A Cup of Tea

The text “A Cup of Tea” is written by Katherine Mansfield, an outstanding short-story writer
of the 20th century. She was born in New Zealand and was the author of a number of
excellent short-stories which dealt with human nature and psychology.

At the age of eighteen she decided to become a professional writer. Her first stories appeared
in Melbourne in 1907, but literary fame came to her in London after the publication of a
collection of short-stories called “In a German Pension”. Katherine Mansfield took a great
interest in Russian literature, particularly in the works of Chekhov. In fact, she considered
herself to be a pupil of the great Russian writer.

The given story is about a young and wealthy woman Rosemary Fell. She is fond of going
shopping to the different rich shops. One day she comes across with a sick and poor girl,
Miss Smith. That girl asks her for some money to buy tea. Rosemary invites the girl to her
rich house and treats her to a cup of tea and different food. A poor girl has just told Mrs.
Rosemary about herself when Philip (the husband of Mrs. Rosemary) came home. He is
surprised to see a poor stranger in his rich house and wants his wife to explain everything.
After that, he starts to admire the beauty of that poor girl and Mrs. Rosemary gets jealous.
She immediately wants that girl to leave of her house. In the end, she asks her husband if he
really loves her and she is actually pretty for him.

This short story belongs to the emotive prose and as such represents the belles-lettres
functional style, the main aim of which is to give readers aesthetic pleasure, to make them
think and to entertain by appealing to their emotions.

Interior characterization, feelings as well as the motives, circumstances, and internal actions
of the main characters are emphasized in this short story. So, this text belongs to a belles-
lettres style and to a social and psychological genre. It describes events which happened at a
given time and place and speaks about the main characters’ way of living. On the other hand
it reveals people’s inner world, nature and psychology.