NB: набросок анализа
Leslie Poles Hartley, an English novelist and the son of a solicitor was educated at Oxford's College and for more than twenty years he was a fiction viewer for magazines. He wrote many novels and made a good contribution to English fiction. According to his novels films were casted. Hartley was a highly skilled narrator and we can see that in his literary work "W.S.".
The main character of the story - Walter Streeter - gets one after the other four postcards with messages from anonymous and starts thinking them over. At first he was glad that he didn't have to answer them as a writer should grudge time and energy for that. He even tore the first two postcards away. But later it became so important for him that he pondered over this and nothing else. He avoided making new acquaintances and had many difficulties with his work over new book. He tried to write but the words came haltingly, as though contending with an extra-strong barrier of self-criticism.
The third postcard wasn't burnt, Walter kept it. And only here it struck him that the initials of the postcard sender and his were the same. An idea came to Walter that perhaps he was writing those letters to himself. There were many questions and no answers. From the fourth postcard Walter found out that the sender was coming nearer and is eager to meet Walter.
We can feel sympathetic attitude of the author towards Walter. A wave of panic surged up in Walter. And we can guess here Walter Streeter was afraid of that meeting. He'd like to avoid it, because he understood from the last postcards that W.S. wasn't satisfied with his last literary work. W.S. was saying he almost lived in those novels but he didn't like them any more.
Who was that W.S.? Taking all the facts into consideration we can say there wasn't anyone except Walter. And he - Walter had a split personality. He couldn't find all the shortcomings of his novels ,so he thought someone another had to help him. And W.S. was invented. Certainly we should know that Walter Streeter didn't control himself completely, that's why he couldn't know about it.
Let's see what devices the author used. The first one which strikes the eye is anaphora. It's used very widely in order to improve emphasis on some facts:
- "You have always been interested in Scotland, and that is one reason why I am interested in you."
- "But the words came haltingly, as though contending with an extra-strong barrier of self-criticism. And as the days passed he became uncomfortably aware of self-division, as though someone had taken hold of his personality and was pullling it apart."
- "I know you are interested in cathedrals. I'm sure this isn't sign of megalomania... I'm seeing a good many churches on my way south..."
- "It was true that Walter Streeter was interested in cathedrals... And it was also true that he admired mere size and was inclined to under-value parish churches."
- "And was it really a sign of megalomania? And who was W.S. anyhow?"
- "They were Gilbert's, they were Maugham's, they were Shakespeare's ..."
- "He tried to put the thought away from him; he tried to destroy the postcard as he had the others."
Besides we can meet such an epithet in the text:
- "November fire - makes us be closer to the time everything happened"
Metaphor: "fruitful conflict" - makes us guess the words and the deeds following the conflict.
A beautiful antithesis as "perfection of ordinariness" doesn't let us calm to Walter's style.
The author uses simile with skill: "A woman, a little mouse-like creature, who had somehow taken a fancy to him!"
