The central theme in Katherine Mansfield's short story “The Doll's House” is the unfair practice of class distinction in society. The story, written while the author's homeland of New Zealand was still a British colony, depicts the distinction between the rich and poor based on prejudice in that society. Class prejudice (classism) is the principal theme in "The Doll's House." Through the story, Mansfield depicts a society in which people are invisibly divided into a hierarchy of social classes based on economic prosperity or lack thereof.