Text analysis by Munteanu Ana gr.

402B
Mr. Know-All by W. S. Maugham
1. The Author
William Somerset Maugham was born in 25 January 1874 and died in 16
December 1965 . He was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer.
He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid
author during the 1930s. After losing both his parents by the age of 10,
Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. Not
wanting to become a lawyer like other men in his family, Maugham eventually
trained and qualified as a physician. The initial run of his first novel, Liza of
Lambeth (1897), sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write
full-time. During the First World War, he served with the Red Cross and in the
ambulance corps, before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret
Intelligence Service, for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the
October Revolution of 1917. During and after the war, he travelled in India and
Southeast Asia; all of these experiences were reflected in later short stories and
novels.
2. The title
The title of the text is Mr. Know-All, this name was atributted to Mr. Kelada
the protagonist of the story. This name was gave him because he knew all about
everyone and everything as is mention in the text He discussed plays, pictures
and politics. He ran everything. He contucted the auctions, collected the
money for prizes and sports, organized the concert and arranged the fancy-dress
ball. He was everywhere and always. The passangers used this name as an
insult however Mr. Kelada took it as a compliment.
Title function is a denominative one, because it introduces the name of the
figurative name of the character, also the title has the orientative and
informative function because it gives us a general impression of the content and
transmits the key information from the text.
In the end of the text it turns out that Mr. Kelada is the real "know-all" because
he is the only one who knew that the pearls are real.

3. A brief summary
The story begins with the words of the nameless narrator who describes the
settings and tells that he was travelling by a ship sailing across the Pacific
Ocean from San Francisco to Yokohama .Then he describes his cabin-mate
whom he dislikes and has a hostile attitude- Mr. Kelada a man who knew
everything, was a good manager, a chatty person and had the Mr. Know-All
nickname. In one evening at the dinner Mr. Kelada begun to argue with Mr.
Ramsay about the authenticity of Mrs.Ramsay pearls and Mr. Kelada decided to
demonstrate it. But Mr. Kelada, proves to be a real gentleman because he
sacrifices his own pride and reputation to save the marriage of Mr. And Mrs.
Ramsay and tells everyone that he was wrong and the pearls were fake even he
knew they weren't. In the end he told our narrator a phrase that demonstrate it
If I had a pretty little wife I shouldn't let her spend a year in New York while I
stayed at Kobe.
4. The text itself and the composition of the story
The story is a narration and has elements of description and dialogue as well.
From the point of the view of narration, we have a homodiegetic narrator
because the story is related to the first person and the narrator has a fixed
focalization. The text has a straight line narrative, the events took place in a
chronological order. Also, in this text, we can notice the objective narrator
because the narrator does not discuss the thoughts or feelings of any characters
but reports only what they do.
The story begins with the description of the place and of the characterMr.Kelada.
The ending of the story is expected and may be opened for the readers
mediations.
The exposition of the story begins with the description of the place and of the
character and goes until that evening when Mr. Kelada argues with Mr. Ramsay,
from that moment the conflict of the text has begun which is an external one
and it continues till the moment when Mr. Kelada wanted to check the
authenticity of Mrs. Ramsay pearls. The climax of the story is presented when
all are waiting for Mr. Kelada to tell the truth.The denouement is when the
truth has already been told. And from my point of view, this story has also a

resolution and is revealed in the last phrase of Mr. Kelada If I had a pretty
little wife I shouldn't let her spend a year in New York while I stayed at Kobe.
5. Characters of the story
The protagonist of the story is Mr. Kelada, the other characters are the narrator,
Mr. And Mrs. Ramsay.
Mr. Kelada is round character because he develops and changes through the
whole story. In the beginning, we see him as an annoying, talkative and besthated man but in the end as a real gentleman.
He is described by the narrator in the beginning through direct
characterization He was short and of a sturdy build, clean shaven and dark
skinned, with a hooked nose and very large liquid eyes. His long black hair was
curly. Also, the description of Mr. Kelada was made through indirect
characterization when the narrator describes his actions and the events where
he is involved He discussed plays, pictures, and politics. He ran everything.
He conducted the auctions, collected the money for prizes and sports, organized
the concert and arranged the fancy-dress ball. He was everywhere and always.,
here we can see the Knowing-All feature of his character, but also, his
gentleness would be seen at the end of the story when he is telling the so called
truth about the pearls.
6. The main idea of the text
The main idea of the text is not to judge a book by its cover , as in our case
Mr.Know-All who seems to be an anoying , chatty and with lack of manners
person in the end turns out to be a good and a gentle person.