FREE ESSAY ON STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF " A CUP OF TEA"

STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF " A CUP OF TEA"

STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF " A CUP OF TEA"
1. Introduction
To be honest, when I read the story, I thought " how absurd this is". The first
appearance of the story to me was just like this. But when I re- thought about some
details I realised that the story is not that absurd. Above, it includes some social
factors in it. And I think my assignment is going to be all about those details, because
for me, "truth always hides itself in details", so to analyse this story I'm to deal with
them.
2. Summary of the story
The story is all about Rosemary Fell, a rich, young and modern country woman and one of
her shopping days. This day, and an extra-ordinary day it was, started after she got out
from an antique shop with a little box in her mind, that she is planing to buy. What made
this ordinary day, extra- ordinary came with a voice of a young, poor girl, Miss Smith.
She was shyly asking money for a cup of tea. At the moment Rosemary couldn't believe her
ears. How can someone doesn't have money, even for a cup of tea? She thought a little,
and decided to make an invitation. She invited this young, poor girl to her home. After
some insist, Miss Smith accepted this invitation. They went home and had some cup of tea,
and chat for a while. It was a chat that mostly Rosemary talk and Miss Smith listen with
tears in her eyes. Then Philip, the husband of Rosemary appeared. He was confused to see
Miss Smith, because she is not like one of the other friends of Rosemary. Then he wanted
to talk with her and they went to the library. They had a conversation about the poor
girl. Philip thought this situation is ridiculous, besides, he thought that Miss Smith is
beautiful and pretty. This thought of Philip shocked Rosemary. She didn't look to her as
Philip did. After she got out from the library she decided to give some money to her and
let her go. Jealousy was the only reason for this.
3. Ideational functions
a. Rosemary as participant
i ) Relational process
We can both understand her physical and personal state from the story. Everybody seems to
be cheerful to her and acts like she is the one and only. This lady is the most active
role of the story. We even can say the story is based on her. There are some sentences
used to describe her image. 
a. She was young, brilliant, extremely modern, exquisitely well dressed...
b. ... how charming her hands were against the blue velvet. 
ii. Mental process
Mentally Rosemary is the organiser of the story, everything starts with her and so they
finish with her. Her words are the commands for the others. For example, if she wants,
Miss Smith to come home and have a cup of tea with her, Miss Smith must obey. Her
commands are indeclinable. Although she seems to be philanthropic. I think she is not,
for me she is so selfish.
a. It would be thrilling (taking the poor girl home)
b. And she heard herself saying afterwards to the amazement of her friends " I simply
took her home with me"
c. " Well keep it for me. Will you? I'll..." but the shop man had already bowed as though
keeping it for her was all any human being can ask. He would be willing, of course, to
keep it for her forever. 
Miss Smith as participant
i ) Relational process
She is the blur character of the story. Although we couldn't find information about her,
she is the second important role. She appears to be young, poor, shy and pretty. But for
me her main appearance is her tiredness. Besides, her personal or physical states are not
that clear as Rosemary's.
a. ... said the girl and there was pain in her voice
b. Battered creature with enormous eyes, someone quite young...
ii) Mental process
There seems to be nothing abut her mental process. From the beginning till the end she
just did what she is said to.
a. " Won't you take off your hat?" very good madam" and the crushed hat was taken off
b. The girl stayed just as she had been put
Philip as participant
i ) Relational process
We can just guess his personal and physical state. We can say that, he is a gentleman and
he is a nice guy. And I think he is charming. 
a. ... "will Miss Smith excuse us"
b. Philip smiled his charming smile
ii. Mental process
I think, he exist in the story to make the final boom. Everything changes after his
appearance. And he did this by saying:
a. " She is so astonishingly pretty"
b. " she is absolutely lovely"
c. " I was bowled over...
4. Lexis
Rosemary represent the rich in this story, and Miss Smith is the poor one. Depending to
this situation, the words used to describe them are totally different. We can see that
the words describing Rosemary are stronger than the words used for Miss Smith. The words
for Rosemary are: brilliant, extremely modern, exquisitely well-dressed, quite
presentable and amusing; and I think one word gives the clue of how Miss Smith look like:
creature (not even a human). As we understand these two women can also be described as
powerful and weak. Rosemary has the power because she has the money, and money always
brings power. Miss smith is poor, so she is weak. This situation has nothing to do with
their characters, if we switch the places of these two women, this time Miss Smith will
be the powerful one. I mean ( money = power ). 
When we think that this story is written by a woman, we can understand why Philip thought
"pretty" about Miss Smith. " A man will never mind the social status, they always look to
a woman within a different point of view ( pretty, or not pretty that's the question! )
and this is the only thing they can think about, except football and cars."
5. Textual and interpersonal functions
Rosemary proves her power in every dialogue. In her relationships, she is always the
number one. She happen to be a commander. The first dialogue happens with the shop man
and he seems like, he can do everything for Rosemary. But for me, the most important
dialogue in the story is between Rosemary and Miss Smith. When I read that dialogue, a
picture from my mind appeared in my eyes. I asked to myself , if I also had this kind of
a dialogue, and I remember those homeless children, trying to sell me handkerchief. Just
like Miss Smith, they are trying to be respectful to me. After I realised that, although
I didn't want, I treated them just like Rosemary did to Miss Smith. I think, when one
feels superior, this is inescapable.
There is also another dialogue we can see between Philip and Rosemary. In that
conversation, although Philip seems to be the stronger one, he could not change
Rosemary's mind. And I guess there is no one in the world can change this kind of a
woman's mind, except love. 
6. Conclusion
Before making my conclusion, I read the stuff I wrote, and I saw, mainly I mentioned; how
poor is Miss Smith and how rich is Rosemary, and their appearance as two different women.
And within the light of these, I'm happy to write:
In conclusion, I can say that although a human is always a human, the instincts are
always stronger than humanity. As we can see, at the very beginning, Rosemary was trying
to be helpful to Miss Smith, but when jealousy came to the scene, she gave 3 pounds and
simply kicked Miss Smith. I think this is the rule of the world, both in the wild animal
life and in modern human life...
Bibliography
none...
sorry...