A Formalism Reading of Maugham’s “The Three Fat Women of Antibes” and “Rain”

Abstract

This paper focuses on a formalist analysis of Maugham’s two stories “The Three Fat Women of Antibes” and “Rain” and it offers a discussion of some major aspects of the work as a whole: genre, narration, character relations, and setting. The aim is to provide a sense of Maugham’s art of the short story with an assessment of the vital elements of what makes a short story successful in the work of William Somerset Maugham and an exploration of how his work exposes the experience. The main part of this manuscript provides a detailed analysis of selected short stories by Maugham. Especial emphasis is placed on the author’s gifted talents which shows the diversity of Maugham’s literary legacy that made him the most popular writer of his time. The study discloses that conducting a formalist analysis is supposed to be a good way in understanding literary works.