5. Comment on the paragraphs in which:

Mrs. Strickland and Mr. Van Busche Taylor say that great Art is always decorative. (Chapter L VIII);

Robert Strickland speaks about war and his time at the front. (Chapter L VIII).

Enact a conversation between the narrator and Dr. Coutras. (Chapter L VII).

Suggested Topics for Discussion

1. Somerset Maugham, his background, life and literary career.

2. A character sketch of:

   1. Charles Strickland (an individual and an artist);

   2. Mrs. Strickland and her family;

   3. Dick Stroeve;

   4. Blanche Stroeve;

   5. The Tahitians ( Tiare Johnson, Ata, Captain Nichols, Captain Brunot, Dr. Coutras and others).

3. The style and composition of the novel.

4. The problem of Art as shown in the novel.

5. The title of the book.

Plan for Discussion on the Text

1. Give some information about literary career of the author; his manner of writing.

2. Characterize the text under study. Say whether it presents a piece of narration, a description, character-drawing etc. If it contains different elements, name all of them.

3. Explain from whose point of view the story is told (first person narration, third person narration).

4. What is the setting for the story?

5. Speak on the plot of the extract.

6. Into what parts does the text fall? Characterize each.

7. Is the title of the text a speaking one?

8. What is the general slant of the text? Is it satirical, humorous, pathetic, unemotional? How can you prove it?

9. Who are the main characters? What is the author’s method of describing them? Point out the instances of direct or indirect characterization.

10. Can you trace where the author’s sympathy lies?

11. What is the main idea of the extract?

12. Where does the story reach its climax?

13. In which sentences is the resolution presented?

14. What is the message of the passage?

15. Comment on the expressive means of the language and its role in the passage under study (particularly such as: epithets, metonymy, metaphor, simile, irony, allusion, hyperbole, etc.).

16. Speak on the syntax of the text. Find sentences with parallel constructions, repetition and discuss the effect achieved by their use.

17. What is the style of the passage (the style of fiction, of scientific prose, official style, publicistic style)?

18. Expand on the problems touched upon in the extract.

19. Give a summary of your comments on the text.

Glossary of Terms

Allusion – a reference to specific places, persons, literary characters, historical events, known to the reader, that by some association have come to stand for a certain thing or idea.

e.g. It’s no use pretending that we are Romeo and Juliet (B. Shaw)

Antonomasia – the use of a proper name instead of a common name and vice versa. The aim of it is to point out certain features, which are common to both objects.

e.g. The Napoleon of Crime (A. Conan Doyle).

Anaphora – the repetition of the first word or a word-group in several successive sentences, clauses, phrases. Its function is emphasis.

e.g. How many days will finish up the year, how many years a mortal man may live (W. Shakespeare).

Alliteration – a repetition of the same consonant at the beginning of neighbouring words or accented syllables.

e.g. The merry month of May.

The winnowing wind (G. Keats).

Climax – an ascending serious or scale when the ideas are presented in the order of rising importance.

e.g. “She rose – she sprung – she clung to his embrace” (G. Byron).

“I’m sorry, I’m so very sorry, I’m so extremely sorry” (Chesterton).

Contrast – juxtaposition of unlike characters, ideas or images to heighten the effect, opposed to gradation.

e.g. Caesar and Napoleon.

Comparison (ordinary comparison) – takes into consideration all the properties of the two objects, stressing the one, which is compared.

e.g. – “The boy seems to be as clever as his mother”. (boy and mother belong to the same class objects – human beings)

Simile – shows likeness in dissimilar objects of different classes of things.

e.g. My heart is like a singing bird.

Detachment – 1. A separating of a secondary part of a sentence with the aim of emphasizing it.

2. A manner of narration in which the author stands aloof from and is unaffected by the events and characters he portrays.

e.g. – Very small and child – like, he never looked more than fourteen.

Epithet – is a word or a group of words giving an expressive characterization of the object described. It expresses the emotionally coloured individual attitude of the author towards the object spoken of.

e.g. True love; a fine-open-faced boy.

Epithets may be metaphorical, as they may imply comparison.

e.g. A wooden face.

Ellipsis – the omission of a word or words necessary for the complete syntactical construction of a sentence but not necessary for understanding it.

e.g. Don’t know. Couldn’t come.

Framing (ring repetition) – a kind of repetition in which the opening word is repeated at the end of a sentence or a sense-group.

e.g. “No wonder his father wanted to know what Bosinney meant, no wonder”

(G. Galsworthy).

Hyperbole – exaggerating or extravagant statement is used to express strong feeling or to produce a strong impression.

e.g. “I’d cross the world to find you a pin” (A.Coppard).

I’ve told you forty times.

He was frightened to death.

That’s heaps of time.

Irony – the use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning for the purpose of ridicule.

e.g. It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket

A fine friend you are.

Inversion – change of word order for emphatic aim.

e.g. “Down came the storm, and smoke again” (Longfellow).

Metaphor (transference) – is an implied comparison between two things seemingly quite different.

e.g. “All the world is stage, and all men and women merely players”

(W. Shakespeare).

It is a hidden comparison (no comparing words are used).

e.g. Take away love and our earth is tomb.

The leg of a chair, the eye of a needle.

Metonymy – use of one word for another denoting a thing of which it is part or with which it is associated. (The effect – for the cause; the instrument – for the action; the container – for the contained).

e.g. The kettle is boiling.

The vines of France (W. Shakespeare).

Oxymoron – a figure of speech, consisting in the use of an epithet or attributive phrase in contradiction of the noun it defines.

e.g. He was gentle as hell.

“Speaking silence” (G. Byron).

Awfully nice.

Personification – a kind of metaphor, endows a thing or phenomenon or an abstract notion with features peculiar to a human being. The markers of personification are pronouns.

e.g. Time flies.

“No time to turn at Beauty’s glance and watch Her feet, how they can dance” (W.H. Davis).

“No sleep till mort, when Youth and Pleasure meet” (G. Byron).

Parallelism – the similarity of the syntactical structure of successive phrases, clauses or sentences. This device implies comparison.

e.g. “She was a good servant’

She walked softly,

She was a determined woman,

She walked precisely” (G. Greene).

Repetition – a repetition of the same word, or phrase with the view of expressiveness. Repetition of all kinds is widely used in poetry and prose.

e.g. “Gold, gold, gold, gold

Bright and yellow, hard and cold…” (Hood).

“Scrooge went to bed again,

And thought, and thought

And thought, and thought

It over, and over, and over” (Ch. Dickens).

Rhetorical question – a question asked for dramatic effect is a rhetorical question. It may not demand an answer. When it does, the answer may be supplied or left for the reader. In prose, R.Q. often serves an organizing purpose setting up the point the writer wishes to develop.

e.g. “What did anything matter really but that Charlie loved her?

(W. Somerset Maugham).

Simile – a figure of speech in which two objects are compared one of them being likened to the other, a kind of comparison, introduced with the help of special grammatical means (conjunctions than, as if, like) or by such verbs as “resemble”, “remind”, “seem”. It shows likeness in dissimilar objects.

e.g. run like a horse, eat like a pig, smoke like a chimney, as fat as a pig, as cool as a cucumber, as thing as a rail.

Zeugma – use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two apparent words in the context, one metaphorical and the other literal in sense.

e.g. “Either you or your head must be off” (G. Carroll).

“Juan was a bachelor of arts, and parts, and hearts” (G. Byron).