A Cup of Tea

 A Cup of Tea - Short Story by Katherine Mansfield 

 Welcome readers! As a Part of my Bachelor's studies at shamaldas Arts college, affiliated with MK Bhavnagar university. In this Particular blog, I will discuss the short story 'A Cup of  Tea' by Katherine Mansfield, offering a comprehensive analysis enriched with additional insights. 

 'A Cup of Tea' is a 1922 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in The Story Teller in May 1922. It later appeared in The Doves' Nest and other stories (1923). Her short stories first  appeared in Melbourne in 1907, but literary fame came to her in London after the publication of a collection of short stories called 'In a German Pension.' 

 The character Rosemary Fell is a fictional reconstruction of Mansfield's wealthy first cousin, once removed, the writer Elizabeth von Arnim.  

 In this story, Mansfield uses a simple request for money to purchase a cup of tea to propel a plot that examines themes such as social class, materialism, jealousy, and both the role and fate of women in society.

A Cup Of Tea is a fascinating short story in the literary world. The story is about a wealthy woman who tries to help a young, poor girl, but her jealousy soon gets in the way. The common themes of the story are jealousy, insecurity, and self-importance.

About the Author :-

Kathleen Mansfield Murry (14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the 

modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world, and have been published in 25 languages.

Mansfield wrote short stories and poetry under a variation of her own name, Katherine Mansfield, which explored anxiety, sexuality and existentialism alongside a developing New Zealand Identity. When she was 19, she left New Zealand and settled in England, where she became a friend of D.H.Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and others in the orbit of the Bloombsury group. Mansfield was diagnosed with tuberculosis, in 1917 and died in France at the age of 34. Her reputation as a writer of brilliantly compressed short fiction had been well established by the time of her death. Mansfield has consistently been praised for the compression and understatement of her writing, as well as for her capacity to pack complex emotion and thought into the deceptively simple and direct outlines of her work.

She considered as master of the short story, who evolved a distinctive prose style with many overtones of Poetry. Her delicate stories focused upon psychological conflicts, have an obliqueness of narration and a subtley of observation that reveal the influence of Anton chekhov. She, in turn, had much influence on the development of the short story as a form of literature. 

Mansfield also proved ahead of her time in her adoration of Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov, and incorporated some of his themes and techniques into her writing. Katherine Mansfield was part of a "new dawn" in English literature with T.S. Eliot, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. She was associated with the brilliant group of writers who made the London of the period the centre of the literary world. 

Nevertheless, Mansfield was a New Zealand writer - she could not have written as she did had she not gone to live in England and France, but she could not have done her best work if she had not had firm roots in her native land. She used her memories in her writing from the beginning, people, the places, even the colloquial speech of the country form the fabric of much of her best work. The stories are innovative in many other ways. Her imagery, frequently from nature, flowers, wind and colours, set the scene with which readers can identify easily.

 Characters :- 

 There are three main characters in ''A Cup of Tea'', which is set in England in the early 20th century. These are Rosemary Fell, Phillip Fell, and Miss Smith. Rosemary is the story's protagonist. She is a woman of great means but not of great beauty. 

 1. Rosemary Fell :-     In the story ‘A Cup of Tea’, Rosemary Fell is portrayed as a very complex character. She is the protagonist of the story, one who seems happy and good hearted on surface but deep within her she is just like any other woman suffering from envy and pain. 

2. Philip Fell :- Philip is the husband of Rosemary. He is aware with the nature of his wife. He is one of the minor characters of the story, but he plays a very important role in the story. 

3. Miss Smith :- Miss Smith is a poor girl. Rosemary met her outside of the antique shop. Miss Smith asked Rosemary for ‘a cup of tea’ due to winter season and cold. Rosemary was a rich lady and interested in charity. She thought that Miss Smith is poor and as a rich and responsible lady of the society she should help Miss Smith. She took Miss Smith at her home.

      This is a simple story with deep meaning. It is like a satire on artificiality in feelings of rich towards poor. Social work was a medium for some rich men and women for being generous and great among others. 

Themes in 'A Cup of Tea' :- 

 

  In “A Cup of Tea” by Katherine Mansfield, there are three themes like jealousy and insecurity, Materialism and class and Feminism. In the theme of jealousy and insecurity, we can observe that Rosemary is jealous and insecure from Miss Smith. Materialism and class represents the difference between the status of Miss Smith and Rosemary. The theme of Feminism expresses the inner hidden emotion of Rosemary for Miss Smith.

1. Jealousy and Insecurity:

            Rosemary took Miss Smith to her house and promised her to serve her like her sister, but when Philip admired Miss Smith, Rosemary got jealous from Miss Smith. She started feeling insecurity from her. Rosemary thought if Philip will time and again admire Miss Smith then it may possible that Philip will start loving Miss Smith.

           Rosemary was interested in charity; she wanted to do charity with all her heart. She was interested in helping but her nature of getting jealous and feeling of insecurity has not allowed her to do the noble work of kindness. The writer has presented the general and very particular feeling of jealousy and insecurity.

2. Materialism and class:

           Rosemary was very rich, we can say that not only rich rather comfortably rich. The story starts in an antique shop, as a reader we can observe that Rosemary likes to buy things from London and expensive shops. When she came out from the shop she saw a poor girl who demanded a cup of tea from her. Rosemary was very shocked when she comes to know that Miss Smith was not having even a single penny.

          Rosemary was famous for her richness. She thought Miss Smith is good opportunity to get fame for being kind. For Rosemary, Miss Smith was not only a poor girl but she was an “opportunity”. Rosemary can be observed as the materialistic character. She was class conscious and she wanted to prove that she can help and take care of poor people. Her act of kindness was not from her heart but it was for fame.

3. Feminism:

         The story starts with the statement,

“Rosemary Fell was not exactly beautiful”

By this we can observe that when a female is not beautiful but rich, at that time the woman tries to hide her appearance with money. She tries to look beautiful by her mind and her heart. Rosemary also wants to be good and beautiful but when Philip played a game with her, she got disappointed. When Philip admired Miss Smith she really got jealous and told Miss Smith to leave the house.

         In this story we can consider both female characters as victims. Rosemary is the victim of male psyche and Miss Smith is the victim of female psyche. 

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