did not voice the real opinions that she had of the dance. It represents a shift in thought, where woman may not always be alright with men being a dominant part of society, even though the character in this story does not voice these thoughts out loud to her dance partner.

Overall, this short story was well written and included some comic relief. The story is a very quick read but the message is just as important. I would think that anyone looking for a quick, and thought inducing story read this short piece by Dorothy Parker.