A Cup of Tea - 1

A shallow woman married to awealthy man encounters another woman begging on the street.she takes the beggar home and feedsher. She tells her she will help her and that they are to be friends.However, when her husbandcomments on the beggar’s physical beauty, she gives the beggar a small amount of money and turnsher out on the The inner world and the most superfine shades of mood are in the centre of K.Mansfield’s stories. K.Mansfield was called one of Tchekov’s followers. She addresses the life of inconspicuous common people, their characters, human drama and shows what the people feel.
The main character of her story “A Cup of tea” is Rosemary Fell, a very rich young woman. Once, leaving the shop, she was called by a poor girl. She asked her for the money for a cup of tea. She didn’t look like a beggar and Rosemary decided to take her home. Of course she didn’t think about the poor girl. It was thrilling adventure for her which would amaze her noble friends, the adventure about which she had read in the novels.
Rosemary’s husband wasn’t satisfied with the presence of the strange girl. He resorted to tricks to show the door to the girl, causing jealousy of his wife.
Having forgotten about her care, Rosemary immediately gave Miss Smith a ridiculous amount of money and turned the girl out of the house .
Who knows how the life of the poor girl will pass? Perhaps it will be the most lamentable. But Rosemary hardly cared about it. She thought about a pretty glazed casket which she had seen in a precious shop inBond Street.
The social and moral themes are interlaced in this story. K.Mansfield distinctly shows egoism, hypocrisy, pretence, cruelty and inner ugliness of the “moneybags”. Her sympathy is always on the side of the have-nots.
Katherine Mansfield is one of the famous writers. She published several collections of stories. One of the most famous stories is «A cup of tea». The main concern of her stories is the feelings of her heroes. She is not usually concerned so much with the development of the plot, she describes the characters of the heroes. One of the famous stories is «A cup of tea».
This author narrates about the life of different strata of society. There are people who are rich, full but there are people who are very poor, hungry and who do begging so as to continue the life.
The general atmosphere of this story is very dramatic, emotional, tragic. It is possible to observe selfishness of the principal heroes. They are very rich people who can buy what they want but they become stingy when they can save the life of the poor girl and doom her to the death.
From the very outset of the story one can observe the principal heroine who is a rich lady. She puts off the expensive casket to return later. This lady only thinks about herself and when she decides to help a poor girl, she does it for herself. She wants to show her goodness to her friends. The writer uses epithets for the description of the heroine and her life: “brilliant, extremely, modern, exquisitely well dressed”.
Also it is possible to observe the emotions of poor girl who hoped to get the help of this lady, who believed her. The writer uses the epithets “enormous eyes quite young…” . Using the description of the women the author shows the difference of the groups: what a gulf separates them!
The author is the master of psychological analysis. She uses the descriptive style and exposes the essence of the principal heroes, their vices, their imperfections.
I like this story very much. It reflects the eternal problem of the world, this is the inequality between the people and the attitude between the different strata of the society.