Thank You for the Lovely Tea by Mavis Gallant
"Thank You for the Lovely Tea" by Mavis Gallant is a poignant short story that explores themes of emotional detachment, identity, and the complexities of social interactions through the lens of a young boarding-school student named Ruth Cook. Set against the backdrop of Ruth's disconnected childhood, the narrative unfolds as she awaits the arrival of her father’s American girlfriend, Mrs. Holland, who invites Ruth and her friends for afternoon tea. The story captures Ruth’s resignation to her environment, as reflected in her dispassionate declaration, "Life is Hell," scrawled on her desk.
Ruth’s interactions with her peers, May and Helen, further illustrate the different ways individuals cope with their circumstances shaped by the conservative values of their boarding school. While May grapples with her identity, feeling incomplete without her twin sister, Helen exhibits a longing to prolong her time at the school, even amidst personal grief. The tea gathering serves as a microcosm of Ruth’s internal struggles, as she reflects on her capacity to connect with others, leaving readers to ponder the impact of isolation and the search for genuine emotional engagement. Overall, Gallant’s narrative offers an insightful glimpse into the challenges of adolescence and the quest for belonging amidst societal expectations.
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Thank You for the Lovely Tea by Mavis Gallant
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1981 (collected in Home Truths, 1981)
Type of work: Short story
The Work
This story perhaps reflects Gallant’s sense of distance and disconnection as a result of spending much of her childhood in boarding schools. The central character in the story is Ruth Cook, a boarding-school student, who, while waiting for Mrs. Holland, her father’s new, American girlfriend, to come pick up her for an afternoon tea, writes on the top of her desk “Life is Hell.” Ruth, resigned to her boarding-school life, seems to have been conditioned to a passive, unemotional attitude. As her school’s influence suggests, being emotional is being American, which is something worse than bad taste.
The tea, primarily an effort by Mrs. Holland to ingratiate herself with Ruth, is made even more uncomfortable by the fact that two of Ruth’s friends, May and Helen, are invited along. Helen comes from a half-literate family with several children. Her dearest wish is to remain at the school as long as possible, to move from student to staff with no gap in between. May, who has been separated from a twin sister who goes to another school, feels split from a mirror half of herself but maintains the discipline learned at the school.
The conservative influence of the school is also symbolized by the fact that Helen cries whenever reminded of the recent death of King Edward and Rudyard Kipling, signaling a “year of change.” However, things do not seem to change for the girls. The only issue pursuant to the tea is whether the girls remembered to thank Mrs. Holland. Ruth is left wondering if she will ever care about anyone, as she smiles placidly and breathes on the window, drawing a heart shape and watching it fade.
Bibliography
Canadian Fiction Magazine 28 (1978). Special issue on Mavis Gallant.
Essays in Canadian Writing 42 (Winter, 1990). Special issue on Mavis Gallant.
Gadpaille, Michelle. “Mavis Gallant.” In The Canadian Short Story. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Grant, Judith Skleton. “Mavis Gallant.” In Canadian Writers and Their Works, edited by Robert Lecker, Jack David, and Ellen Quigley. Toronto: ECW Press, 1989.
Keith, William John. “Mavis Gallant.” In A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada. Toronto: ECW Press, 1988.
Kulyk Keefer, Janice. Reading Mavis Gallant. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Schaub, Danielle. Mavis Gallant. New York: Twayne, 1998.
Simmons, Diane. “Remittance Men: Exile and Identity in the Short Stories of Mavis Gallant.” In Canadian Women Writing Fiction, edited by Mickey Pearlman. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993.
Smythe, Karen. Gallant, Munro, and the Poetics of Elegy. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1992.