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Abstract From a scanning of the short story A CUP OF TEA by Katherine Mansfield, the protagonist of the passage is she: Rosemary Fell.
A clear example of an upper middleclass lady living an extrordinary pleasant life among smart people, beautiful flowers and qntique and precious
object. Study the story by using characteristic and textual methods, I will try to criticise the text objectively in relation to its functional features.
Key words Rosemary Fell; Charming; Elegant; Education; Characteristic analysis; Text analysis
II.ANALYSIS
1)Characteristc Analysis:
The common view that a literary text is likely to be comprehended
better if it is studied in parallel with characteristic analysis which
emphasizes the crucial role of the functional features of the text
contributes much to the development of literary criticism.
When we look at the story we realize that main participant is
Rosemary and most of the processes are acted by her.When we count
all the sentences describing her or the ones in which she takes place we
realize her dominancy at once.
In many ways Rosemary is presented us very active .There are
descriptions both
for her physical appearance and for her
characteristic features and interests:
She was young , brilliant , extremely modern, exquisitely well
dressed, amazingly well read in the newest of the new books ...
Even the words describing her are beatifully chosen ones and there
is nothing which makes her inferior-as it is obviously seen -she is not a
woman adored for her goddess beauty but she is an active figure in a
society with her doings; however it is not clear whether she makes it to
be seen like that or she is really the one known in a society.
Her hat, really no bigger than a geranium petal, hung from a
branch...
The writer of the text here uses metaphorical phrases while
describing Rosemary s hat. Infact the writer doesn t generally use such
things , the language of the text is direct but here , in describing her
appearance,she does this . Infact it is to reflect the prominence that is
given for her.
She is mostly the actor where the girl is the goal or sometimes the
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beneficiary recipient:
I want you to. To please me.
Here I , Rosemary, takes part as an actor whereas you ,Miss
Smith, is the goal and want is the process which is stated by Rosemary.
We may infer that Rosemary is dominant and makes others do whatever
she wants to.
I only want to make you warm...
This time what she desires to be made by her is something good as a
concept; but even it is good for Miss Smith, it is directed by Rosemary
and shows her power on her by regarding Miss Smith as a helpless
creature which is to be pitied and looked after.
Come and sit down, she cried, dragging her big chair up to the
fire, in this comfy chair.
And the circumstantial features where the actor is Rosemary gives
clues for her rich ,comfortable life style.
Looking at how she sees the world around her, we realize that she
can mention about what she likes or dislikes and reveals her ideas
directly and freely; we have lots of verbs telling us about her cognition
and affection:
Yes, she liked it very much, she loved it.
Rosemary admired the flowers.
Rosemary gave no sign.
Rosemary laughed out.
She decided...
She wanted to spare this poor little thing...
She saw alittle battered creature with enormous eyes...
I hate lilac.
The other participants I d like to analyse on this text -apart from
Rosemary - are the girl,Miss Smith, and Philip. Even though Philip
hasn t got as many turns as Rosemary and Miss Smith, I d like to
examine the processes of him in order to display the currents of events
as a whole- he is the efficient figure in the sequences of events in the
story-; in other words it is vital to handle it here to maintain the entirety
of the text.
Physical descriptions are used to introduce Miss Smith and these
descriptions sometimes tell us about the life style of her and mostly
show us inferiority of her when compared with Rosemary basically:
...Rosemary turned. She saw a little battered creature with
enormous eyes , someone quite young , no older than herself...
...a light , frail creature with tangled hair, dark lips, deep lighted
eyes,...
...thin ,birdlike shoulders.
...poor little thing.
And we have implications about her manner which are presented us
from the eyes of the writer:
...she seemed dazed.
she seemed to stagger like a child,...
She is the goal where Rosemary is the actor:
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giving immediate orders. Give me those stumpy little tulips. These red
and white ones (20-21). The shopkeeper and the shop assistant behaved
respectfully, confirming her sense of superiority. The attendant bowed
and put the lilac out of sight, as though these only too true (18-19).
And she was followed to the car by a thin shop girl.. clothes (21-22).
Paragraph 3 opens with time and place references. One winter
afternoon (23) she had been buying in a little antique shop in Curzon
Street (24), which probably represent the starting point of the story itself
and the narrator, to increase the reader s curiosity dwells on the antique
dealer s respectful but grotesque manner of welcoming her. and the man
was ridiculously fond of serving her. He beamed whenever she came in.
He clasped his hands, he was so scarcely speak (25-27). In the last
two paragraphs the sequences are narrative and consequently dynamic.
Stylistic devices & Cultural References:
The text presents the author s perception of the theme of irony dealt
with: the description of the character and the situation is carried out
through a rich and amusing vocabulary; a lot of attention to the exact
choice of adverbs. The narrator s ironically effect is based on the contrast
between what is been said and what is actually meant and involves the
reader who is deeply influence by her point of view.
The syntax is clear and simple, the brief utterances are essential for
the general comprehension of the passage and the written is quite
appealing. The main strategy is the continuous interaction between the
narrator and the reader, seen as a couple of close friends, ready to mock
Rosemary. Among those writers who adopt these strategies there was K.
Mansfield who was interested in characters rather than plot. She focused
on meaningful moments of consciousness of her characters and analysed
their inner personalities.
Katherine Mansfield can be compared to Joyce and Woolf whose
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III.CONCLUSION
Looking at K.Mansfield s story, we come across with variability
making the text closer to real,authentic usage by means of questions,
answers, requests, imperatives,exclamations and so on.
To begin with turn-takings between Rosemary and Miss Smith, it is
seen that there are lots of questions and answers. Both the narrative
statements directly by the writer and the dialogues between the
participants are involved in the story. Ideas of the characters and their
acts are told by the writer of the text as a narrator whereas the chain of
particular events ,speech acts are presented via a lot of dialogues in the
text.K.Mansfield is like an observor describes the characters ,the events
and gives us clues about what the characters are thinking to themselves.
For instance, Rosemary is made to think and speak to herself after being
jealous of the girl and we can follow her plans which is going to occur.
Having analysed this literary text by not commenting on it with my
superficial impressions but examinig it in details, I have obtained more
objective criticism. Furthermore, it has proved that our impressions
supposed to be uttered intuitively and unconsciously has hidden
conscious in itself and kept hidden unless it emerges by studying it
with its grammatical features which helped me to analyse the short story
of Katherine Mansfield more empirically.
3 . [J].
2005 19165167.
4 . [J]. 2006 11126.
5 . [J].
( ) 2007 9 4252 253.
6 . [J]. ( )
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, ,
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o , 13 my only luve ,
And fare thee weli
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