Chapter 14

TASKS for Chapter 14

I. Find in the text the following words and phrases and translate them into Russian:

•  1.     on one excuse and another – то под одним предлогом, то под другим
• 2.     to confess to oneself – признаться себе
• 3.     that was all to the good – все было к лучшему
• 4.     shrewd – проницательный, хитрый, умный
• 5.     vanity – тщеславие, суета
• 6.     to have an affair with sb. – крутить с кем-либо роман
• 7.     Sallow - болезненный
• 8.     to feel compassion for sb. – сочувствовать, сострадать
• 9.     eminent persons – знаменитые люди
• 10. to lay no claims on sb. – не предъявлять притязаний на кого - либо
• 11. to use all her arts of cajolery – использовать все свое умение льстить (умасливать)
• 12. stale food – залежалая еда
• 13. to overcome one's scruples – преодолеть сомнения
• 14. to find someone a trifle dull – считать кого-то глупой безделушкой
• 15. to have no inclination – не иметь склонности
• 16. a man of the world – светский человек
• 17. she was modest about herself – быть о себе скромного мнения
• 18. a smack in the face - пощечина
• 19. sulkily - угрюмо
• 20. Julia's heart was wrung – сердце Джулии сжалось
• 21. chivalrous courtesy - рыцарский
• 22. a vile disposition – гнусный нрав
• 23. alacrity – готовность, рвение, живость
• 24. wistful - задумчивый
• 25. to act with great naturalness – поступать очень естественно
• 26. to make a scene – устраивать сцену
• 27. she was in a black rage – быть вне себя от ярости
• 28. she'd get even with him – она бы ужилась даже с ним
• 29. to rack one's brains – ломать голову

II. Answer the following questions:

1. Was Julia really in love with Tom Fennell? And he?

Unlike Tom, Julia was really in love, but she realized that he wasn’t completely hers.

2. How old was Tom? What did he do? Why was he a success with women?

Tom was 22. He was an accountant.

 “He was a highly-sexed young man and enjoyed sexual exercise. From hints, from stories that she had dragged out of him, she discovered that since he was seventeen he had had a great many women. He loved the act rather than the person. He looked upon it as the greatest lark in the world. And she could understand why he had so much success. There was something appealing in his slightness, his body was just skin and bone, that was why his clothes sat on him so well, and something charming in his clean freshness. His shyness and his effrontery combined to make him irresistible. It was strangely flattering for a woman to be treated as a little bit of fluff that you just tumbled on to a bed.”

3. How can you characterize Roger? Where was he educated? What were his relations like with his parents? Did he know what he wanted to be? Did he want to go on the stage?

“Roger was seventeen. He was a nice-looking boy, with reddish hair and blue eyes, but that was the best you could say of him. He had neither his mother’s vivacity and changing expression nor his father’s beauty of feature. Julia was somewhat disappointed in him. As a child when she had been so constantly photographed with him he was lovely. He was rather stolid now and he had a serious look. Really when you came to examine him his only good features were his teeth and his hair. Julia was very fond of him, but she could not but find him a trifle dull. When she was alone with him the time hung somewhat heavily on her hands. She exhibited a lively interest in the things she supposed must interest him, cricket and such like, but he did not seem to have much to say about them.”

“Roger was very polite to the guests. He did his duty as part host like a man of the

world. But it seemed to Julia that he held himself in some curious way aloof, as though he were playing a part in which he had not lost himself, and she had an

uneasy feeling that he was not accepting all these people, but coolly judging them. She had an impression that he took none of them very seriously.”

“Michael had wished him to go into the army, but this he had set his face against. He did not yet know what he wanted to be. Both Julia and Michael had from the first been obsessed by the fear that he would go on the stage, but for this apparently he had no inclination.”

“He led his own life. He went out on the river and lay about the garden reading. On his seventeenth birthday Julia had given him a very smart roadster, and in this he

careered about the country at breakneck speeds.”

4. How did Tom and Roger get on together?  

Tom and Roger became the best friends, they spent all the time together and irritated Julia.

5. Was Julia as successful in the movies as in the theatre? Did she envy the film-stars?

No, she wasn’t very successful in the movies, but she did not envy the film-stars; they came and went; she stayed.

