1. I. Copy of the Text
"The Story of an Hour"
Kate Chopin (1894)
Knowing that Mrs Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to
break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death. It was her sister
Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half
concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had
been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received,
with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to
assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less
careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed
inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment,
in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her
room alone. She would have no one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she
sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to
reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all
aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the
street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some
one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the
eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had
met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless,
except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried
itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a
certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed
away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection,
but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was
it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping
out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, and the colour that
filled the air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing
that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her
will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she
abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it
over and over under the breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of
terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her
pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
2. She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear
and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that
she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face
that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and grey and dead. But she saw
beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to
her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for
herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with
which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a
fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a
crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What
could love the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-
assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the key hold,
imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make
yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."
"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life
through that open window.
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer
days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that
life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life
might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a
feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of
Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs.
Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who
entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He
had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been
one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen
him from the view of his wife.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.
A Cup of Tea
By Katherine Mansfield
Rosemary Fell was not exactly beautiful. No, you couldn't have called her beautiful. Pretty?
Well, if you took her to pieces... But why be so cruel as to take anyone to pieces? She was
young, brilliant, extremely modem, exquisitely well dressed, amazingly well read in the newest
of the new books, and her parties were the most delicious mixture of the really important people
and... Artists - quaint creatures, discoveries of hers, some of them too terrify for words, but
others quite presentable and amusing.
3. Rosemary had been married two years. She had a duck of a boy. No, not Peter - Michael. And
her husband absolutely adored her. They were rich, really rich, not just comfortably well off,
which is odious and stuffy and sounds like one's grandparents. But if Rosemary wanted to shop
she would go to Paris as you and I would go to Bond Street. If she wanted to buy flowers, the car
pulled up at that perfect shop in Regent Street, and Rosemary inside the shop just gazed in her
dazzled, rather exotic way, and said: "I want those and those and those. Give me four bunches of
those. And that jar of roses. Yes, I'll have all the roses in the jar. No, no lilac. I hate lilac. It's got
no shape." The attendant bowed and put the lilac out of sight, as though this was only too true;
lilac was dreadfully shapeless. "Give me those stumpy little tulips. Those red and white ones."
And she was followed to the car by a thin shop-girl staggering under an immense white paper
armful that looked like a baby in long clothes....
One winter afternoon she had been buying something in a little antique shop in Curzon Street . It
was a shop she liked. For one thing, one usually had it to oneself. And then the man who kept it
was ridiculously fond of serving her. He beamed whenever she came in. He clasped his hands; he
was so gratified he could scarcely speak. Flattery, of course. All the same, there was something...
"You see, madam," he would explain in his low respectful tones, "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..." And, breathing deeply, he unrolled a tiny square of blue
velvet and pressed it on the glass counter with his pale finger-tips.
To-day it was a little box. He had been keeping it for her. He had shown it to nobody as yet. An
exquisite little enamel box with a glaze so fine it looked as though it had been baked in cream.
On the lid a minute creature stood under a flowery tree, and a minuter creature still had her arms
round his neck. Her hat, really no bigger than a geranium petal, hung from a branch; it had green
ribbons. And there was a pink cloud like a watchful cherub floating above their heads. Rosemary
took her hands out of her long gloves. She always took off her gloves to examine such things.
Yes, she liked it very much. She loved it; it was a great duck. She must have it. And, turning the
creamy box, opening and shutting it, she couldn't help noticing how charming her hands were
against the blue velvet. The shop man, in some dim cavern of his mind, may have dared to think
so too. For he took a pencil, leant over the counter, and his pale, bloodless fingers crept timidly
towards those rosy, flashing ones, as he murmured gently: "If I may venture to point out to
madam, the flowers on the little lady's bodice."
"Charming!" Rosemary admired the flowers. But what was the price? For a moment the shop
man did not seem to hear. Then a murmur reached her. "Twenty-eight guineas, madam."
"Twenty-eight guineas." Rosemary gave no sign. She laid the little box down; she buttoned her
gloves again. Twenty-eight guineas. Even if one is rich... She looked vague. She stared at a
plump tea-kettle like a plump hen above the shopman's head, and her voice was dreamy as she
answered: "Well, keep it for me - will you? I'll..." But the shopman had already bowed as though
keeping it for her was all any human being could ask. He would be willing, of course, to keep it
for her for ever.
