Analysis
Essay Preview: Analysis
Report this essay
The text Im going to analyse represents a short-story, entitled “THE LUNCHEON”, written by a prominent, English novelist, short-story writer, playwright and essayist Somerset Maugham.
First of all Id like to say some words about the title of the text “The Luncheon”. The title of the text is rather ironical. If we consult a dictionary, we can find out that the word “luncheon” means a “light snack”, but as we can see hereinafter a light snack turns to be an abundant and expensive meal.
The text represents the first person narration. The use of pronouns “I”, “my”, “myself” is predominant. E.g. “Did I remember?”, “My heart sank”, “as for myself, I chose the cheapest dish”.
The plot of the text is the following: the narrator, a book writer, recognizes a woman with whom he had lunch years ago. He starts remembering the unforgettable evening. He was young, lived in Paris and could barely make ends meet. She had read of his books and wrote a letter to congratulate him on his work. He invited her for lunch and to his horror she chose an expensive restaurant. He had only eighty francs to last him the rest of the month. She ordered one expensive dish after another and when the bill came he paid and was left with no money at all. However, in the end, the narrator feels that he has finally had his revenge when he sees that the lady now put a lot of weight.
Maugham offers the reader a description sustained by dialogues which has a source in a flash back. The author presents a flash back soon at the beginning of the text and this flash back becomes an important detail “Did I remember?” which allows us to know what had happened twenty years ago. The flash-back goes to the last paragraph when the narrator comes back to the present time and shows us that he had been revenged.
The tone of the text is ironical. Irony is presented here in a stressed form, mainly in scene of restaurant.
The given text can be divided into 3 logical parts: the 1 one is presented by 2 first paragraphs when the narrator sees the lady at the theatre in 20 years since their first meeting, which recurs to his memory in the second logical part. Id like to say that its the story in the story. So, this very part can be divided into3 structural parts. I think that it has the open structure: it possesses the exposition, the story and the climax.
The exposition begins with the sentence “It was twenty years ago and I was living in Paris” and ends with the words ” I answered that I would meet my friend by correspondence at Foyots on Thursday at half past twelve.” Here the reader learns about place of action – Paris and time – it was 20 years ago. We learn that the main the narrator was very poor and could hardly keep body and soul together. The reader gets information about the events which preceded the meeting of the main characters. The protagonist got the letter from a lady who was admired by his work, she wrote that she was interested to have chat with him and suggested meeting at Foyots, one of the most expensive restaurants. He was flattered and couldnt say “no” to her. The author uses: epithets little luncheon and modest luncheon are in contradiction with the luxury restaurant Foyots at which the French senators eat. I think it is used to achieve the ironical effect., the epithet – tiny room and the clichй to keep body and soul together underlines the fact that he lived in want.
Then comes the main part. It begins with the narrators description of his admirer and lasts till the last sentence. The action takes place in the restaurant. Here the reader learns more about the main characters. They are presented both directly and indirectly. So, the male character is the ingenuous one as we may note through the expressions from his way of thinking, acting anf speech “Foyots was so far beyond my means that I had never even thought of going there”, ” I was flattered,and I was too young to have learned to say “no” to a woman”. These and other
examples show us the narrators traditional concepts. He is also an educated man, polite,
from a good family tradition.
As for the female character,