She had a great gift of mimicry, which ordinarily she kept in check thinking it was bad for her acting, but in these circles she turned it to good account and by means of it acquired the reputation of a wit. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. XI].
‘Who told you, Michael?' ‘A little bird,' he said archly. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. XVII].
All right, darling. But don’t be too late. Remember that Tom’s got to rise with the lark. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. XIV].
By gum, if I had your looks what an actor I’d have been. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. II].
‘I am sorry I was so beastly to you just now.' ‘Oh, my dear.' ‘Do you really think I am a ham actress?' ‘Darling. Duse couldn’t hold a candle to you.' ‘Do you honestly think that?' [Maugham, ‘The Theatre', ch. XXII].
After all she must be tolerant, he was only a boy, and if you must cross your t’s, she was old enough to be his mother. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. XIV].
Such an adventure had not happened to her for ages. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. XII].
Heaven knows, I am a good-natured woman, but there are limits to everything. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. XXI].
‘How old are you?' ‘Nineteen.' ‘That's a lie. You are twenty-two if You are a day.' [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. XX].
But you know, honestly you don’t know the first thing about Julia. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. XVI].
All the same she kept her eyes open, and if she noticed that any woman had predatory intentions on Charles she took care to queer her pitch. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. XI].
As we can see, irony is used by Maugham to show his own sarcasm ot that of the heroes of his novel to make the reader think twice or thrice before deciding what precisely is he trying to say.
2.
5. Specific features of repetition.
We interpret such a stylistic device as repletion as «word or word combination or word root (i.e. the form of a word that remains after removal of all affixes; a morpheme with lexical meaning that is not further subdivisible into other morphemes with lexical meaning), that is used in the novel more than once as in the phrase «Old, old, old», where it is linked with the apprehension of not being young any longer.
‘Old, old, old,' she muttered. ‘There are no two ways about it; I am entirely devoid of sex appeal.' [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. XXV].
Fairly often repletion takes place with the word form repeteed having different meanings as «like' (similar to) and «like» (find (something) enjoyable or agreeable or find it enjoyable or agreeable (to do something)) [Collins 2006] over here.
" Then it can’t be as like me as I thought." .
" But it is. It is exactly like you." [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. I].
Due to its ambiguity this repetition may be considered as pun as well.
She had an impulse to look at some of her old photographs. Michael was a tidy, business-like man, and her photographs were kept in large cardboard cases, dated and chronologically arranged. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. II].
I shall give you a three years' contract, I shall give you eight pounds a week and you’ll have to work like a horse." [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. III].
" I believe you are prouder of your family than of looking like a Greek god," she told him fondly.
" Anyone can be good-looking," he answered, with his sweet smile… [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. III].
" Well then, you shall be my leading man." .
" Fat chance I’d have of that with a London manager." Julia had an inspiration.
" Then you must go into management yourself and make me your leading lady." [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. III].
Over here we are dealing with repetitions of words in the same meaning (photographs, leading), repetitions of word combinations and even parts of the sentences (I shall give you) and root repetitions (looking, good-looking; manager, management) as well.
Some linguists refer to use of synonyms as semantic repetitions too [Бельчиков 2002: 67]. They may be found in the novel too.
It was quite nice when you looked out of the window. She got up to look, that would be a good way to make a move, then she would put on her hat and say good-bye to him.
" Yes, it is rather charming, isn’t it. … [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. XI].
2.
6. Peculiar properties of puns, litotes and rhetorical questions.
Such a figure of speech as pun is usually interpreted as «the use of words or phrases to exploit ambiguities and innuendoes in their meaning, usually for humorous effect or a play on words» [Бельчиков 2002: 143].
She liked to think she looked like that. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. I].
It was just like his good nature to come to the rescue when he knew she was at a loose end. But she saw there was something he wanted to say, yet did not quite like to. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. III].
Over here we deal with the pun connected with polysemy of the words repeated.
She learnt to speak French like a Frenchwoman. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. II].
It appears you speak French like a Frenchwoman and so they give you broken English parts. [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. II].
Over here the pun is connected with irony since a Frenchwoman is unlikely to learn to speak French, which is her own mother tongue.
Over here we should interpret this pun-simile as «She learnt to speak French very fluently», since Frenchwomen speak it this way.
Litotes should be understood as «understatements for rhetorical effect, especially when achieved by using negation with a term in place of using an antonym of that term, as in «She was not a little unwell» for «She was extremely well.» .
" Not bad for a woman of forty six," she smiled. «They are like me, there’s no denying that.» [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. I].