4. The discreet door shut with a click. She was outside on the step, gazing at the winter afternoon.
Rain was falling, and with the rain it seemed the dark came too, spinning down like ashes. There
was a cold bitter taste in the air, and the new-lighted lamps looked sad. Sad were the lights in the
houses opposite. Dimly they burned as if regretting something. And people hurried by, hidden
under their hateful umbrellas. Rosemary felt a strange pang. She pressed her muff against her
breast; she wished she had the little box, too, to cling to. Of course the car was there. She'd only
to cross the pavement. But still she waited. There are moments, a horrible moment in life, when
one emerges from shelter and looks out, and it's awful. One oughtn't to give way to them. One
ought to go home and have an extra-special tea. But at the very instant of thinking that, a young
girl, thin, dark, and shadowy - where had she come from? - was standing at Rosemary's elbow
and a voice like a sigh, almost like a sob, breathed: "Madam, may I speak to you a moment?"
"Speak to me?" Rosemary turned. She saw a little battered creature with enormous eyes,
someone quite young, no older than herself, who clutched at her coat-collar with reddened hands,
and shivered as though she had just come out of the water.
"M-madam, stammered the voice. Would you let me have the price of a cup of tea?"
"A cup of tea?" There was something simple, sincere in that voice; it wasn't in the least the voice
of a beggar. "Then have you no money at all?" asked Rosemary.
"None, madam," came the answer.
"How extraordinary!" Rosemary peered through the dusk and the girl gazed back at her. How
more than extraordinary! And suddenly it seemed to Rosemary such an adventure. It was like
something out of a novel by Dostoevsky, this meeting in the dusk. Supposing she took the girl
home? Supposing she did do one of those things she was always reading about or seeing on the
stage, what would happen? It would be thrilling. And she heard herself saying afterwards to the
amazement of her friends: "I simply took her home with me," as she stepped forward and said to
that dim person beside her: "Come home to tea with me."
The girl drew back startled. She even stopped shivering for a moment. Rosemary put out a hand
and touched her arm. "I mean it," she said, smiling. And she felt how simple and kind her smile
was. "Why won't you? Do. Come home with me now in my car and have tea."
"You - you don't mean it, madam," said the girl, and there was pain in her voice.
"But I do," cried Rosemary. "I want you to. To please me. Come along."
The girl put her fingers to her lips and her eyes devoured Rosemary. "You're - you're not taking
me to the police station?" she stammered.
"The police station!" Rosemary laughed out. "Why should I be so cruel? No, I only want to make
you warm and to hear - anything you care to tell me."
5. Hungry people are easily led. The footman held the door of the car open, and a moment later
they were skimming through the dusk.
"There!" said Rosemary. She had a feeling of triumph as she slipped her hand through the velvet
strap. She could have said, "Now I've got you," as she gazed at the little captive she had netted.
But of course she meant it kindly. Oh, more than kindly. 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. She turned impulsively, saying'. "Don't be frightened. After
all, why shouldn't you come back with me? We're both women. If I'm the more fortunate, you
ought to expect..."
But happily at that moment, for she didn't know how the sentence was going to end, the car
stopped. The bell was rung, the door opened, and with a charming, protecting, almost embracing
movement, Rosemary drew the other into the hall. Warmth, softness, light, a sweet scent, all
those things so familiar to her she never even thought about them, she watched that other receive.
It was fascinating. She was like the rich little girl in her nursery with all the cupboards to open,
all the boxes to unpack.
"Come, come upstairs," said Rosemary, longing to begin to be generous. "Come up to my room."
And, besides, she wanted to spare this poor little thing from being stared at by the servants; she
decided as they mounted the stairs she would not even ring to Jeanne, but take off her things by
herself. The great things were to be natural!
And "There!" cried Rosemary again, as they reached her beautiful big bedroom with the curtains
drawn, the fire leaping on her wonderful lacquer furniture, her gold cushions and the primrose
and blue rugs. The girl stood just inside the door; she seemed dazed. But Rosemary didn't mind
that.
"Come and sit down," she cried, dragging her big chair up to the fire, "m this comfy chair. Come
and get warm. You look so dreadfully cold."
"I daren't, madam," said the girl, and she edged backwards.
"Oh, please," - Rosemary ran forward - "you mustn't be frightened, you mustn't, really. Sit down,
when I've taken off my things we shall go into the next room and have tea and be cosy. Why are
you afraid?" And gently she half pushed the thin figure into its deep cradle. .
But there was no answer. The girl stayed just as she had been put, with her hands by her sides
and her mouth slightly open. To be quite sincere, she looked rather stupid. But Rosemary
wouldn't acknowledge it. She leant over her, saying:
"Won't you take off your hat? Your pretty hair is all wet. And one is so much more comfortable
without a hat, isn't one?"
