"Theatre" by W. S. Maugham. Chapter 14

TASKS for Chapter 14

I.       Find in the text the following words and phrases and translate them into Russian:

on one excuse and another to confess to oneself that was all to the good shrewd vanity to have an affair with sb. sallow to feel compassion for sb. eminent persons to lay no claims on sb. to use all her arts of cajolery stale food to overcome one's scruples to find someone a trifle dull to have no inclination a man of the world she was modest about herself a smack in the face sulkily Julia's heart was wrung chivalrous courtesy a vile disposition alacrity wistful to act with great naturalness to make a scene she was in a black rage she'd get even with him to rack one's brains

под разными предлогами признаваться себе это было всем на пользу проницательный тщеславие иметь дело с кем-либо болезненный чувствовать сострадание к к-л выдающиеся люди не предъявлять претензий к-л использовать все ее искусство лести несвежая еда преодолеть сомнения считать кого-то мелочным занудой не иметь никакой склонности светский человек она была скромна в суждениях о себе пощечина мрачно Сердце Джулии сжалось галантная любезность мерзкое расположение живость задумчивый действовать с большой естественностью устраивать сцену она была в черной ярости она бы ужались и с ним ломать голову

II.     

1.         Was Julia really in love with Tom Fennell? And he?

Yes, she was: “It was not till after that night when they had first supped together that Julia confessed to herself that she had fallen in love with Tom. It came to her as a shock. But she was exhilarated.” “she knew very well that Tom was not in love with her. To have an affair with her flattered his vanity.”

2.         How old was Tom? What did he do? Why was he a success with women?

He was 22 years old:“since he was seventeen he had had a great many women. He loved the act rather than the person. He looked upon it as the greatest lark in the world. And she could understand why he had so much success. There was something appealing in his slightness, his body was just skin and bone, that was why his clothes sat on him so well, and something charming in his clean freshness. His shyness and his effrontery combined to make him irresistible. It was strangely flattering for a woman to be treated as a little bit of fluff* that you just tumbled on to a bed.”

3.         How can you characterize Roger? Where was he educated? What were his relations like with his parents? Did he know what he wanted to be? Did he want to go on the stage?

He was 17 and he was educated, as he attended Eton college:“Roger was seventeen. He was a nice-looking boy, with reddish hair and blue eyes, but that was the best you could say of him. He had neither his mother's vivacity and changing expression nor his father's beauty of feature. Julia was somewhat disappointed in him. As a child when she had been so constantly photographed with him he was lovely. He was rather stolid now and he had a serious look. Really when you came to examine him his only good features were his teeth and his hair. Julia was very fond of him, but she could not but find him a trifle dull. When she was alone with him the time hung somewhat heavily on her hands. She exhibited a lively interest in the things she supposed must interest him, cricket and such like, but he did not seem to have much to say about them. She was afraid he was not very intelligent.”  

Roger didn’t accept what his parents did, he was a really good boy.

 “He told Julia at once that he desired to leave Eton at Christmas, he thought he had got everything out of it that he could, and he wanted to go to Vienna for a few months and learn German before going up to Cambridge. Michael had wished him to go into the army, but this he had set his face against. He did not yet know what he wanted to be. Both Julia and Michael had from the first been obsessed by the fear that he would go on the stage, but for this apparently he had no inclination.”

4.         How did Tom and Roger get on together?

They spent much time together, they were peers and had much in common.

5.         Was Julia as successful in the movies as in the theatre? Did she envy the film-stars?

“At one time people had compared her unfavourably with some actress or other who at the moment enjoyed the public favour, but now no one disputed her supremacy. It was true that she had not the world-wide notoriety of the film-stars; she had tried her luck on the pictures, but had achieved no success; her face on the stage so mobile and expressive for some reason lost on the screen, and after one trial she had with Michael's approval refused to accept any of the offers that were from time to time made her. She had got a good deal of useful publicity out of her dignified attitude. But Julia did not envy the film-stars; they came and went; she stayed.”

6.         Describe in detail how Julia managed to play different characters on the stage. What thrilled her? Why did she sometimes fell like God?

