Analyzing 'A Cup of Tea' by Katherine Mansfield

The story is written by Katherine Mansfield - a famous New Zealand writer. She is well known
for her short stories. The analysis of the one of them called 'A Cup of Tea' (1922) which is
considered to be one of her latest works you can find below.
From the first lines we get acquainted with the protagonist of the story - Rosemary Fell. Her
appearance is being presented. 'No you couldn't have called her beautiful Pretty?' We have rather
vague image here. The author writes she is amazingly well-read in the newest of the books which
sounds controversial.
Her husband adores her; her child is a duck of a boy. We can trace that she is extremely arrogant
and she has a certain amount of charisma. "No lilac. It's got no shape. The attendant put the lilac
out of sight as though this was only too true." But even fabulously rich people have their
problems.
After shutting the discreet door she sinks into a grey cold and dull life of the city, the life of
ordinary people to which she is like an alien. A cold bitter taste in the air, sad lamps, regretting
fire of lamps, rushing people and their hateful umbrellas - everything speaks of her inner
dissatisfaction and maybe allergy to the other life, the life which is outside her shelter. She wants
to escape from the place and presses a muff against her breast as though touching herself and
saying "I want to be back to my real life not this awful parody of being".
Suddenly a girl stammered as author writes for the price of a cup of tea in a very desperate way.
But in fact Rosemary is amazed instead of feeling some kind of sympathy. She peers through the
dusk as though feeling some distance and it seems to her such an adventure. Rosemary doesn't
spare even a smallest moment of her thought to stand in the girls shoes or rather she just can't
since she doesn't know the opposite side of the coin. The only way of living she knows is one
that is in the little antique shop on Curzon Street or, say, another one on Bond Street.
So Rosemary takes her home feeling a triumph as she nets a little captive. It's evident that
Rosemary is just playing with a prey like a cat does."Now, I got you". Rosemary is longing to be
generous and is going to prove that as Mansfield writes 'wonderful things do happen in life', in
the life of the upper class, to which Rosemary is a fine example, and it seems that the only things
she cares about are her feelings and amusement.
After they arrive at the house the action starts in Rosemary's bedroom. Mansfield is trying to
underline Rosemary's status - 'the fire leaping on her wonderful lacquer furniture', 'gold cushions'
all these things dazed the poor girl. Rosemary on her part was very relaxed and pleased; she lit a
cigarette in stead of taking proper care of Miss Smith. By the way her name is not even
mentioned yet, like it's of no importance at all. We can find the girl on the brink of the
psychological despair. "I am going to faint, to go off, madam." So much she is stuck by the
contrast. "It was a terrible fascinating moment. Rosemary knelt beside her chair" The girl
becomes completely restless: "I can't bear it. I shall do away with myself" Rosemary is "really
touched beyond words" but suddenly she asks her to stop crying "It's so exhausting. Please stop
crying" Rosemary shows her true face here. She can't face the reality the poor as it is; Rosemary

