“A Cup Of Tea”- Katherine Mansfield

About The Author:

  

Katherine Mansfield Beau champ Murry was born on the 14^th of October, 1885 at Wellington, new Zealand.  she became a prominent modernist writer of short fiction. She was great Short story writer, Critic, diarist, Letter writer. Her work has been translated into more than 25 languages.

“A Cup Of Tea”:

Point of view: The story is narrated by a third person point of view. 

Setting: Early 1990’s in Britain

Character: Rosemary, Philip, and Miss Smith

Conflict:

The discovery that even being in a high class does not mean everything. Miss Smith is poor, but beautiful, while Rosemary is rich but average looking. Philip’s comment that Miss Smith is beautiful triggers a negative reaction in Rosemary making her bitter with Miss Smith’s presence. When she sends Miss Smith away, she enhances her appearance and asks Philip if she’s beautiful.

Theme:

The theme of A Cup Of Tea is the life situations, insecurities, and habits of the wealthy members of the British Aristocracy. Theme such as feminism, materialism, and class consciousness are also present throughout the story. Even though Rosemary is a wealthy person she has insecurities about her self, yes, she has money but we believe that money cant buy you happiness.

In this story Rosemary thinks she has everything. She’s amart, young, married, rich, etc.. but what she doesn’t have is beauty. One day, she goes shopping in lown and stumbles across a poor woman named Miss Smith. Miss Smith asked Rosemary if she know how how much a cup of tea was. Rosemary became interested in Miss Smith and invited her back her home. She thought the experience would be like her books. Once at Rosemary’s home. They began talking and was interrupted but Philip. Once alone, comments on Miss Smith’s appearance. Rosemary then becomes jealous, gets rid of Miss Smith, and goes on with her day.

Connected with class and real world:

So, we can say that this short story can connect to works in class as it deals with money and how that can affect and change people sometimes. And this story can be connected to the real world in that the actions shown by Rosemary fell mirror those of the wealthy today.