Анализ "The Moon and Sixpence" by Somerset Maugham

The story under the title “The Moon and Sixpence” was written by famous English writer - W. Somerset Maugham.

The extract under the discussion acquaints us with the protagonists – Captain Nichols and his wife and describes us the situation in this family. Reading the text we find out the main problem lying in the power of wife on her husband and complete obedience and silence of Captain Nichols. While reading on we realize he reconciled this fact and continues such an existence.

Let’s turn to the general definition of the text under the study. First of all we should say it is told in the first person narrative and we constantly feel and see the presence of the author: “I am certain that…”, “I never heard her speak…” etc.

Then we should note the narration is interlaced with descriptive passages and basically these exact passages present us full sketch of the characters.

It is enough to have a look at the first sentence of the text. There we obtain the most significant characteristic of Captain Nichols. It is conveyed through a wonderful case of oxymoron, which is a feature of Maugham’s style: “married bachelor”. Indeed, it gives us the key image of the hero. The rest of his traits of character such as fear of wife, submission, inactivity are just included in his portrayal.

What concerns his wife, while describing her the author twice used intensifiers, which demonstrate she wasn’t a usual “bird”: “She gave me an impression of extraordinary tightness”, “Captain Nichols was frightened to death of her”. The following sentence depicts her nature at full rate: “Her plain face with its narrow lips was tight, her skin was stretched tightly over her bones, her smile was tight, her hair was tight, her clothes were tight…” The case of parallel construction together with the repetition of the word “tight” proves that Maugham attempted to underline this feature of hers.

Besides, a very specific and even philosophic metaphor applied by the author also illustrates her world: “inexorable as fate and remorseless as conscience”. Thus, we realize Mrs. Nichols wasn’t a match for her husband; she possessed callousness, cunning and insincerity which for sure were not the nouns suitable to portray Captain Nichols.

Furthermore, reading the following sentence combined with the case of parallel construction we can imagine that she had no desire to leave him, as he was a convenient victim for her: “He could as little escape her as the cause can escape the effect.”

To crown it all, she didn’t show her higher position to people, she tried not to address to him directly, but for example send a daughter, and all that proves she was a rational and reserved person.

“She did not call him; she gave no sign that she was aware of his existence; she merely walked up and down composedly.” Here the repetition of pronoun “she” reveals her strict and reticent but complete power on him.

We can assume that even her daughter lacked her love and support, as the author shows her as “a pale-faced, sullen child of seven”. Is that the influence of mother? I guess so.

Speaking about the extract, we can add that the prevailing mood of it is rather pessimistic. The majority of the sentences is quite long, as they bare some description to the reader.

We can outline the inner conflict of man in the extract. Surely Captain Nichols realizes his position in the family, but he undertakes no steps to make himself free, and this is his greatest problem. Thus, the extract provokes contradictory assessments, as we see Captain is able to change his life but has no wish to do that.

Анализ "Salvatore" by Somerset Maugham

The story was written by Somerset Maugham - British novelist, playwright, short-story writer, highest paid author in the world in the 1930s. Despite his popularity, Maugham did not gain serious recognition. This was expressed in his autobiography THE SUMMING UP (1938), that he stood ‘in the very first row of the second-raters’. Maugham’s skill in handling plot has been compared by critics in the manner of Guy de Maupassant. In many novels the surroundings are international and the stories are told in clear, economical style with cynical or resigned undertone. Though there are many admirers of his works, I am among them. 

In the story under the discussion we can define the style of the author as bookish more than as colloquial, as many words applied by Maugham prove that: affiance, to long, ailment, consent, etc. Although the colloquialisms are also present in the story, such as “dreadfully homesick”, etc. 

The genre of the story is a novel, as it describes a love story of a couple never going to be together, it fully correspond the boundaries of this genre. The subject matter – story about a usual fisherman’s son who returned from military service and found out that his girl refused from his love. He started a new life without her, but the loss hurt him and stayed in his heart forever. 

In this story the author voices dissatisfaction with the fact that for most people the things spoken about oneself are more important than a man himself. That causes lots of difficulties and misunderstandings. This is the problem the author arises by his work. And we can easily draw the message of Maugham who hints that the beauty of a man is defined not by his inner characteristics, but by his inner world. This item consistently helps us to formulate the controlling idea of the novel – more than often mankind forgets about morals and inner world of every person and that is much higher than one’s outer features, or in other words – the only valuable quality is much more than many unimportant and unnecessary ones. 