Similarly «Not bad» used in this novel by W. S. Maugham ought to be interpreted as «quite good».
Another substantial stylistic device, which makes this novel highly connotative is rhetorical question, i.e. a question to which no answer is required: used especially for dramatic effect [Арнольд 2010: 276]. An example in the novel is Who would not? (with the implication ‘Everybody would').
Wouldn’t you like to be a star?" .
" Who would not?" [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. II].
" You put that where the monkey put the nuts, dearie. Did not you know that when a woman hits me I always hit back?" .
" I did not hit you." .
[Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. V].
" Christ, the place is like a pig-sty. Why the hell don’t you get a charwoman in?" [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. V].
" How could you? How could you?" .
" I had nothing to do with it." [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. V].
" How can I prevent it? His contract’s up at the end of the season. It is a wonderful chance for him." [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. V].
" You rotten old eunuch, what do you know about love?" .
… «If you try to go to bed with them they say you are a dirty old man, and if you don’t they say you are a rotten old eunuch.» [Maugham, ‘Theatre', ch. V].
As we can see rhetorical questions «You rotten old eunuch, what do you know about love?» are used in the novel very often and their implication is structurally linked with the use epithets, metaphors and repetitions (old (having lived or existed for a relatively long time/ hardened) eunuch (a man who has been castrated/an ineffective man) [Collins 2006]).
Inferences from the chapter 2.
To sum up, we can say that stylistic devices used in the novel «Theatre» by William Somerset Maugham are very various and abundant.
We have studied only similes, epithets, metaphors, metonymies, irony, repetition, puns, litotes and rhetorical questions, but could have found many other figures of speech as well.
All these stylistic devices are used by William Somerset Maugham to make his novel much more interesting for the reader.
The reader coming across this or that stylistic device has to make up his mind trying to understand many of those highly expressive words, word combinations and sentences.
Conclusion.
Literary texts are just one of a number of various types of text or functional styles. Even within the functional style of literary texts there is great difference in use of various style features. For example, expressive and emotive prose like the novel «Theatre» by William Somerset Maugham (1874 -1965) is a combination of literary variant of the language and colloquial, which is presented by the speech of the characters which is stylized that means it has been made «literature like» and some elements of conversational English were made use of. Such a highly-implicit prose allows the use of elements of other styles but the author changes them and fulfils a certain function.
The British late XIXth — early XXth century prose had its own specific style features, which were common for many writers, especially those who were loyal to the old British belle-lettres traditions dating back to the first women-writers. Taking the novel «Theatre» by William Somerset Maugham as an example, we can formulate the following common style features it has:
Neutral and colloquial epithets, metaphors and similes is proper both to William Somerset Maugham commenting the narration and evaluating the heroes' behaviour and the characters' direct speech represented in the novel, where we can find all kinds of the stylistic devices we had analyzed.
The heroes of the novel use metonymies, irony, repetitions, puns, litotes and rhetorical questions. All of them can be found where William Somerset Maugham characterizes his heroes, the time and situations himself.
Metaphorical and metonymical vocabulary having expressiveness and emotiveness is quite more often used, with various forms of etiquette and address forms as well as interjections and idioms used to show the characters from their point of view, that of other characters and the narrator himself.
The speech in the novel is highly connotative and expressive when showing the heroes' attitude to one another, rhetoric questions dominating in the direct speech of the characters.
Irony is often used to make the style of the novel more expressive, to create an atmosphere of controversy and ambiguity.
William Somerset Maugham quite often introduces the direct speech, minimising uttered represented speech to the cases where the former would be superfluous.
The proper interpretation of the novel, in our opinion, significantly depends on such tropes as metaphor, irony, repetition, epithet, metonymy, irony and simile.
The epithets, based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence, used to characterize an object and pointing out to the reader some of the properties or features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features or properties, are quite often used to portray the characters' appearance and personality. The simple and compound epithets, metaphors, repetitions and similes used by William Somerset Maugham may at the same time be puns and tools of irony.
The similes giving rise to a new understanding of the object are used by William Somerset Maugham to make the novel more vivid and emotional, to see the actresses and actors' behaviour in close association with the playing some roles in their own personal lives as well and the reader’s conception of the common and uncommon theatrical activities.
As we have seen the style of this William Somerset Maugham’s novel is highly remarkable due to the metaphors, epithets, similes, irony and a number of other tropes, which are needed to show greatness and ambiguity of the world and a wide range of attitudes to life and death, sex, theatre and the people you cannot stay without.
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