10/3/2022

The Escape
William Somerest Maugham

About The Escape

Published in:
Cosmopolitans: Very Short Stories (1936)

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I. Summary

The story is about a middle-aged man rolling in money – Roger Charing

– fell in love with Ruth Barlow, an unfortunate woman who was twice a
widow. They had all the happy and pleasant moments of relationships a
loving couple usually has and intended to marry. Then suddenly Roger
fell out of love with Ruth. But he found a way to make Ruth release him.
He said they would marry the day they found the perfect house for both
of them, however, Roger rejected all the orders of the agents offering a
new house. At last Ruth lost her patience and left Roger herself.

II. Components
1. Themes

a, Theme of Escape
- “..if a woman once made up her mind to marry a man, nothing but
instant flight could save him.”
- The story of his friend’s fail escape
- Roger Charing’s plan to escape from Ruth Barlow when he fell out of
love
- Ruth Barlow’s escape when she was tired, angry and out of patient

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b, Marriage in the bourgeois society

- The basic theme of the story is marriage in bourgeois society, relations
between men and women in connection with problems of marriage.
- The author tackles a typical phenomenon of modem society - a marriage
of convenience. He looks at the variant of a marriage of convenience when
a woman is the interested party.

2. The Narrator
- The story is told by the 1st person narrator, a convinced bachelor.
- He is apt to treat the subject-matter of marriage lightly and is inclined
to admire Roger for his acumen in getting rid of Ruth.

3. Conflict
- Internal conflict: Roger wanted to get rid of Ruth but didn’t want to
spoil his reputation
- External conflict: Roger wanted to break-up while Ruth needed a long-
term relationship

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III. Characters
1. Roger Charing
a, General information
- He was no longer young
- and he had had sufficient experience to make himself careful
- a strong, hefty fellow with plenty of money
-> He is experienced and rich -> an ideal hero to anyone weak and
vulnerable “I must stand between the hazards of life and this helpless
little thing, oh, how wonderful it would be to take the sadness out of
these big and lovely eyes”
-> He is rich, considerate, gentle, generous and glad to take care of
Mrs. Barlow, so he is the best variant for her

b, When in love with Ruth Barlow

- “He went down like a row of ninepins”
- lose all of “his common sense, his prudence and his worldly wisdom”
- “Roger introduced her to his friends. He gave her lovely jewels. He took
her here, there, and everywhere”.
- “Roger was very happy”
-> a strong feeling that made him blind
- "She's had a rotten time, poor dear. I feel so dreadfully sorry for her."
=> He want to marry and protect Ruth. At that time his feeling was
sincere.

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c, When he is out of love with Ruth Barlow

- “His eyes were opened and he was once more the shrewd man of the world he
had been”
- Ruth’s “pathetic (a repeated epithet) look ceased to wring Roger’s heart-
strings”
-> his love wasn’t a serious and profound feeling because Roger lost it too easily.
“Now that he was in possession of his senses he saw with clearness the sort of
woman he had to deal with -> Ruth became a problem that he wanted to solve
- it is always awkward for a man to jilt a woman. People are apt to think he has
behaved badly.
-> He wanted to escape with no loss. What is most important to him is public
opinion.

d. How he escaped the marriage

- “He gave neither by word nor gesture an indication that his feelings
towards Ruth Barlow had changed”
• They decided to get married “as soon as they found a house that suited
them”
- “Roger always found a fault that made the house unsuitable”.
• - => He wants Ruth to lose her patient and break up with him, while
his dignity remains.
•  He was dishonest, his behavior wasn’t fair, even disgusting in some
way. He makes a plan how to get rid of Ruth instead of to say straight to
her face that there is no love anymore

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2. Ruth Barlow
a, Appearances and characteristics
- “Ruth Barlow had a gift (or should I call it a, quality?) that renders most men
defenseless”
- “had splendid dark eyes and they were the most moving I ever saw”
- “they seemed to be ever on the point of filling with tears”
- “they suggested that the world was too much for her”.
- “She was apparently one of those unfortunate persons with whom nothing by
any chance goes right”
- “She was a widow twice
- ‘“if she married a husband he beat her; if she engaged a cook he drank. She
never had a little lamb but it was sure to die”
=> She seems to be miserable, vulnerable, unlucky, and deserved to be protected
and loved.

b, When she was out of patient:

