Cakes and Ale

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is highly ironical and is based on the contrasts and contradictions and this very extract is not an exception. Maugham’s irony is felt in every word and phrase; it penetrates every concept and idea of the text. In this very excerpt the author creates an ironic picture of the “world of arts and letters” the members of which gather when they have nothing to do. “All sorts of persons came to these parties: at that time week-ends were rare, golf was still a subject for ridicule, and few had much to do on Saturday afternoons.” And all these parties resemble a kind of a labour exchange where everybody strives to show off and to establish new useful connections in the literary circles. Thus, the world of literature is more the world of business and money. This idea is vividly disclosed in the sentence based on the enumeration “You found young actors who were looking for parts and middle-aged singers who deplored the fact that the English were not a musical race, composers who played their compositions on the Driffields’ cottage piano and complained in a whispered aside that they sounded nothing except on a concert grand, poets who on pressure consented to read a little thing that they had just written, and painters who were looking for commissions.” Maugham’s irony is rather prominent when he creates a specific hierarchy based on the attempt to find the original balance between the branches of literature and nobility, revealing certain likeness between them. “Humbler branches of literature should be practiced by the lower orders of the peerage, the barons and viscounts* should devote themselves exclusively to journal¬ism and the drama, fiction might be the privileged demesne of the earls, To the marquises might safely be left the production of that part of literature which is known as belles letters, the writing of poetry should be left to the dukes” And this distribution underlines that there are no really talented artists as the art exists not for art’s sake but for the sake of money, glory and social status. Art becomes merely “a means of support, a pleasant occupation”. Moreover the author mocks at the fashion of those times when art was a thing for the middle-class only and then imparts this specialization to the nobility and gentry after which there began to pay much more attention to literature and art itself. Consequently, every genre of literature corresponds to a certain title. Much attention is paid by the author to poetry maybe because it requires more talent and creativity from the poet. He considers it to be the most privileged and beautiful part of literature which is underlined by the parallel constructions “The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty.” And he imparts poetry to dukes accentuating that “the noblest of arts should be practised by any but the noblest of men”. Moreover, poetry is divided among the dukes not corresponding to their talents but to the “hereditary influence and natural bent” which is formed due to their place of living, e.g. “the dukes of Manchester writing poems of a didactic and moral character, the dukes of Westminster composing stirring odes on Duty and the Responsibilities of Empire; the dukes of Devonshire would be more likely to write love lyrics and elegies in the Propertian manner, the dukes of Marlborough should pipe in an idyllic strain on such subjects as domestic bliss, conscription, and content with modest station”. This idea is made clear through the historical allusion to “the successors of Alexander Macedonian” who divided the things they had inherited. In spite of Maugham’s simplicity of style it is highly rhythmical due to the usage of various parallel constructions (“It would be a graceful compensation, It would be a means of support; It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty”), enumerations, polysyndeton (“keeping chorus girls and race horses and playing chemin de fer”) and so on and so forth. All in all Maugham’s syntax is very peculiar. The employed simple abrupt sentences, i.e. “I went. I enjoyed myself. I went again. The crown of literature is poetry” serve for creating the effect of rhythmicality. As for the others, long and complicated sentences, they carry the main notions and ideas the author wanted to express in his work. The given text is a brilliant example of modernistic writing mocking at the vices of contemporary society. The mastery of the author manifests itself in striking irony, created by the variety of tropes brightly organized and conveying subtleties of his personal attitude to the society and the morality itself, unmasking weak sides of human nature, neither judging nor justifying his characters.