6. Describe in detail how Julia managed to play different characters on the stage. What thrilled her? Why did she sometimes fell like God?

“The critics admired her variety. They praised especially her capacity for insinuating herself into a part. She was not aware that she deliberately observed people, but when she came to study a new part vague recollections surged up in her from she knew not where, and she found that she knew things about the character she was to represent that she had had no inkling of. It helped her to think of someone she knew or even someone she had seen in the street or at a party; she combined with this recollection her own personality, and thus built up a character founded on fact but enriched with her experience, her knowledge of technique and her amazing magnetism. People thought that she only acted during the two or three hours she was on the stage; they did not know that the character she was playing dwelt in the back of her mind all day long, when she was talking to others with all the appearance of attention, or in whatever business she was engaged. It often seemed to her that she was two persons, the actress, the popular favourite, the best-dressed woman in London, and that was a shadow; and the woman she was playing at night, and that was the substance.”

“her mastery over the medium, that thrilled her”.

“She’ could step into a part, not a very good one perhaps, with silly words to say, and by her personality, by her dexterity which she had at her finger-tips, infuse

it with life. There was no one who could do what she

could with a part.” That’s why she sometimes felt like God.

7. How did Julia revenge herself on Tom?

She humiliated him by sending him some money to pay off servants.

III. Make up a list of words and phrases describing Tom Fennell. Comment on the repetition of "a young man" in the text. First "he was a blushing young man" for Julia. Did her attitude change when she was better aquainted with him? Prove it by giving examples from the text.

Yes, Julia’s opinion changed. She realized that he was a great lover, who changed women like socks. The repetition of "a young man" underlines the difference in the age between Julia and Tom.

Tom is described in the following way:

• ·        a highly-sexed young man
• ·        enjoyed sexual exercise
• ·        had a great many women
• ·        loved the act rather than the person
• ·        the greatest lark in the world
• ·        his body was just skin and bone
• ·        something charming in his clean freshness
• ·        his shyness and his effrontery combined to make him irresistible
• ·        when he could not get his hair to stay down, and the moment it was dry it spread over his head in unruly curls. It made him look younger.
• ·        in the constant companionship of Roger he had shed the young man about town who was so careful of his dress, so particular about wearing the right thing, and was become again a sloppy little schoolboy
• ·        In every remark he made, in his mischievousness, in his polite little ways, he made her feel that she belonged to an older generation.

IV. Find in the text epithets and similes which characterize Julia and Michael and say what effect the author achieves by using them.

Julia

• ·        really beautiful eyebrows
• ·        smiled charmingly
• ·        lively sense of the ridiculous
• ·        deeply hurt
• ·        acted with great naturalness
• ·        a beautiful performance
• ·        amazing magnetism
• ·        the best-dressed woman in London
• ·        the popular favourite
• ·        “I hope Tom won’t find it so,” she said, as though she
• ·        were seriously concerned.
• ·        excruciatingly bored by him (by Michael)

Michael

• ·        smiled in his friendly way
• ·        extraordinarily kind
• ·        good, friendly smile

V. What stylistic device did Maugham employ at large to characterize Julia? Illustrate your answer with the examples from the text. Comment on the lexicon used by Julia. To what stylistic layer of the vocabulary does it belong? How does it characterize Julia?

Julia is characterized thorough the interior monologue. In her thoughts Julia sometimes uses vulgar words, which underline that he is a real actress. When she talks to people she is polite as a noble woman, and in reality she is completely different:

• ·        “Bloody fool, bloody fool”
• ·        “My God, I wish it could have choked them.”
• ·        “Blast his eyes. No, I mustn’t show I mind. Thank God, I can act.”
• ·        “I must keep my temper. I must keep my temper. Why was I such a fool as to give him a racing punt?”

VI. Give a summary of chapter 14. (in written form)

Julia gave Tom a lot of presents, because he was very poor. Once she invited him to spent his vacation with her family and asked Michael to let a flat out on hire for Tom. While in their house, Tom got on well with Julia’s son Roger, so he spent no time with her. She was hurt and revenged on him by sending him money to pay off servants.