Theatre as people for W.S.Maugham’s

We have made some analysis of the fragments of the novel and can make conclusions that W.S. Maugham did not considered theatre as we used to. In the novel he showed us another side of theatre – theatre as people, actors; theatre as business, as money.

Theatre as people is mainly represented by W.S.Maugham with the help of the concept “actor”. The mentioned concept is mainly represented with the help of Julia’s image. So the author underlines the peculiarities of the actor’s activity in the following context: “She did it, if not mechanically, from an instinctive desire to please” [27; 18].

Besides, the concept “actor” is introduced with the help of the literary character’s retorts. For instance, this phenomenon is typical for Michael’s opinion: “Don’t be natural <…> The stage isn’t the place for that. The stage is make-believe. But seem natural” [27; 20].

The use of the elements of Julia’s biography also represents the concept “actor”: “Her own career had been singularly lacking in hardship <…> She learnt to speak French like a Frenchwoman. She was a born actress and it was an understood thing for as long as she could remember that she was to go on the stage <…> When Julia was a child of twelve this actress was a boisterous, fat old woman of more than sixty, but of great vitality, who loved food more than anything else in the world. She had a great, ringing laugh, like a man’s, and she talked in a deep, loud voice. It was she who gave Julia her first lessons. She taught her all the arts that she had herself learnt at the Conservatoire and she talked to her of Reichenberg who had played ingenues20 till she was seventy, of Sarah Bernhardt and her golden voice, of Mounet-Sully and his majesty, and of Coquelin the greatest actor of them all. She recited to her the great tirades of Corneille and Racine as she had learnt to say them at the Francaise and taught her to say them in the same way. It was charming to hear Julia in her childish voice recite those languorous, passionate speeches of Phedre, emphasizing the beat of the Alexandrines and mouthing her words in that manner which is so artificial and yet so wonderfully dramatic. Jane Taitbout must always have been a very stagy actress, but she taught Julia to articulate with extreme distinctness, she taught her how to walk and how to hold herself, she taught her not to be afraid of her own voice, and she made deliberate that wonderful sense of timing which Julia had by instinct and which afterwards was one of her greatest gifts.

When Julia was sixteen and went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in Gower Street she knew already much that they could teach her there. She had to get rid of a certain number of tricks that were out of date and she had to acquire a mere conversational style. But she won every prize that was open to her, and when she was finished with the school her good French got her almost immediately a small part in London as a French maid. It looked for a while as though her knowledge of French would specialize her in parts needing a foreign accent, for after this she was engaged to play an Austrian waitress” [27; 23].

The conversations between the literary characters of the novel represent the concept “actor” best of all. So the literary character’s retorts represent the mentioned concept:

1) “That’s the face an actress wants. The face that can look anything, even beautiful, the face that can show every thought that passes through the mind. That’s the face Duse’s got” [27; 24].

2) “Actors are rotten, not parts. You’ve got a wonderful-voice, the voice that can wring an audience’s heart; I don’t know about your comedy, I’m prepared to risk that” [27; 24].

3) “You’re going to be a star. Nothing can stop you” [27; 39]

4) “The critics are right, damn, you’re an actress and no mistake” [27; 39].

Some other fragments also represent the concept “actor”:

1) “Charles Tamerley always said that what an actress needed was not intelligence, but sensibility, and he might be right; perhaps she wasn’t clever, but her feelings were alert and she trusted them” [27; 127].

2) “There was a certain fun to be got out of a man who never knew what you were talking about. But what did they mean when they said an actress had genius? “[27; 135]

3) “Actors do their damned look like gentlemen and gentlemen do all they can to look like actors” [27; 232]

The concept “actor” is represented as the description of the literary character’s person in the following fragments:

1) “She had acquired the reputation of a perfectly virtuous woman whom the tongue of scandal could not touch, and now it looked as though her reputation was a prison that she had built round herself. But there was worse. What had Tom meant by saying that she ate out of his hand? That deeply affronted her. Silly little fool. How dare he? She didn’t know what to do about it either. She would have liked to tax him with it. What was the good? He would deny it. The only thing was to say nothing; it had all gone too far now, she must accept everything. It was no good not facing the truth, he didn't love her, he was her lover because it gratified his self-esteem, because it brought him various things he cared for and because in his own eyes at least it gave him a sort of position” [27; 177].

2) “The strange thing was that when she looked into her heart it was not Julia Lambert the woman who resented the affront, she didn’t care for herself, it was the affront to Julia Lambert the actress that stung her. She had often felt that her talent, genius the critics called it,' but that was a very grand word, her gift, if you like, was not really herself, not even part of her, і but something outside that used her, Julia Lambert the woman, in order to express itself. It was a strange, immaterial personality that seemed to descend upon her and it did things through her that she did not know she was capable of doing. She was an ordinary, prettyish, ageing woman. Her gift had neither age nor form. If was a spirit that played on her body as the violinist plays on his violin” [27; 177].

So the concept “actor” is very wide-spread in the novel “Theatre” by W.S. Maugham. The functional role of the use of the mentioned concept is based on the author’s representation of the theatre as people for W.S.Maugham’s.

concept theatre Maugham