I have read the story The Escape” written by a famous English writer of the
20th century Somerset Maugham.
The subject matter of the text is the relationship between woman and man.
The main idea of the text is that you should not be afraid to be honest with
each other and lie about your feelings, because this becomes a real test not only for
someone who you do not have the courage to tell the truth, but also for yourself
because every day you have to come up with new ways to support your lies and not
let them break out.
This text is about about a very wealthy man Roger Charing who falls in love
with Ruth Barlow, a woman who is twice a widow. After some time they start to
think about marriage. Then suddenly Roger understands that he is not in love with
Ruth anymore, so he finds a way to break up with his “fiancée”. He tells her that
they are going to marry the day they find a perfect house, but during two years of
rejecting all the offers Ruth loses her patience and leaves Roger herself.
The climax is consist in the Ruth’s question: Do you want to marry me or do
you not? She has become nervous, because she begin to realize that she is being
deceived and there was no hope left at all. After that, she decides to take matters into
her own hands.
The main characters described both directly and indirectly through their
speech, behavior and attitudes to other people.
There are 2 main characters in the story - Roger Charing and Ruth Barlow.
Roger Charing
He was no longer young when he fell in love with Ruth Barlow and he had h
ad sufficient experience to make him careful; a strong, hefty fellow with plenty of
money.
He was a self-satisfied and arrogant man. самодовольным и
высокомерным. He knew that "She's had a rotten time, poor dear." and he tried to
do only good in her direction, save her life and fill her with happiness. He was
thinking about how wonderful it would be to take the sadness put of those big and
lovely eyes! He gave her flowers, jewelry, took her to restaurants, but as the narrator
notes, he was more pleased with himself and what he shares than with his fiancee.
He was indifferent and not really sincere and somewhat hypocritical towards
his fiancée. Even Rus Barloy spoke of him as a callous person. This is confirmed by
his actions, after he realized that he had fallen out of love with her, he did not tell
her about it directly, but continued to do what was required of him as a husband and
pretended that nothing had changed, he also sent her flowers and gallantly courted
her as his future wife.
He was cowardly, because he could not tell her the truth about his feelings and
that he was cold to her, and he had to run away until the situation itself was resolved.
He gave his word, but did not keep it and did not want to solve the problem he had
in any way. This also speaks of him as an irresponsible person and, moreover,
actively seeking that very responsibility.
In fact, he was not afraid to offend her, he was afraid of clarifying the
relationship and talking about feelings, listening to accusations [ækjʊˈzeɪʃn] in his
direction. This speaks of him as a heartless, cold and selfish person.
He was characterized only by cold calculation, he was a reasonable and
thoughtful person, so he told Ruth that the wedding would take place when there
was a suitable home for their future life. Having reconciled his cunning, he looked
for flaws in every house. as the author notes, " Roger always found a fault that made
the house unsuitable. "Roger's tactic of finding a home lasted 2 years until Ruth took
the courage to make a decision.
Ruth Barlow
Ruth Barlow, unlike her chosen one, was at first glance a sensitive person.
The author says of her: Mrs. Barlow, who has already been widowed twice, had
magnificent dark eyes, the most touching I have ever seen; they always seemed ready
to fill with tears.
But on the other hand, her sensitivity is her weapon, her «gift».
This “gift” helped Ruth to reach her goals. According to the narrator’s
opinion, Ruth was two-faced woman of few ideas: he called her stupid and
scheming.
The author notes that she was able to use this trait of her character, because
she easily played on the feelings of men so that they lost their experience and sanity
from pity for her, because they wanted to protect her from the world.
However, she has experienced a lot of bad attitude towards herself, as the
author notes: if she married a husband he beat her; if she employed a broker he
cheated her; if she engaged a cook she drunk.
Her sensitivity made her a trusting and sometimes stupid person, so she
waited for an offer from Roger Charning for 2 whole years and only after this period
realized that she was being dishonest and began her life.
But she was not as simple as it seemed. Despite everything, she was cunning
and smart, as hard as nail. The author tells a story confirming this fact about how
she once played bridge with him and behaved in the game like a cold and calculating
woman, winning him over and over again. But once she had lost. And in this
situation, she presented herself as an impudent, indifferent and unscrupulous
woman, whose face showed that she did not feel a drop of shame for forgetting about
her debt, even though she promised to send a check for the lost amount. This also
characterizes her as a dishonest person and prone to deceit.
Perhaps it's her survival skills in a world in which, as Roger claimed,
"everyone had treated Mrs. Barlow very badly."
In fact, Ruth was simply not independent and could not take responsibility
for herself. This is confirmed by her own words addressed to herself: I have found
someone who is anxious to take care of me. She was unable to take care of herself
on her own, so she expected this from others.
To make the readers understand the main idea and the atmosphere of this story
the author uses different stylistic devices.
The story can be divided into four main parts: the exposition, passages about
Ruth’s and Roger’s love, Roger falls out of love and the break-up.
The story starts from the exposition in which the author introduces the reader
with the problem. In the exposition the author uses metaphor talking about marriage
as a dangerous thing (“flight could save him”, “the inevitable loom”), he also uses
direct speech (expressing the thoughts of “a friend of him”) and a simple emotive
epithet (“women are fickle”). His humor here is in the fact that the poor friend came
to what he had run away from, so this is a situational humor.
The author uses the direct speech in which such epithets as “callous”
(speaking about the narrator), “rotten” (speaking about Ruth) are used. We can
recognize now completely that all the narrator’s words were ironic, because his
epithets towards Ruth are like that, and also “stupid” and a simile “as hard as nails”.
Then there comes an explanation of why he has such an attitude towards the poor
widow.
Going further, we come across an anticlimax. The tense is growing, but then
Roger “on a sudden, fell out of love”. This is a bit unexpected. Ruth’s “pathetic (a
repeated epithet) look ceased to wring Roger’s heart-strings” (a metaphor). But
Roger “swore a solemn oath” (a metaphor) not to jilt Ruth, moreover, she was able
to “assess her wounded feelings at an immoderately high figure” (an extended
metaphor).
So there begins the real climax with its growing tense. The author uses
repetitions: anaphoras (“they… they”, “sometimes… sometimes”), parallel
constructions (“they looked, they inspected, they climbed”). After the main heroes’
reasoning in direct speech, their proceeded searching for a house looks like a
repetition, too. Yet, the author uses an antonomasia here, calling Roger an angel
(though we know he is not – an irony).