Katherine Mansfield

Biography

Born on October 14^th 1888 in Wellington, New Zealand Katherine Mansfield was the third child of Harold Beauchamp and Anne Burnell, who were natives of Australia. Beauchamp didn’t have much of an education but he was a hard worker and found success as a businessman in New Zealand. Burnell was ambitious in obtaining financial and social status. As a child Mansfield’s family moved from the city life in Wellington to the country in the city of Karori. It was here that Mansfield attended primary school. Her experiences as a young child in the country school provided inspiration later in life for some of her stories including “Prelude” and “At the Bay” (Tomalin). However, the Beauchamps moved back to Wellington in 1898, where Katherine went to high school and then to the exclusive Miss Swainson's school.

Beauchamp thought his daughters should finish their education in Europe and so he took them to London and “left them at Queen’s College” for three years (Tomalin). This college hosted a very liberal environment. Mansfield’s biggest influence was an “enthusiastic teacher, Walter Rippmann,” who encouraged her to read a variety of authors,” including Ibsen, Tolstoy, Shaw, and Wilde (Tomalin). She also edited and wrote for the school’s magazine. Beauchamp was able to provide holidays for Mansfield and her sisters in Paris and Brussels; it was during these travels that Mansfield had a “glimpse of the vie de bohème,” a lifestyle that was much more liberal than anything she’d encountered in her upbringing (Tomalin). She was fascinated by that culture and it was with reluctance that she returned to New Zealand afterwards. While in New Zealand, Mansfield not only continued to read vivaciously, but also “placed some stories in a New Zealand magazine, the Native Companion” (Tomalin). She also had a romantic relationship with a young female artist, which probably led her parents to succumb to her pleas to return to London.

In London, Mansfield joined a touring opera in order to be with Garnet Trowell, who impregnated her. After discovering her pregnancy, Mansfield left the young musician and “made a hasty marriage to a respectable singing teacher, George Bowden” (Tomalin). Sehe deserted him once their marriage ended to take refuge with her friend Ida. After many rampant affairs with both men and women, Mansfield met up with her husband who introduced her to A.R. Orage, an editor of a literary magazine. She began publishing stories on a regular basis, while leading a “peripatetic life” (Tomalin). She associated herself with other writers such as Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence; they all inspired each other’s writings. She grew famous for her short stories, which illustrated her mastering of the art of Stream-of-Consciousness. Within her stories she exposed harsh realities and was called by Woolf’s husband “an intense realist, with a superb sense of ironic humour” (Tomalin). Mansfield’s writing was deeply feminist with a smattering of wit and a “touch of the surreal” (Tomalin).

These characteristics can be found in her short story “A Married Man’s Story.” This piece of short fiction draws on Mansfield’s personal experiences with not only feeling trapped in New Zealand, but also trapped in a marriage. In this story, Mansfield highlights some of her personal feelings about marriage and the constraints her parents placed on her while she was growing up. Furthermore, in “A Cup of Tea,” Mansfield demonstrates the insecurity of both class and gender. Her parents, having great financial and social aspirations, played Mansfield as a chess piece throughout her childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, steering her towards a life of wealth and social elitism. The main character of this particular short story is imprisoned in an existence much like Mansfield’s relationship with her parents—preoccupied with material objects and with playing her part as a wealthy wife while unaware that she is being played as a chess piece by her husband. Throughout the story, Mansfield subtly highlights the manipulation and control of women by men, and then demonstrates the replication of the behavior in matters of class and social standing.