Character of Philip - “A cup of Tea” – Katherine Mansfield

Character of Philip:

         

           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. 

            Rosemary took Miss Smith at her home and decided to serve her as her sister. She thought, by helping Miss Smith she can gain good publicity and people will appreciate her act. When Philip come home and he saw Miss Smith and told Rosemary that she should not allow a poor girl to stay with them but Rosemary was not ready to understand what Philip was trying to tell her. He said,

"But what on earth are you going to do with her?" cried Philip.

          In this case, Philip was smart husband. He was aware with the fact that Rosemary is not doing all this with her heart. Philip attacked on the weakness of every woman. He said that Miss Smith is pretty girl and this compliment was a kind of a hammer on the mind of Rosemary. Rosemary thought that if Philip will admire Miss Smith time and again then what will happen with their marriage life. She told Miss Smith to leave and also game some money. After that she asked her husband,

“Am I Pretty?”

         We can observe that the character of Philip is a necessary part of the story. He has helped Rosemary to come out from her artificiality. He has put a mirror upon the ‘fake-reality’ of the charity system of rich people or the upper class. 

Background of the story : Click here

Character of Rosemary   : Click here
Character of Miss Smith : Click here