Fell sees everything in rose-coloured spectacles, through the filter of the upper class society. And
it looks if not pathetic then quite sad.
But after the marvelous meal our creature transforms into something undeniably attractive - "frail
creature, a kind of sweet languor". And for Rosemary it's high time to begin. Instead of asking
her name or other decent question Rosemary's firstly was interested in her meal, it is quite
impolite.
The Philip enters, smiling his charming smile and asks his wife to come in to the library. He
requires explanations from his wife, learning that the girl is as Rosemary says 'a real pick up' that
Rosemary wanted "to be nice to her'. Philip guesses what is all about shows his remonstrance
against the idea 'it simply can't be done'. And then he uses his heavy artillery - calls miss Smith
'so astonishingly pretty'. He knows it will do some harm to his wife. These words immediately
heat jealousy in Rosemary's veins up. "Pretty? Do you think that?" and she could help blushing.
"She's absolutely lovely!" Rosemary looses her temper "You absurd creature!" She recollects his
words over and over. And all leads to the phrase "Miss Smith won't dine with us tonight" We can
observe that Philip doesn't seem to look surprised "Oh, what happened? Previous engagement?"
he rather knew it would happen. Rosemary is eager to retain her husband's attention."Do you like
me?" May I have the enamel box? "Philip, am I pretty?"The Rosemary seems to be so distant
from poverty but on the other hand she doesn't have anything really valuable, like a basement to
lead such glorious life in this world - no taste, no wish to see the world in the raw, sometimes no
manners, and perhaps even no prettiness. That's why she is trying to have things and do things
which would help to retain the status like knowing more about the poor and having beautiful
things to be associated with. To put in a nutshell the story is reach in different stylistic devices
and I think conveys a distinct and valuable message.
A Cup of Tea, by Katherine Mansfield, is a short story that shows more than one theme.
One of which is jealousy. Rosemary Fell is a rich young woman who is married and who lives
the perfect life. She has money, beautiful clothes, and a nice house. Yet, when her husband
calls another girl pretty, she lets that alone decide her future actions. Being written in
another time period, the male-female dynamic differs from today. There are two reoccurring
times when Rosemary asks Phillip, her husband for permission to buy something, or she
follows his instructions all together. This falls into place at the end when two certain
instances are combined together. It all begins when Rosemary invites a girl asking for a cup
of tea to her home.
At the beginning of the story, Rosemary is inside an antique store. She is shown a small
cream colored box with blue velvet on the inside and a flower embroidery on the outside.
Rosemary fell in love with it and was going to buy it, until she learned the price: twenty
eight guineas. For a rich girl, this isnt a lot of money, but she asked the man to keep it for
her and she left. This part of the story has no significance until the end but it is important to
keep in mind.
As Rosemary leaves the antique store, she encounters a girl who is asking her for enough
money to buy herself a cup of tea. Instead of giving the girl the money, she invites her back
to her house. She thinks about what a great story it would be to tell her friends; it seemed
like something taken out from a fairytale.
She was going to prove to this girl that - wonderful things did happen in life,
that - fairy godmothers were real, that - rich people had hearts,
and that women were sisters. (1038)
She felt the need to prove that stereotypes about rich people were not true. This showed

that Rosemary belived she was doing something nice. Reading this, you feel as though
Rosemary is smart, nice, and does as she pleases.

