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Critical Analysis Of Mr Know All

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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 …show more content…

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”

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