Thursday, October 24, 2019
Escape by W.S. Maugham
ââ¬Å"ESCAPEâ⬠By William Somerset Maugham The text under interpretation is ââ¬Å"Escapeâ⬠by William Somerset Maugham. W. S. Maugham was a well-known English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was the son of a British diplomat. He was educated at King`s school in Canterbury, studied painting in Paris, went to Heidelberg University in Germany and studied to be a doctor at St. Thomas Hospital in England. So, he put his hand in different activities and that`s why he is versatile and experienced person. S.Maugham was critical of the morals, the narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy of bourgeois society. Such novels as ââ¬Å"Of Human Bondageâ⬠, ââ¬Å"The Moon and the Sixpenceâ⬠, ââ¬Å"The Theatreâ⬠and others came under his pen. He was also the master of the short story. Among them are: ââ¬Å"Colonelââ¬â¢s Ladyâ⬠, ââ¬Å"Friend in Needâ⬠, ââ¬Å"Lionââ¬â¢s Skinâ⬠, etc. S. Maugham was among the most popular writers of his era, and reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s. Maughamââ¬â¢s style of writing is clear and precise. He doesn`t impose his views on the reader. He puts a question and leaves it to the reader to answer.I also like his revealing the weak sides and vices of human nature skilfully. His books are chatty and easy to read. This is clearly viewed from the given extract. ââ¬Å"Escapeâ⬠is a story about common people in common situation, and Maugham manages to tell it with the sense of humour and in a very interesting way. The essence of ââ¬Å"The Escapeâ⬠, to my mind, is that Roger and Ruth have diverse approaches towards the relations. Of course, the men and the women like the first step: flowers, attentiveness, passion. But then their paths diverge.The romance disappears, the man looks for the way out, he craves for new emotions, but the woman deems that the relations should develop into the marriage. And ââ¬Å"The Escapeâ⬠is the example of such a mismatch. The story can be logically divided into four main parts: the exposition, passages about Ruthââ¬â¢s and Rogerââ¬â¢s love, Roger falls out of love and the break-up. The story has a straight line narrative structure with authorââ¬â¢s digressions at the beginning. I think that the beginning of the story serves as its subject matter, where the author recounts his point of view on marriage.He convinces us that if a woman once made her mind to marry a man nothing but instant flight could save him. As an example he told a case, which happened with one of his friends, who seeing the inevitable marriage menacing before him, took ship and spent a year traveling round the world. He hoped the woman would forget him, but was mistaken. When he got back thinking himself safe, the woman, from whom he had fled, was waiting for him on the quay. This funny thing supports the idea that the inevitable loom of the marriage frightens some men and they try to avoid it.It should be mentioned, that he de scribes that awkward situation very skilfully and in a very ironical way. It could be confirmed by some cases of irony, used by the narrator ââ¬â ââ¬Å"instant flightâ⬠and ââ¬Å"inevitable loom menacing before himâ⬠, ââ¬Å"escaped with only a toothbrush for all his luggageâ⬠, which show us fear and trembling of men before the difficulties of the marriage. Maugham establishes realistic setting to his piece of writing. As the author uses the first-person narrative structure we can guess that the narrator is the secondary character of the story.The main ones here are Roger Charing and Ruth Barlow. To describe them, Maugham uses the direct characterization. For example, he gives it when speaks about of Ruthââ¬â¢s eyes using the epithets (ââ¬Å"splendidâ⬠, ââ¬Å"movingâ⬠, ââ¬Å"big and lovelyâ⬠), a detached epithet (ââ¬Å"poor dearâ⬠) ââ¬â all in the ironic way. Further on the narrator says that he knows only one man who escaped succe ssfully. Once upon a time his friend, Roger Charing told him he was going to marry. Roger was tall and handsome, rich, experienced middle-aged man. Of course, many women wanted to marry him.But he was happy to live the life of an unmarried man: the epithets ââ¬Å"sufficient experienceâ⬠, ââ¬Å"carefulâ⬠give the direct description of his lifestyle. But then he met Ruth Barlow. He fell in love with her. He immediately wanted to look after her and make her happy. Ruth was twice a widow, she was younger than Roger. She was quite good-looking and she had big, beautiful, dark eyes and she had the gift of pathos. When a man saw those big, sad eyes, he wanted to help Ruth. The epithet ââ¬Å"defencelessâ⬠expose the power of her look.It was Ruthââ¬â¢s mode to get what she wanted because she had no other means (money for instance). This ââ¬Å"giftâ⬠helped Ruth to reach her goals. The metaphor ââ¬Å"the gift of pathosâ⬠, the epithets ââ¬Å"splendid dark eyes â⬠, ââ¬Å"the most moving eyesâ⬠, ââ¬Å"big and lovely eyesâ⬠and the repetition of the word ââ¬Å"eyesâ⬠make us pay our attention to this peculiarity. And Ruth made her mind to marry Roger: he was rich, considerate, and tactful and was glad to take care of her, so he was the best variant for her. He didnââ¬â¢t let down and made a proposal of marriage to her and they were going to marry as soon as ossible. While reading we came across a lot of pure literary words (gift, splendid, wonderful, hazards, sadness, lovely) and some cliches (ââ¬Å"the world was too much for herâ⬠, ââ¬Å"stand between the hazards of life and this helpless little thingâ⬠, ââ¬Å"how wonderful it would be to take the sadness out of those big and lovely eyesâ⬠) which are peculiar to the description of ordinary situations concerning love affairs, so we see what kind of story ââ¬Å"The Escapeâ⬠is. The narrator provokes us to perceive it ironically.Through Rogerâ â¬â¢s vision, Ruth was very unlucky. Indeed, she seemed to be very miserable, everything was wrong with her. If she married