- “presently Ruth began to grow peevish”
- “Ruth was exhausted and more than once lost her temper.”
- “Ruth grew silent and scornful: her pathetic, beautiful eyes acquired an
expression that was almost sullen”
- “Mrs. Barlow had the patience of an angel, but at last she revolted.”
- “There was an unaccustomed hardness in her voice”
=> She is tired, out of patient and hot-tempered
- At the end, she knew Roger didn’t love her and find another man within a
week.” I have found someone who is anxious to take care of me and I’m going
to be married to him today”
 She was manipulative to such an extent that she married not out of love but
out of a desire to improve her lives

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3. The narrator
a. Attitudes toward marriage
- if a woman once made her mind to marry a man nothing but instant
flight could save him.
-> marriage is a way for women to tie, or even imprison men
- The failure escape of “one friend of mine” shows the inevitable loom of
the marriage frightens some men and they try to evade it
-> They don’t know and don’t respect women “women are fickle” that why
they are afraid of difficulties of the marriage
- Roger is mentioned as the only one man who escaped successfully
“managed to extricate himself”

b. Attitudes toward Ruth

- When being told about the marriage “I wish him joy”, not happiness -> he
didn’t believe Ruth loved Roger
• He thinks Ruth was two-faced woman “I knew she was stupid and I thought
she was scheming”, “she was as hard as nails“
• When playing card: “twice trumped my best card”, “lost a good deal of
money to me”, “she said she should send me a cheque and never did”; “I
could not but think that I and not she should have worn a pathetic
expression when next we met”
Ruth didn’t pay the debt but took the role of a victim.
- In the whole story: Ruth playing the victim, fooling each person that she
meets till she gets what she wants.

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IV. Figures of Speech

1. Simile
- “he went down like a row of ninepins”;
- “if, like Roger Charing, you were...”
- “as hard as nails”;
- “I behaved like an angel”
- “He was as ever assiduous and gallant”

2. Metaphors
- “seeing the inevitable loom”
–> the pessimistic future if the man wanted to get married
- “this pathetic look of hers ceased to wring his heart-strings”
-> he didn’t feel moved or pity to Ruth anymore
- “His eyes were opened and he was one more the shrewd man
of the world he had been.”
-> He was conscious and knew what he wanted

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3. Hyperbole
• “if a woman once made up her mind to marry a man, nothing
but instant flight could save him.”
• “he swore a solemn oath that nothing would induce him to
marry Ruth Barlow”

4. Repetition
• Parallel structure: “if she married a husband he beat her; if she
engaged a cook he drank. She never had a little lamb but it was sure
to die.”
-> Ruth was so unlucky and miserable
• “pathetic” repeated 5 times (“pathetic look”, “pathetic expression”,
“her pathetic, beautiful eyes”, “the gift of pathos”) -> Ruth always
played an victim so that everyone felt pity for her.
• Sentence structure: “Roger introduced her to his friends. He gave her
lovely jewels. He took her here, there, and everywhere” -> his feeling
was sincere and he was ready to do anything to make her happy

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Repetition
• He remained attentive to all her wishes, he took her to dine at restaurants,
they went to the play together, he sent her flowers;. -> he was kind of bored
and do everything as a routine
• About houses: “they were too large and sometimes they were too small,
sometimes they were too expensive and sometimes they wanted too many
repairs; sometimes they were too stuffy and sometimes they were too airy;
sometimes they were too dark and sometimes they were too bleak.” -> Roger
was captious and tried to find any faults of the houses
• They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they
inspected innumerable kitchens.
• -> the house-hunting is a repetition; the increasing qualifiers show the
increasing number of houses and the increasing impatience of Ruth

5. Irony
• The story begins with a friend’s unsuccessful escape -> marriage
is loom and pessimistic
• The epithets “instant flight”, “the inevitable loom”, “menacingly”
show fear and trembling of such men
• The parallel structure “if she…”, epithets “helpless little thing”,
“rotten time”, “unfortunate”, “poor dear”, “dreadful sorry”
-> The pity for Ruth has made Roger love her and decide to marry

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Irony
• The “house-hunting”: a metaphor
+ To Roger: an attempt to get rid of Ruth
+ To Ruth: the chase to find shelter for her life
- antonomasia: “Mrs. Barlow had the patience of an angel”
“He was as ever assiduous and gallant” -> his dissimulation, still
acted like a gentleman
- His letter at the end of the story “I send you herewith seven
orders to view; they arrived by this morning’s post and I’m quite
sure you will find among them a house that will exactly suit you”

V. Conclusion
• A society full of falsehood. Thereby, it is not clear enough who
managed to escape and from whom. At the end of the story
both Ruth and Roger manage to maintain their dignity despite
the break down in their relationship.
• The harsh reality of bourgeois society was that women were
not treated as equally as men. They had to depend on men.
Therefore many women married not out of love but out of
necessity to improve their lives and social standing.

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