刘钰畅-A cup of tea书评

A Phoenix Tapped in Cage

Katherine Mansfield is a famous short story writer and feminist. In her early years, she created many images of young women struggling to survive. And A Cup of Tea was one of the most impressive masterpieces.

A Cup of Tea tells the story of a rich lady named Rosemary who meets a girl begging for a cup of tea and takes her home. In my opinion, Rosemary is the symbol of a phoenix trapped in cage. Just like her wonderful “rose” name, she has an enviable marriage and a wealthy family. She is so rich that she can buy almost everything she wants , even the the boss of the antique shop has a VIP treatment to her. Her son, Michael, not something common like Peter or Jack, has the same name as the Archangel in Christianity, which also shows how admirable she is. But when she meets the skinny girl who begs for a cup of tea, everything changes. Her vanity, her narcissism and even her money and husband seems shaky. “She’s so astonishingly pretty. Let me know if she is going to dinner with us.” The words her husband says makes her flustered and unable to understand how this poor girl can steal her thunder. Then she sends the beggar girl away with three pounds, which shows that she has no real compassion at all.

She is a phoenix tapped in cage. All the things she has just depend on the “marry”, not the “Mary”. She is so narcissistic that she loves noble daffodils when she buys flowers and never understands the suffering of the underclass. But she is also so poor, lack of love from her husband and submit to the Capitalist Patriarchal power. Even the few remaining Feminist ideas are in their infancy.

There is an old saying in China that goes, "Fly on the branches and become a phoenix." But i really prefer become a poor bird rather than a phoenix trapped in cage.

2021-04-28

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