There was a whisper that sounded like "Very good, madam," and the crushed hat was taken off.
6. "And let me help you off with your coat, too," said Rosemary.
The girl stood up. But she held on to the chair with one hand and let Rosemary pull. It was quite
an effort. The other scarcely helped her at all. She seemed to stagger like a child, and the thought
came and went through Rosemary's mind, that if people wanted helping they must respond a
little, just a little, otherwise it became very difficult indeed. And what was she to do with the coat
now? She left it on the floor, and the hat too. She was just going to take a cigarette off the
mantelpiece when the girl said quickly, but so lightly and strangely: "I'm very sorry, madam, but
I'm going to faint. I shall go off, madam, if I don't have something."
"Good heavens, how thoughtless I am!" Rosemary rushed to the bell.
"Tea! Tea at once! And some brandy immediately!"
The maid was gone again, but the girl almost cried out: "No, I don't want any brandy.* I never
drink brandy. It's a cup of tea I want, madam." And she burst into tears. It was a terrible and
fascinating moment. Rosemary knelt beside her chair.
"Don't cry, poor little thing," she said. "Don't cry." And she gave the other her lace handkerchief.
She really was touched beyond words. She put her arm round those thin, bird-like shoulders.
Now at last the other forgot to be shy, forgot everything except that they were both women, and
gasped out: "I can't go on no longer like this. I can't bear it. I can't bear it. I shall do away with
myself. I can't bear no more."
"You shan't have to. I'll look after you. Don't cry any more. Don't you see what a good thing it
was that you met me? We'll have tea and you'll tell me everything. And I shall arrange
something. I promise. Do stop crying. It's so exhausting. Please!"
The other did stop just in time for Rosemary to get up before the tea came. She had the table
placed between them. She plied the poor little creature with everything, all the sandwiches, all
the bread and butter, and every time her cup was empty she filled it with tea, cream and sugar.
People always said sugar was so nourishing. As for herself she didn't eat; she smoked and looked
away tactfully so that the other should not be shy. And really the effect of that slight meal was
marvellous. When the tea-table was carried away a new being, a light, frail creature with tangled
hair, dark lips, deep, lighted eyes, lay back in the big chair in a kind of sweet languor, looking at
the blaze. Rosemary lit a fresh cigarette; it was time to begin.
"And when did you have your last meal?" she asked softly.
But at that moment the door-handle turned.
"Rosemary, may I come in?" It was Philip.
"Of course." He came in. "Oh, I'm so sorry," he said, and stopped and stared.
7. "It's quite all right," said Rosemary, smiling. "This is my friend, Miss _"
"Smith, madam," said the languid figure, which was strangely still and unafraid.
"Smith," said Rosemary. "We are going to have a little talk."
"Oh yes," said Philip. "Quite," and his eye caught sight of the coat and hat on the floor. He came
over to the fire and turned his back to it. "It's a beastly afternoon," he said curiously, still looking
at that listless figure, looking at its hands and boots, and then at Rosemary again.
"Yes, isn't it?" said Rosemary enthusiastically. "Vile."
Philip smiled his charming smile. "As a matter of fact," said he, "I wanted you to come into the
library for a moment. Would you? Will Miss Smith excuse us?" The big eyes were raised to him,
but Rosemary answered for her: "Of course she will." And they went out of the room together.
"I say," said Philip, when they were alone. "Explain. Who is she? What does it all mean?"
Rosemary, laughing, leaned against the door and said: "I picked her up in Curzon Street . Really.
She's a real pick-up. She asked me for the price of a cup of tea, and I brought her home with me.
"
"But what on earth are you going to do with her?" cried Philip.
"Be nice to her," said Rosemary quickly. "Be frightfully nice to her. Look after her. I don't know
how. We haven't talked yet. But show her - treat her - make her feel -"
"My darling girl," said Philip, "you're quite mad, you know. It simply can't be done."
"I knew you'd say that," retorted Rosemary. Why not? I want to. Isn't that a reason? And besides,
one's always reading about these things. I decided -"
"But," said Philip slowly, and he cut the end of a cigar, "she's so astonishingly pretty."
"Pretty?" Rosemary was so surprised that she blushed. "Do you think so? I - I hadn't thought
about it."