CHARACTERS IN THE STORY

If you read the story carefully, you will notice that the main character in the story is Rosemary Fell. It is she who carries the
story forward and it is her psychology which is laid bare for us to see.
As you have already learnt in the previous unit, Katherine Mansfield is best known for her ability to explore the minds of her
characters, how they react to situations and also how their thoughts affect their actions. She can beautifully translate human
feelings and thoughts into words. And she does all this without the slightest pretension. Human relationships are her
particular field of interest and she skillfully portrays the different facets of men, women and children. Her stories are
interesting for the exquisite depiction of the relationship between men and women as lovers or as husband and wife as can
be seen in the marital relationship between Philip and Rosemary.
(a) Rosemary Fell :
Mansfield introduces Rosemary Fell as not exactly beautiful. Yet she was rich and led an untroubled, luxurious life with an
adoring husband. We cannot decipher the character of Rosemary unless we make allowances for the social hierarchy in
which she is rooted. She belongs to the upper strata of society and is well- informed about the latest happenings. Her
readings of the great writers have made her an imaginative person with a touch of sensitivity. But regretfully, she has little
idea about the realties of the world around her. She was ignorant of the hard life led by the not- so- fortunate people who
have to struggle to have food on their tables. As you have read in the story, Rosemary is forced to encounter the other
world- the world of poverty which was in sharp contrast to her ideal world when she met a ragged creature one chilly winter
afternoon pleading her for a cup of tea. This meeting with a stranger with reddened hands and enormous eyes prompts
her to be a fairy godmother of the kind she has read in her fictive books. It is ironical that her knowledge of the real world is
based on the books she has read and the plays she had seen. She finds it extraordinary that the girl has no money at all.
Rich as she is, she cannot think one could be so poor as not to have any money at all. Her mind is therefore, filled with good
intentions to help this destitute girl and relieve her from her distress. What I would like to stress here is that the point here is
not Rosemarys desire to solve the girls problem, but her total inability to understand the problem itself.
Very enthusiastically, she takes the girl home and she is thrilled to be of help to her. She also imagines telling her friends
later on how she had bestowed her benevolence upon the girl. But all her fervour soon evaporates when her husband Philip
comments on the prettiness of Miss Smith and how he was bowled over by her beauty. Philips remarks arouse her
jealousy and she dismisses the girl without much ado gifting her only three pounds. This perverse rejection of the girl lies at
the heart of the story. Thus, her womanly possessiveness and insecurity got the better of her good intentions and superficial
refinements. Her Am I pretty? is only a reflection of her insecurity as Philips wife.
(b) Philip:
Philip is Rosemarys husband. He has only a small part in the story, but he is nonetheless vital in the sense that he helps to
reveal the faults in her character. He hurts her female ego by praising the beauty of Miss Smith and admitting that he was
overpowered by her beauty. This leads Rosemary to behave in a manner that exposes her womanly jealousy. Rosemary
wanted to model herself as a woman of amiable, compassionate nature as one may find in a Dostoevsky novel. She wanted
to project herself as a morally upright person. But it is Philip who unwittingly reveals her true nature. She becomes jealous
about the girl who is much more beautiful than her. Philip, however, is totally unaware about the effect his comments have
on Rosemary. He accepts her explanation that Miss Smith has insisted on going and so she could not keep her against her
will. He loves Rosemary and falls for her charms when she carefully dresses up to present herself as a beautiful and
charming coquette.
(c) Miss Smith :
Miss Smith is a relatively minor character in the story. She is the girl whom Rosemary treats with affection one moment and
dismisses abruptly in another moment. Miss Smith is just a means for Rosemary to display her artificial generosity. As you
read the story you may recall the moment when Miss Smith first speaks to Rosemary, asking her for a cup of tea. She is
absolutely without money which seems extraordinary to Rosemary. A sudden decision to indulge in an adventure makes
Rosemary take the girl to her home. Unaccustomed to such kind of charity, Miss Smith would not believe Rosemary and
thought that she was being taken to the police station. At Rosemarys house, she was more surprised to see Rosemary
taking every care to make her comfortable. Too startled at first, she now begins to shed her shyness and takes the slight
meal offered by Rosemary. But Miss Smith was dismissed by Rosemary when she found that her husband Philip was being

bowled over by the girls beauty.

You can now understand that the whole story revolves around Rosemary and it is the workings of her mind which Mansfield
wants us to see. It is Mansfields understanding of the female psyche, her concern for human feeling in a concrete situation
that arrests our attention. This genuine concern gives her a delicate and personal insight into the problems of personal
relationships. We are left delighted by the way in which we become intimate with the way men and women conduct
themselves in real- life situations and work out their problems of living.

