Formalist Critical Review of Somerset Maugham’s “Mr. Know All”
In the light of formalist approach of appreciation, Maugham’s “Mr. Know All” is a narrative that bears a number of narrative aesthetic criteria that entail focusing on both the form and content, in terms of its plot, setting, point of view, narrator, character, symbols and themes.
The narration begins with excitement and suspense as the narrator subjectively reveals his abhorrence for Max Kelada, whom he met on a ship and was his colleague in the cabin. This initially arouses our curiosity to find out the reason of this detestation and its consequences. Besides, The narrative tells us that the narrator is British, and he is travelling on a ship from San Francisco to Yokohama, where he shows signs of prejudice against those who are not pure British. Based on this prejudice, Kelada expresses his annoyance from the narrator’s point of view by a mechanism of being too talky. Also, this is significant because others on the ship believe that Mr. Kelada wasn’t so annoying.
Then, events and actions exponentially succeed to reveal Max Kelada, as an
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Moreover, the places mentioned in the narrative include the cabin, a dining table, a smoking room and others not well described, a thing that confirms that the place retreats for the sake of the characters’ progress and events. Moreover, the setting of place is significant as most of its actions take place on a shipboard after World War I. At this time, Kujawska-Lis (2006) tells us that accommodations were mingy, so the narrator has to share a cabin with Mr. Kelada (p.232). Because they’re on a shipboard, they are in sturdy contact with each other – there’s nowhere to “run away”
Through characterisation, the author is able to express the main idea of disempowerment and also allowing us as readers to feel discontented and upset towards the main character.
Literature work always has some lesson for the people that could even leave a thought-provoking effect on their lives and compel them to understand the reality of the world. However, there are some people, who just read literature as a source of entertainment, but the real meaning, of the reading or encountering any literature work, is realized when a reader understands a message. Which writer intends to give to a reader. It is because the literature work has a connection, in addition, influence on the character building process.
Relations between sympathy-empathy expressiveness and fiction have become a significant issue in the debate on the emotional responses to the film fiction. Due to their complexity many scholars found it useful to diagram them. With his essay, “Empathy and (Film) Fiction”, Alex Neill tries to develop new theory for analyzing the fiction and, especially, the emotional responses from the audience on it. The project of this essay is represented with an aim to show the audience the significant value of the emotional responses to the film fiction. From my point of view in the thesis of his project he asks a simple question: “Why does the (film) fiction evoke any emotions in the audience?”, further building the project in a very plain and clever
For this essay I will analyze the unnamed narrator whom is the protagonist in the story. The story opens up with the narrator describing
the start of the whole thing come to be in a railway train upon the street to mhow from ajmir. there are not any cushions in the intermediate class, and the population are both intermediate, it's eurasian, or local, which for an extended night time adventure is nasty; or loafer, that may be a snigger despite the fact that intoxicated.
that thus deem’. ‘as the fame runs’. His work is a literary exercise in the dramatic
In the beginning, while the main character’s name is unknown to the reader, they quickly learn of his arrogance, insecurity, and lack of self-awareness through the voice he uses when narrating. For example, his arrogance is shown in the beginning when he is concerned with how the visit with Robert will affect him and dismisses the relationship his wife had with him in the past, claiming the audiotapes to be just harmless chit-chat. His self-absorbance is also shown when he states, “She and I began going out, and of course she told her blind man
The viewpoint of the world that the narrator has, completely alters as certain events take place throughout the story. His outlook on nature transforms into a wholly different standpoint as the story progresses. As his tale begins, the narrator sees himself as a tough guy or "bad character". He believes he is invincible. There is nobody as cool as he is or as dangerous as him and his friends are. With his
This passage is an extract from Joseph O’ Connor’s Star of the sea which was penned in the year 2002. The passage makes use of a third person narrative view point as a result of which the readers are provided with a vivid image of passengers aboard a stormy sea ship. The passage talks about a ship afloat a stormy sea and how the passengers on the deck are caught unaware due to this storm. The author uses a descriptive style of writing with short crisp sentences that heighten the pace of the story. In the last two paragraphs however, the author uses longer sentences that signal a slower pace and show the readers that the storm has died down for the time being. The author has interspersed the action with 2 dialogues. It is interesting to
the story is an important one, which brings to the forefront the particular allure of
In this analytic essay, I will be exploring the use of literary language in the novel Saturday by Ian McEwan and how with the use of narration and imagery can under shadow a simple piece of literature.
Modernism, in literature, can be seen as a shift in focus to the unassociated introspective reflection of characters in such texts as Go Tell It On The Mountain, by James Baldwin, Miss Lonelyhearts, by Nathanael West and The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. This is a revision from the previous focal point of exterior events and places in correlation with the character’s reflections. Emphasis is placed on review upon feelings and thoughts, and even conversations with oneself, as opposed to the more directly event-driven reflections in texts of the pre-modernist era.
Any literary work is unique. It is created by the author in accordance with his vision and is permeated with his idea of the world. The reader’s interpretation is also highly individual and depends to a great extent on his knowledge and personal experience. That’s why one cannot lay down a fixed “model” for a piece of critical appreciation. Nevertheless, one can give information and suggestions that may prove helpful.
It is when the artist begins to add nuances and harmonies to the melody that the work becomes inaccessible to the unlearned ear, thus isolating a portion of the audience. When works of art are created to express the universality of humankind they are more beneficial to it. As an example, this view is dissimilar to the view if Dante, who believed that the language of a work should be elevated. Tolstoy argues the more details that are given in the work the more opportunities for disconnection from its message the audience has (391).
We live in a strange and puzzling world. Despite the exponential growth of knowledge in the past century, we are faced by a baffling multitude of conflicting ideas. The mass of conflicting ideas causes the replacement of knowledge, as one that was previously believed to be true gets replace by new idea. This is accelerated by the rapid development of technology to allow new investigations into knowledge within the areas of human and natural sciences. Knowledge in the human sciences has been replaced for decades as new discoveries by the increased study of humans, and travel has caused the discarding of a vast array of theories. The development of