"Good Lord!" Philip struck a match. "She's absolutely lovely. Look again, my child. I was
bowled over when I came into your room just now. However... I think you're making a ghastly
mistake. Sorry, darling, if I'm crude and all that. But let me know if Miss Smith is going to dine
with us in time for me to look up The Milliner's Gazette."
"You absurd creature!" said Rosemary, and she went out of the library, but not back to her
bedroom. She went to her writing-room and sat down at her desk. Pretty! Absolutely lovely!
Bowled over! Her heart beat like a heavy bell. Pretty! Lovely! She drew her check-book towards
her. But no, checks would be no use, of course. She opened a drawer and took out five pound
8. notes, looked at them, put two back, and holding the three squeezed in her hand, she went back
to her bedroom. Half an hour later Philip was still in the library, when Rosemary came in.
"I only wanted to tell you," said she, and she leaned against the door again and looked at him
with her dazzled exotic gaze, "Miss Smith won't dine with us to-night."
Philip put down the paper. "Oh, what's happened? Previous engagement?"
Rosemary came over and sat down on his knee. "She insisted on going," said she, "so I gave the
poor little thing a present of money. I couldn't keep her against her will, could I?" she added
softly. Rosemary had just done her hair, darkened her eyes a little and put on her pearls. She put
up her hands and touched Philip's cheeks.
"Do you like me?" said she, and her tone, sweet, husky, troubled him.
"I like you awfully," he said, and he held her tighter. "Kiss me."
There was a pause.
Then Rosemary said dreamily: "I saw a fascinating little box to-day. It cost twenty-eight guineas.
May I have it?"
Philip jumped her on his knee. "You may, little wasteful one," said he.
But that was not really what Rosemary wanted to say. "Philip," she whispered, and she pressed
his head against her bosom, "am I pretty?"
9. II. Author’s Background
Kate Chopin was born Kate O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850 to Eliza and Thomas
O'Flaherty. She was the third of five children, but her sisters died in infancy and her brothers
(from her father's first marriage) in their early twenties. She was the only child to live past the
age of twenty-five. In 1855, at five and a half, she was sent to The Sacred Heart Academy, a
Catholic boarding school in St. Louis. Her father was killed two months later when a train on
which he was riding crossed a bridge that collapsed. For the next two years she lived at home
with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, all of them widows. Her great-
grandmother, Victoria Verdon Charleville oversaw her education and taught her French, music,
and the gossip on St. Louis women of the past. Kate O'Flaherty grew up surrounded by smart,
independent, single women. They were also savvy and came from a long line of ground breaking
women Victoria's own mother had been the first woman in St. Louis to obtain legal separation
from her husband, after which she raised her five children and ran a shipping business on the
Mississippi. Until Kate was sixteen, no married couples lived in her home, although it was full of
brothers, uncles, cousins, and borders. She returned to the Sacred Heart Academy, where the
nuns were known for their intelligence, and was top of her class. She won medals, was elected
into the elite Children of Mary Society, and delivered the commencement address. After
graduation she was a popular, if cynical, debutante. She wrote in her diary advice on flirting,
"just keep asking 'What do you think?'" (Toth, 62). She grew up during the Civil War and this
caused her to be separated from the one friend she had made at the Sacred Heart Academy, Kitty
Garesche. Her family were slave holders and supported the South. St. Louis was a pro-North
city, and the Gareshe's were forced to move. After the war, Kitty returned and she and Chopin
were friends until Kitty entered Sacred Heart as a nun. There is no other evidence that Chopin
had any other close female friendships. Kate's grandmother died three days before Christmas in
1863, the same year Kitty was banished. Kate's half-brother, George, died in the war of typhoid
fever on Mardi Gras Day. Her father had died on All Saints day, eight years previously, and
these unhappy incidents combined to create a strong scepticism of religion in Chopin. In 1870, at
the age of twenty, she married Oscar Chopin, twenty-five, and the son of a wealthy cotton-
growing family in Louisiana. He was French catholic in background, as was Kate. By all
accounts he adored his wife, admired her independence and intelligence, and "allowed" her
10. unheard of freedom. After their marriage they lived in New Orleans where she had five boys and
two girls, all before she was twenty-eight. Oscar was not an able business man, and they were
forced to move to his old home in a small Louisiana parish. Oscar died of swamp fever there in
1882 and Kate took over the running of his general store and plantation for over a year.
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short
fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of
Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist
writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf with whom she became close friends. Her
stories often focus on moments of disruption and frequently open rather abruptly. Among her
most well-known stories are "The Garden Party", "The Daughters of the Late Colonel" and "The
Fly." During the First World War Mansfield contracted extra pulmonary tuberculosis, which
rendered any return or visit to New Zealand impossible and led to her death at the age of 34.
