A Cup of Tea - Katherine Mansfield

A cup of tea

-      Katherine Mansfield

           Kathleen Mansfield Murry (14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a prominent New Zealand modernist short story writer who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. She is best artist in portraying common human behaviors and emotions of humans. In her short story ‘A Cup of Tea’, she has presented a jealousy of woman. "A Cup of Tea" published in 1922. Katherine Mansfield has presented the sophisticated mask of society. In this story Mansfield has presented the concept of social work and artificial emotions of a wealthy woman.

       

      Rosemary fell is the protagonist character. She is the rich woman with highly artificiality in her. She likes when people admire her and make her feel great. She saw a poor girl in winter night and offers her a cup of tea. As per her she was doing a good work and being a generous woman. In this artificiality she move ahead and brought a poor girl in her house. Mr. Phillip Fell (husband of Rosemary) was upset with this but he was not able to tell her anything directly. He was aware with her wife’s nature. He thought and applied a trick by admiring a beauty of Ms. Smith (A poor girl) and it was like an acid attack on Rosemary’s pride. Story ends interestingly. Read the original story for end part.

     

      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.

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Give answers of any three questions:

1. Judge the character of Rosemary.
2. Explain Class system and Materialism in the story.
3. Judge the character of Miss Smith.
4. Explain the male mentality in the character of Philip.
5. Which is your favorite incidence or dialogue from the story.