We have been given enough hints about the true value of the necklace and the possible story behind it. Can you find them?
Why did the narrator say by the end of the story “I did not entirely dislike Mr. Kelada”?
(Somerset Maugham, “Mr. Know-All,” lines 87-91)
Characterization, the indirect method Sample 2:
“Do you like card tricks?” “No, I hate card tricks,” I answered. “Well, I’ll just show you this one.” He showed me three. Then I said I would go down to the dining room and get my seat at table. “Oh, that’s all right,” he said. “I’ve already taken a seat for you. I thought that as we were in the same stateroom we might just as well sit at the same table.” (Somerset Maugham, “Mr. Know-All,” lines 77-83)
There are two basic types of textual indicators of character:
The direct presentation names the character trait or sums it up, such as “he’s utterly selfish” or “he loves only himself.”
Individualized and type characters:
Individualized characters are ones endowed with traits that mark them as individuals, as opposed to type characters. Individualized characters belong, generally speaking, to realism, as opposed to the type characters of romanticism.
英语短篇小说教程
Short Stories in English: A Reading Course
Unit Four
The Character and Characterization Reading: “Mr. Know-All” by Somerset Maugham
The Character:
The anti-hero is not simply a failed hero but a social misfit, graceless, weak, and often comic, the embodiment of ineptitude and bad luck in a world apparently made for others.
A foil: is a supporting character whose role in the story is to highlight the protagonist by presenting a comparison or a contrast to him.
A static or dynamic character:
Originally refers to a person who typifies some definite quality, but now is more generalized to refer to any person in a creative writing.
The Character and Other Literary Terms:
The Character:
A round character: usually has more than one quality, and grows in the course of the story development, as he reacts to events and to other characters.
A dynamic character, on the other hand, is one who is modified by actions and experiences, and one objective of the work in which the character appears is to reveal the consequences of these actions.
The indirect presentation, on the other hand, does not mention the trait but display and exemplifies it in various ways, leaving the reader the task of inferring the quality they imply.
The Story :
Somerset Maugh:
Mr. Know-All
Questions for Discussion:
Summarize the four main characters: the narrator, Mr. Kelada, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay.
What are the undesirable qualities of Mr. Kelada according to the narrator? Find them out in the text and list them. Are they good proof that Mr. Kelada is an unworthy person?
Preference for indirect method
In an individualistic and relative period like our own, generalization and classification of characters / people are less tolerated. When suggestiveness and indeterminacy are preferred to closure and definitiveness and when emphasis is put on the active role of the reader, the explicitness and guiding capacity of direct definition are often considered drawbacks rather than advantages.
A flat character: is constructed around a single idea or quality. Such a character does not develop in the course of narration and is easily recognized and remembered.
Characterization, the direct method sample 1:
He was certain that you were as glad to see him as he was to see you. In y downstairs and slammed the door in his face without the suspicion dawning on him that he was not a welcome visitor. He was a good mixer, and in three days knew everyone on board. He ran everything.
the external appearance, such as a crooked face indicating a crooked mind, or a dirty and disorderly room connoting the character’s state of confusion.
Reading Tip:
The story is set in the declining years of the British colonialism. Many people in the British colonies, or in America, the former colony, would call themselves “English people,” regarding themselves as members of the glorious British Empire. But those “Colonial English” would not be highly regarded by some “real” English who held the attitude of racial or national superiority.
Characterization :
Characterization is the creation of imaginary characters so that they exist for the reader as lifelike persons.