Mansfield was born Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp, in 1888, into a socially prominent family in
Wellington, New Zealand. The daughter of a banker and born to a middle-class colonial family,
she was also a first cousin of author Countess Elizabeth von Arnim. Mansfield had two older
sisters and a younger brother, born in 1894. Her father, Harold Beauchamp, went on to become
the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand and was also knighted. The Mansfield family moved
to Karori in 1893, where Mansfield would spend the happiest years of her childhood; she later
used her memories of this time as an inspiration for the Prelude story.
Her first published stories appeared in the High School Reporter and the Wellington Girls' High
School magazine (the family returned to Wellington proper in 1898), in 1898 and 1899. She
became enamoured with a cellist, Arnold Trowell (Mansfield herself was an accomplished
cellist, having received lessons from Trowell's father), in 1902, although the feelings were
largely unreciprocated. Mansfield wrote, in her journals, of feeling alienated to some extent in
New Zealand, and, in general terms, of how she became disillusioned due to the repression of the
Māori people—who were often portrayed in a sympathetic or positive light in her later stories,
such as How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped.
11. III. Summary (Synopsis)
The Story of an Hour
Mrs. Mallard has a heart condition, which means that if she's startled she could die. So, when
news comes that her husband has been killed in an accident, the people who will tell her what
happen should slow down. Mrs. Mallard's sister Josephine sits down with her and tells around
the truth until Mrs. Mallard finally understands what happened. The deceased Mr. Mallard's
friend, Richards, hangs out with them for moral support. Richards originally found out because
he had been in the newspaper headquarters when a report of the accident that killed Mr. Mallard,
which happened on a train, came through. Richards waited for proof from a second source before
going to the Mallards' to share the news.
When Mrs. Mallard finds out what happened she acts differently from most women in the same
position, who might disbelieve it. She cries passionately before deciding to go to her room to be
by herself. In her room, Mrs. Mallard sits down on a comfy chair and feels completely depleted.
She looks out the window and looks out at a world that seems alive and fresh. She can see the
sky coming between the rain clouds. The narrator describes her as youthful and pretty, but
because of this news she looks worried and absent. She seems to be holding out for some kind of
unknown news or knowledge, which she can tell is approaching. Mrs. Mallard breathes heavily
and tries to resist before succumbing to this unknown thing, which is a feeling of freedom.
Acknowledging freedom makes her revive, and she doesn't consider whether she should feel bad
about it. Mrs. Mallard thinks to herself about how she'll cry when she sees her husband's dead
body and how much he loved her. Even so, she's kind of excited about the chance to make her
own decisions and not feel accountable to anyone.
Mrs. Mallard feels even more swept up by the idea of freedom than the fact that she had felt love
for her husband. She focuses on how liberated she feels. Outside the locked door to the room, her
sister Josephine is pleading to her to open up and let her in. Mrs. Mallard tells her to go away and
fantasizes about the exciting life ahead. Finally, she goes to her sister and they go downstairs.
Suddenly, the door opens and Mr. Mallard comes in. He's not dead and doesn't even know
anyone thought he was. Even though Richards and Josephine try to protect Mrs. Mallard from
the sight, they can't. She receives the shock they tried to prevent at the beginning of the story.
12. Later, the medical people who examine her say that she was full of so much happiness that it
killed her.
A Cup of Tea
A Cup of Tea is a short story written by Katherine Mansfield that tells us how people show
generosity to people whom they consider inferior to them.
IV. Deconstruction
V. Significance
Feminism is a philosophical discourse that aims to understand the nature of gender equality. It
examines women's social roles, experience, interests, and feminist politics in a variety of fields,
such as anthropology and sociology, communication, economics, literature, education, and
philosophy. It helps us to understand a certain literature or a literary work that belong to this kind
of theory. Those two given short story: the story of an hour and a cup of tea belong to the theory
of feminism. In the first story, it stated that the main character is being imprisoned by her
husband. So, when she already knew what happen to her husband instead of being worried, she
feels the freedom she wanted for so many years. In the second story, A cup of tea is a story of
woman who feels jealousy and insecure even if she is a wealthy woman. She has everything a
woman wants, things she need and a husband, but she senses incomplete because of the
insecurity she feels.
The importance of this two selection is for us to know that every individual should be equally
treated in this world. God made us different but he treated us as his children and we are equally
treated by him. A woman deserves to be loved
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