Themes
A Cup of Tea is basically a story of human relationships. As I have already mentioned earlier, Mansfield excels in portraying
the characters of men, women and children. In the present story, her vision of life is expressed through her theme i.e. man
and woman as husband and wife, in a way quite characteristic of her. She describes the truth of human experience honestly
without any attempt at hiding anything.
What we find in the story is that Rosemary and her husband Philip are living in complete harmony as husband and wife.
Rosemary though is hardly aware of the harsh realities of life because she is living a life of luxury. She no doubt, has a
sensitive and kindly side to her. However, the entrance of a third person, the other woman Miss Smith, betrays her inherent
nature and she shows that she can be a mean person indeed. This is not to say that Rosemary is a wholly bad person.
Perhaps this is the way all women will behave if their marital relationship is threatened, or their husbands seem to be
attracted towards other women. This is a purely womanly instinct which is inexplicable. So, the basic theme of the story is
womanly jealousy, which, when aroused in a woman, negates her good qualities and she becomes petty. Rosemarys action
illustrates this well.
The basic conflict in A Cup of Tea is as removed from us as the society in which it is set. Another theme you may discover in
the story is the artificiality of the behaviour of fashionable people like Rosemary Fell. Her concern for the poor girl, Miss
Smith, is not born out of her genuinely compassionate character. Her decision to bring the girl home and take care of her is
the result of a sudden urge to indulge in an adventure. But the decision to dump the girl is also equally sudden. It has got to
do with her womanly jealousy. These themes have been revealed in the story with great clarity.
Technique and language
A Cup of Tea has an authorial narrative voice, i.e. we hear the author speak in the third person. This is called third- person
narrative and it is the most common narrative technique in fiction. Mansfield has used the various techniques most creatively
and originally. As I have mentioned earlier, she uses the stream of consciousness method of narration as a means to probe
the inner realities of her characters. In the present story, however, she has not used this method. But her dexterity in using
language places the reader directly within the consciousness of her characters. Do you not feel Rosemarys sense of
insecurity when Philip praises Miss Smith in eloquent words? Her use of language with its controlled tone very aptly infuses
the emotional pulse in her story. Every character, whether it is Rosemary, Philip, Miss Smith, or even the shopman speaks in
a language individual to them. We hear their own voice and get an unmistakable impression about their identity. When
Mansfield narrates Rosemarys thoughts after Philip praised Miss Smith, Pretty. Absolutely lovely. Bowled over. Her heart
beat like a heavy bell. Pretty. Lovely., even our hearts beat like a heavy bell. When Miss Smith says, Im very sorry madam,
but Im going to faint. I shall go off, madam, if I dont have something., we can feel her desperation for a cup of tea. We can
also sense the shopmans flattery when he tries to sell the enamel box to Rosemary: I love my things. I would rather not
part with them than sell them to someone who does not appreciate them, who has not that fine feeling which is so
rare.. We feel Rosemarys rapture when she dreams of helping the poor girl: She was going to prove to this girl thatwonderful things did happen in life, that- fairy godmothers were real, that- rich people had hearts, and that women were
sisters. Her use of language is lyrical and it seems to flow on seamlessly without any hiccups. Mansfield makes Rosemary
think and speak to herself and we can almost follow her plans which are going to occur.
Mansfield continually experiments in her stories and so there is no typical Katherine Mansfield short story. She has no fixed
concept of the short story. They are just glimpses of the life which we are so used to but fail to appreciate or analyze. Her
main objective is not to impose anything of her own on the reader but to explore the personality. She makes no judgment
and allows the readers to judge the characters in their own terms. And therein lies her greatness as a writer.

LET US SUM UP
After going through this unit, and after reading the story A Cup of Tea, you must have come to learn about Katherine
Mansfield as an astute writer of short fiction. You have learnt that it is a story about human relationships particularly between
husband and wife and how they react to certain situations in life. You have understood the character of Rosemary Fell as a
complex human character with conflicting emotions. Though belonging to the well- to- do and the fashionable class, she is
compassionate to the plight of the poor, and therefore takes the poor girl to her house. She treats her as humanely as
possible but she is also a woman vulnerable to the emotions of jealousy. So she abandons the girl when her own marital

happiness was thought to be in danger. The story deals with some important themes:
Womanly jealousy.
Capacity for compassion to the poor and the destitute on the part of some people belonging to the wealthy class.
Personal happiness and marital harmony get preference over altruistic idealism.
These themes come out most prominently through Mansfields description of Rosemary in a language that is simple and
lucid. You have also come to learn how Mansfield has used, in a limited way though, the interior monologue technique to
give us an insight into Rosemarys mind. She is indeed a rare creative writer with a unique vision and voice.