The essay ‘Look At A Teacup’, written by Patricia Hampel, shows how simple writing helps in finding out great events. It is about the history of the writer’s mother in a delicate teacup. The two major themes of this essay are the relationship between a mother and her daughter and a connection between the past generation and present generation. Both these things are represented by a teacup.

The writer’s mother was married in the year 1939, the beginning of the Second World War. The same year she bought the teacups as gifts that were later given to the daughter. Hampel sees a connection between herself and her mother. The teacup reminds her of her mother’s history because her mother bought it in 1939. Through the cup, the mother transfers the culture and history of her time to the daughter. So, the cup is historical memory only. It was made in Czechoslovakia, which was taken over and destroyed by the armies of Adolf Hitler.

The essay associates and removes the objective description and subjective feeling of author and teacup. The author can express lots of feeling and ideas making the teacup as a medium. She tries to compare the falling of flower in the teacup as the destruction of beauty due to falling bombs. There was also cultural and social degradation. The style of this essay is the stream of consciousness. So, the reader feels somehow puzzled to track down the plot of the essay. She expresses all her feelings try to compete for each other. So, some sentences are fragmented. Logically they do not follow each other. The writing is beautifully decorated but the meanings deviate.

There is symbolic meaning of the things. ‘Falling flowers’ implies the degrading situation and ‘teacups’ were human rituals and arts. Certainly, the essayist refers the fall and break of culture. ‘Falling bodies’ were dying people in the war and ‘beds’ have the meaning of the battlefield where the falling bodies lay. ‘The falling of bombs onto women’ means the tragic fate of these women. They had a disturbed married life. Fates of women were accused by the war and their destiny was darkened by the war and their destiny. ‘Falling countries’ refers to the degradation of humanity, peace, progress, brotherhood, culture, etc. of the countries involved in the war. This essay presents the reality of war and shows the real picture of the world caused by the destruction due to war.

Important Questions

1. How does Hampel see herself and her mother connected by the teacup?
Ans: Hampel’s mother bought a teacup in 1939. The Second World War also started in the same year. That teacup was brought to America from Czechoslovakia before the beginning of the war. The level of tea in the cup can be seen from outside. There are thin bands of gold around the edges of the saucer and the cap. There is also a band of gold on the inner, which has been disappeared by the constant use. There is no decoration outside the cup. There were flowers, later on, Hampel’s mother handed that cup to Hampel to hand over the tradition and culture of her own generation to Hampel. This is the gift given to Hampel by her mother. Hampel’s cultural values are disappearing as the bands of an inner circle of the saucer and teacup disappearing. This cup reminds Hampel about not only her mother but also the tragic destruction of the Second World War

2. What do you mean by “many things” fell that year?
Ans: Here, many things fell that year indicates the destruction that happened during the Second World War. The second war started in 1939. The falling off bombs caused much destruction. The countries were captured by their enemies. Many European innocent youths lost their lives in the battlefield. The married women who lost their husband were compelled to fall in the beds of other people. Hampel’s mother had bought a teacup from Czechoslovakia before the Second World War began. But it was also destroyed in the war. In this way art, virginity, culture, tradition, and faith in marriage fell in that year.

3. How does the writer in her essay, “Look at a Teacup” show the relationship among the falling flowers and teacups, falling bodies and beds, and falling off bombs onto women and falling countries?
Ans: The teacup about which the writer Hampel talks was brought from Czechoslovakia which was later on destroyed in the Second World War. Hampel’s mother offered that teacup to hand down her culture to her daughter but Hampel didn’t follow her mother’s culture of marrying and bearing children. The flowers inside the cup are scattered and they are falling separately. The band of gold on the inner circle is disappearing due to constant use. This indicates that the old tradition is disappearing. The Second World War began in 1930, many women lost their husband in the battlefield, and enemies compelled these windows to fall in the beds of others. Here, falling bodies and beds indicates the miserable condition of married women of that time. The Second World War made women’s future dark. The young girls were afraid of getting married. In the same way, many countries mean falling of freedom, peace and their own identity after the Second World War.

4. What is Hampel’s attitude toward marriage?
Ans: The Hampel’s mother got married in 1939 when the Second World War began. It destroyed many things. Many married women who lost their husband and family members were compelled to fall on the beds of strange persons after own husband’s death in the battlefield. The destructive Second World War caused a sense of fear in young girl’s life. The writer herself saw the miserable condition of married women of that period. They lost the faith in marriage. Hampel takes `work’ as the important thing but not marriage. For writer and her generation marriage is a tragedy.

5. What does the story “Look at a Teacup” tell us about being women?
Ans: Hampel says that in the generation of Hampel’s mother, there was great faith in marriage and family relations before marriage. The traditional women wanted to hand over their tradition and culture to their daughters. They considered that women Fshould marries for sexual relations. For the family life was greater than work. But modern women don’t follow the traditional values and work is greater than families for modern women. Marriage and family life is a tragedy for Hampel’s generation.

6. What does the essay “Look at a Teacup” tell us about marriage? About mother-daughter relationship? About the importance of family?
Ans: The `teacup’ about which is talking was bought from Czechoslovakia. Later on, this country was destroyed in the Second World War. According to the writer, Hampel before the Second World War marriage and family life was considered a great thing. The mother used to hand over culture and their possession to their daughter. Hampel’s mother also did the same thing as other women used to do. Her mother gave her a teacup as a gift. The teacup reminds the writer her mother’s marriage, happy life, etc. they didn’t have sexual relations before marriage. This essay also tells us about the importance of happy family life before the Second World War. But during the Second World War, many married women lost their husbands and family members in the battlefield and compelled to fall in the beds of strange ones and these women cursed themselves of being women. After the Second World War, the importance of married life fell down. The Second World War caused fear in young women. Married life means to means to Hampel and Hampel’s generation is a tragedy.

7. Explain “The cup is a detail, a small uncharged finger from the mid-century bonfire”.
Ans: The cup, which was offered to the writer Hampel, was brought from Czechoslovakia. It was a beautiful cup with beautiful flowers inside it. In that century, Czechoslovakia was destroyed in the Second World War. The Second World War started in 1939 or in the mid-century. The married women lost their husbands as well as family members in the war. Everything was destroyed but the cup remained unaffected. Here, uncharted finger indicates that whole body or everything brunt except little finger or little teacup in the war. The country Czechoslovakia lost its culture, tradition, identity, freedom, etc. in the war. Here, the unchanged finger is the symbol art of Czechs.

Questions for Practice

1. What major event took place in 1939 and what were the “many things that fell that year?”
2. What does “Look at a Teacup” tell us about marriage? About mother-daughter relationship? About the importance of family about women?
3. In what significant ways are the mother and the daughter different from each other in “Look at a Teacup”? 4. Explain the daughter’s attitude to marriage.
4. How does the write in the essay, `Look at the Tea Cup’ show the relationship among falling flowers and teacup, falling bodies and beds, falling of the bombs into women and falling countries. Also, write Patricia Hampl’s view on Marriage.