The Escape Essay Example for Free

The Escape Essay The text under consideration is the short story â€Å"The Escape† written by a famous English writer Somerset Maugham. The story deals with the author’s speculation of the question of marriages, especially the possibility of men to escape it. There is no exposition, therefore we can only guess by the contents where and when the settings set on. At the beginning of the text the author expresses his conviction that only an instant flight can save a man from a woman, if she made up her mind to marry him. Further on the author recollects a case when even such flight couldn’t save the poor man. The author passes on to another story of a man, whose name was Roger Charing, who managed to extricate himself in such circumstances. The author introduces to us a girl – Ruth Barlow –whom he fell in love with, draws special attention to her eyes and the impression they made on men. He also depicts the misery of the girl’s life, as everyone treated her very badly and nothing ever went right with her. Further on the author disclosed some information concerning Ruth’s character, mainly from the point of view of the narrator. The author touches upon Roger’s attitude to her, saying that he was very happy, for he committed a good action and at the same time did something he had very much a mind to. In the next passage the author suddenly changes the mood of the narration saying that Roger fell out of love. He points out Roger’s intentions not to let Ruth marry him by any means. But then the author dwells upon the difficulty of the situation he was in, because now he realized what sort of woman he had to deal with. After that the author describes the method that Roger used to get rid of Ruth: he said that until they found a perfect house they wouldn’t get married. The author points out that it took years for them to search for the suitable house, they visited thousands of them, but still couldn’t find anything. The author shows the change in Ruth’s mood as the years go by: she becomes more and more irritated, disappointed and even angry. The author describes the outcome of this story in two letters: one from Ruth, in which she tells that she found some other man who is willing to marry her. The other letter is the Roger’s reply, in which he pretends to be shocked and depressed by this news, and sends to her another list of houses that will suit her perfectly. Precis The short story â€Å"The Escape† by Somerset Maugham is a humorous and witty narration about Roger Charing who managed to escape from Ruth Barrow that had made up her mind to marry him. Being old enough and having much experience, Roger decided to use the search of a perfect house as an excuse not to marry her, until she understood that he didn’t love her and found another man to marry. Gist Roger Charing, a character of the story â€Å"The Escape† by Somerset Maugham, once fell in love with Ruth Barrow, but later his love disappeared and in order not to let her marry him, he made searches of a perfect house last endlessly, until she decided to leave him.