“The critics admired her variety. They praised especially her capacity for insinuating herself into a part. She was not aware that she deliberately observed people, but when she came to study a new part vague recollections surged up in her from she knew not where, and she found that she knew things about the character she was to represent that she had had no inkling of. It helped her to think of someone she knew or even someone she had seen in the street or at a party; she combined with this recollection her own personality, and thus built up a character founded on fact but enriched with her experience, her knowledge of technique and her amazing magnetism. People thought that she only acted during the two or three hours she was on the stage; they did not know that the character she was playing dwelt in the back of her mind all day long, when she was talking to others with all the appearance of attention, or in whatever business she was engaged.”

“She could step into a part, not a very good one perhaps, with silly words to say, and by her personality, by the dexterity which she had at her finger-tips, infuse it with life. There was no one who could do what she could with a part. Sometimes she felt like God.”

7.         How did Julia revenge herself on Tom?

She left the money in the envelop.

“She got the Dennorants to come for the week-end. Charles Tamerley was staying at Henley and accepted an invitation to come over for Sunday and bring his host, Sir Mayhew Bryanston, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer. To amuse him and the Dennorants, because she knew that the upper classes do not want to meet one another in what they think is Bohemia, but artists of one sort or another, she asked Archie Dexter, her leading man, and his pretty wife who acted under her maiden name of Grace Hardwill. She felt pretty sure that with a marquess and marchioness to hover round and a Cabinet Minister to be impressed by, Tom would not go off to play golf with Roger or spend the afternoon in a punt. In such a party Roger would sink into his proper place of a schoolboy that no one took any notice of, and Tom would see how brilliant she could be when she took the trouble.”

She also gave him money to pay servants to hint that he hadn’t got enough money.

III. Make up a list of words and phrases describing Tom Fennell. Comment on the repetition of "a young man" in the text. First "he was a blushing young man" for Julia. Did her attitude change when she was better acquainted with him? Prove it by giving examples from the text.

Her attitude changed. His young age attracted her.

("My God, I wish it could have choked them.")

“Selfish, stupid and common, that's what he was. She almost wished he wasn't going tomorrow so that she could have the pleasure of turning him out bag and baggage.”

“That showed what a fool he was. You would have thought he'd have some gratitude. Why, the very clothes he had on she'd paid for. That cigarette-case he was so proud of, hadn't she given him that? And the ring he wore. My God, she'd get even with him. Yes, and she knew how she could do it. She knew where he was most sensitive and how she could most cruelly wound him.”

IV. Find in the text epithets and similes which characterize Julia and Michael and say what effect the author achieves by using them.

Julia : she was exhilarated; looked very pretty and young; Julia was irritated; Julia, radiant, sank back into a chair;

Similes: she lapped them up as a kitten laps up milk.; She read his mind like an open book.

Michael: so damned good-natured about it; Michael was prosy, near with his money, self-complacent, but how extraordinarily kind he was and how unselfish! He was devoid of envy.

Julia and Michael are a binary opposition. The author uses these epithets and similes to demonstrate their strange and different nature which each of them have.

V. What stylistic device did Maugham employ at large to characterize Julia? Illustrate your answer with the examples from the text. Comment on the lexicon used by Julia. To what stylistic layer of the vocabulary does it belong? How does it characterize Julia?

("Bloody fool, bloody fool")

"If I haven't cooked Roger's goose I'll eat my hat," she thought

"Idiots!" she said to herself crossly.

("I must keep my temper. I must keep my temper. Why was I such a fool as to give him a racing punt?")

("Blast his eyes. No, I mustn't show I mind. Thank God, I can act.")

("Lucky I'm a good actress.")

SD: parenthesis (introduction to her inner world).

She used vulgarisms. It characterizes her as an impatient woman, she can control herself outside, but her inner world is impatient.

VI. Give a summary of chapter 14. (in written form)

Julia’ s family and Tom spent time together in the villa in the countryside. Tom and Roger found much in common. Julia didn’t like Tom’s attitude to her, as he didn’t spent time with her and treated her as the mother of his friend. She didn’t want to lose Tom, but at the same time she wanted to revenge him.