a husband he beat her; if she employed a broker he cheated her; if she engaged a cook she drank. She never had a little lamb but it was sure to die. We can observe hopelessness of Ruthââ¬â¢s life through the epithets ââ¬Å"helpless little thingâ⬠, ââ¬Å"rotten timeâ⬠, ââ¬Å"unfortunateâ⬠, ââ¬Å"poor dearâ⬠, the metaphor ââ¬Å"a little lambâ⬠, parallel constructions ââ¬Å"if she marriedâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ and pure literary words such as ââ¬Å"sufferingsâ⬠, ââ¬Å"hazardsâ⬠, ââ¬Å"sadnessâ⬠.Roger took an interest in her destiny and was ready to relieve it: the repetition of the pronouns ââ¬Å"sheâ⬠and ââ¬Å"herâ⬠in Rogerââ¬â¢s speech, the epithet ââ¬Å"dreadfully sorryâ⬠prove my assumption. The epithets ââ¬Å"very happyâ⬠and ââ¬Å"pleasedâ⬠make us believe that it wasnââ¬â¢t a nuisance for him. But according to the narratorââ¬â¢s opinion, Ruth was two-faced woman of few ideas: he called her stupid and scheming. This epithets, the simile ââ¬Å"as hard as nailsâ⬠add some points to her description, so it again proves that the method of character-drawing here is direct.We see two people, Roger and Ruth, as the future family, so this is the idea of this extract of the text. The author describes the first part of their relations which were rather standard. As thousands of men and women, they met, fell in love and decided to be together. But then, on a sudden, Roger fell out of love. This was the second part of their relations. There was no evident reason. Perhaps, his heart-strings were no longer touched by Ruthââ¬â¢s pathetic look. Roger became acutely conscious that Ruth had a mind to marry him. He gave a solemn oath that nothing would induce him to marry Ruth.But he was in a quandary. He was aware that Ruth would assess her feelings at an immod erately high figure if he asked her to release him. Besides, he didnââ¬â¢t want people to say that he jilted a woman. The epithets ââ¬Å"acutely consciousâ⬠, ââ¬Å"a solemn oathâ⬠and ââ¬Å"an immoderately high figureâ⬠stress the importance, significance of his decision; as to the epithet ââ¬Å"pathetic lookâ⬠and the metaphor ââ¬Å"heart-stringsâ⬠(at the same time it is a cliche), they produce the humorous effect. Falling out of love is the most terrible thing I can imagine.Recently it was an acute pleasure for Roger to do everything for Ruth. He was charmed, but, as I suppose, it wasnââ¬â¢t a serious and profound feeling ââ¬â Roger lost it too easily. It is obvious Ruth was a narrow-minded woman and she didnââ¬â¢t really love Roger. But there are some arguments to be said in her defence, she lonely and wanted to be protected. Probably she would be a good wife. The repetition of the expression ââ¬Å"to have a mind toâ⬠reveals the conflict of Rogerââ¬â¢s and Ruthââ¬â¢s interests. Ruth desired to have relations of long duration ââ¬â she cried for the moon.On the contrary, Roger wanted to escape with no loss. And again we are the witnesses of the usual continuation of the love story. Itââ¬â¢s rather banal. Roger kept his own counsel; he remained attentive to all her wishes. It was decided that they would be married as soon as they found a suitable house. Roger applied to the agents and visited with Ruth house after house. It was very hard to find a satisfactory one. Sometimes houses were too large, sometimes they were too small, sometimes they were too expensive and sometimes they were too stuffy, sometimes they were too airy.The idea is that only such dishonest, shabby act as the flat-chase tactics seemed to be appropriate for Roger. I think, it was like a committing a crime. Rogerââ¬â¢s behaviour wasnââ¬â¢t fair, it was even disgraceful, but unfortunately such conduct is not uncommon, the m en trick the women very often, because their attitude towards the relations differs. Parallel constructions ââ¬Å"sometimes they were too large, sometimes they were too small, sometimes they were too expensive and sometimes they were too stuffyâ⬠, the metaphor ââ¬Å"house-huntingâ⬠, the epithet ââ¬Å"innumerable kitchensâ⬠describe Rogerââ¬â¢s scheme of the trouble-free parting.Firstly I took Rogerââ¬â¢s side, because I consider that each person should have a right for free choice, but then I was sorry for Ruth, Roger tired her out, she didnââ¬â¢t understand what was happening. The epithet ââ¬Å"exhaustedâ⬠demonstrates her state brightly. At last Ruth revolted. She asked Roger if he wanted to marry her. There was an unaccustomed hardness in her voice, but it didnââ¬â¢t affect the gentleness of his reply. Roger persuaded her that they would be married the very moment they found a suitable house. Ruth took to her bed. She didnââ¬â¢t want to see Roger, but he was as ever assiduous and gallant.Every day he sent her flowers, wrote that he had some more houses to look at. The epithets ââ¬Å"assiduousâ⬠, ââ¬Å"gallantâ⬠display his dissimulation. A week passed and he received the letter: Ruth let him know that she was going to get married and claimed that Roger didnââ¬â¢t love her. He answered that her news shattered him, but her happiness had to be his first consideration. He sent Ruth seven orders to view. He was quite sure she would find among them a house that would exactly suit her. So, we can see that Roger appeared to be very smart and sly person.He appeared quite cute to predict Ruthââ¬â¢s following actions. When he got the hang of Ruth, he pretended he was still in love very gallantly, until she got the hang of him, and I should say it was a more civilized way of jilting a woman than just to leave her. So, I think the message of the story is that a woman can be sly and scheming, but a man can make it his way also. This story carried me with its eternal intrigue ââ¬â the war between male and female. We may be in earnest about it or may try to ignore it, but it really takes place and this problem will exist until the end of human history.
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