This text is taken from the book of very famous writer W.S. Maugham “Theatre”. This is a piece of narration which is done in the 3rd person.
The main key the text is written is rather ironical, as I think, and its slat is very emotional. The main characters of the story are Michael and Julia. They both are actors and work together in the theatre of Jammie Langtone. Julia is more successful and more talented than Machael but it doesn’t disturb them to be fond of each other.
In this part of the book the author tells us the story of the engagement of the characters. So the plot is rather dynamic and fascinating.The action starts at the time before Easter when the theatre is closed and that’s why Machael offers Julia to visit his parents. As we can see already in this first paragraph, Michael likes doing everything according to the rules. That’s why he asked his mother to write the invitation for Julia. He thought “it would be more polite than if [he] just took [her] along”.
Also we can understand that Julia is already fall in love with him and she is very glad to spend this time with him. To show us her fillings the author uses the epithets and emotional-colored words: “You are sweat. Of course I shall love to come”, “Her heart beat with delight. The prospect of spending whole week with Michael was enchanting.”Michael is like an idol for her. She is ready to idealize all his actions, even this case with invitation: “It was just like his good nature to come to rescue when he knew she was at a loose end”.
But as I think he is not so ideal. He is not very brave for man because he is afraid even to say his parents that his girl-friend is a daughter of a vet. Instead of it he writes them that her father is a doctor in order Mr. and Mrs, Gosselyn (his parents) don’t refuse to receive Julia in their home.
I suppose it’s not very good for a man to not be able to defend his opinion, his feelling, etc. But Julia doesn’t notice it.She can forgive him everything for his love. Than the author describes the parents of Michael and their relations with Julia, using a lot of stylistic devices.
For example: anaphoric repetition (“He was… He reminded… He was… He had… He read…”, “She saw… She felt… she played… She walked… She talked… She saw”) •simile (“He [Mr. Gosselyn] reminded you of a head on an old coin that had been in circulation too long”) •epithets (“imposing”, “fussily”, “touching”, “modest”, “ingenious”, etc.) •parallel constructions (“It did not take her long to discover that the Colonel, notwithstanding his reserve, and Mrs. Gosselyn, notwithstanding her shyness, were taking stock of her”) •hyperbole (“…the ornaments with which the drawing-room was crowded”) •phraseology (“she was head over ears in love with him”)From this part of text we learn also the doubts of Mrs. Gosselyn about the profession of her son and his girl-friend.
She thinks that it’s not very respectable for gentleman to work on the stage. But all the same she wishes him success. She is also glad to see Julia in this house because to her mind she is a very good girl. She doesn’t know that Julia has used her artistic talent to be liked by Gosselyns. We can clearly understand this perfidy and also her real character when the author shows us her thoughts: “I should damn well think not. Haven’t I been giving a perfect performance of the village maiden for the last forty-eight hours?” “Gosh, I’m going down like a barrel of oysters.
” And she wins a victory – at the end of this week Michael makes her an offer.This is the culmination of the text. All characters seem to be happy in the end of the story. But I think these feelings are not true.
Julia thinks that she loves Michael, but in my opinion she loves only his beauty and doesn’t really understand at this moment what kind of person he is. Michael decides to marry Julia but, to my mind, he doesn’t love her because even at a such romantic moment as making an engagement he talks not about his feelings to Julia but about career: “when we do go into management I think we’d make a pretty good team.” So this marriage can be a mistake for both of them, because, as I consider, only that people can be happy in wedlock who love and respect each other.