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Анализ "The Escape" by Somerset Maugham

The story under the title “The Escape” was written by one of the outstanding English writers – William Somerset Maugham. 

The plot of the story is quite simple, though interesting. The protagonist of the story, a young man rolling in money – Roger Charing – fell in love with Ruth Barlow, an unfortunate woman who was twice a widow. They had all the happy and pleasant moments of relationships a loving couple usually has and intended to marry. Then suddenly Roger fell out of love with Ruth. But he found a way to make Ruth release him. He said they would marry the day they found the perfect house for both of them, however, Roger rejected all the orders of the agents offering a new house. At last Ruth lost her patience and left Roger herself.

So, the problem addressed in the story lies in the relationships of man and woman, in the way they get over the quandaries, in the way they treat each other. And I believe this problem is rather vital nowadays as many families divorce because they don’t know how to overcome hardships they face. 

The controlling idea of the story is that one should put on his thinking (пораскинуть мозгами) and act very carefully, as sometimes procrastination can give better results than haste. 

The same we see in the story. Roger wasn’t hurrying to inform Ruth in his calmness to her, vice versa he kept on taking care of her not even presenting her any signs to doubt in his love. 

At the same time he didn’t let the agents stop searching the house, trying Ruth’s patience. The repetition used by the author prove non-interest of Roger to all offers: “Sometimes they were too large and sometimes they were too small, sometimes they were too far from the centre of the things and sometimes they were too close; sometimes they were too expensive and sometimes they wanted too many repairs; sometimes they were too stuffy and sometimes they were too airy; sometimes they were too dark and sometimes they were too bleak”. 

Конец ознакомительной части стилистического анализа.

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Анализ "The Poet" by Somerset Maugham

The story under the title “The Poet” was written by an outstanding English writer, playwright and novelist who was known for his most famous play “Rain”, screened several times. His main literary pieces are “The Moon and the Sixpence”, “Theatre”, “The Painted Veil”, etc.

The plot of the story centers around a young “man of letters” who had a wonderful chance to meet in person a great poet of his time – Calisto de Santa Aña. In those days verses of Don Calisto “were on the lips of all young men”, so he was really a gifted poet. The story goes on to tell that Don Calisto invited the protagonist to his living place. In the circumstances there was nothing for the main character to do, but to accept the invitation. On the next day when he came to the destination, he found there a poor house, but it pleased the hero to think that Don Calisto lived in such a fitting style. He imagined Santa Aña reading newspapers sitting in the rocking-chair near a table. He wondered what dreams occupied poet’s fancy as he sat there on the warm summer nights, smoking cigarettes. When he saw a man coming down he caught his breath. And what a disappointment it must have been, when the hero found out that he had come to the wrong house.

So, the controlling idea of the story is – not knowing a man one can imagine him at full power of his fantasy, if even some of invented features contradict to what one heard about the other, i.e. autosuggestion plays an important part of man’s life.

And the problem the author wants us to realize is that a human being is so weak and imprudent that he accepts some of life situations only the way he desires.

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Анализ "The Romantic Young Lady" by Somerset Maugham

The story under the title "The Romantic Young Lady" was written by an outstanding English writer, playwright and novelist Somerset Maugham. His feature of looking at the world is perception of an event in a tragicomic key. The fact that since the 90th years of XIX century and almost up to the end of life he remained the modern artist raising global problems, surprises. In Maugham’s talent there was always a surprising keenness to the tragic beginning, the latent dramatic nature of characters and human relations.

The plot of the story under the study centers round the members of two families - Countess de Marbella and Duchess de Dos Palos. The story tells how the daughter of the duchess fell in love with the coachman of the countess and that occasion made the enemies forget of their prejudices.

So we come across man - against - himself conflict, as the duchess stepped over her feelings and ideas for her daughter’s sake.

So, the problem raised by the author in the story is penury and gentility, two terms never coming together in reality, as if two social classes, never having meal at one table.
The main idea conveyed by the author is the following - in any case quick mind gains the upper hand over the feelings. We know that those two women were almost mortal enemies. But the position in the Society became more important and the duchess came to the countess asking her help. Countess de Marbella was distinguished by her grace, wit and character, so she didn’t humiliate her rival, but found a wonderful way out of that dilemma. This is a beautiful corroboration of our idea.

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