American Literature

Questions on “Louise,” by Somerset Maugham

Louise keeps inviting the narrator frequently to the gatherings because she is a woman of a weak heart who wants to keep herself company. he next two or three years, Louise, in spite of a weak heart, managed to appear in elegant toilets in all the most noisy gatherings, large and played even flirted with the high and slender young men. Perhaps it would include in his habit that hardly would have liked to Louise but luckily (for her) the war began. He returned to his regiment, and three months later he was killed (Strode,1946, 42).

2. As mentioned by the narrator, “After an illness, it seems scarlet fever, she had a complication of the heart, and she had to watch out for in particular. When Tom Maitland made it the proposal, parents were horrified because they thought that her daughter is too fragile for the hardships of family life” (Anthony, John, 1987, 43).

3. Louise arrived with a hope that her husband would take care of her. For this purpose, she tried to be a submissive wife. George Hobhouse was not as tough as the first husband of Louise, and to cope with daily duties of her second husband, he had now and then kept you strong drink.

4. Louise is faking her condition in a way that in the gatherings, she poses to have strong social conditions. For example, in one of the sentences, while talking to her friends, the conversations go as follows: By the way, your heart seems to be strengthened? - It has never been stronger. Today I will show up specialist, and he said that I should prepare for the worst. - Well, that's nothing, you're twenty years old preparing for the worst (Anthony, John, 1987, 56).

5. The narrator falls in love with Louise. From the story, the passage seems like the memory of narrator's past relationship which ended after some time. The narrator lacks self awareness and is reinforced by the discrepancies between his account of relationship and the reactions of other characters in the text.

6. Louis is deceiving herself about willing to be treated well by her husband and abandoning the narrator. She tries to brush this fact aside that she is going to die as mentioned in the following conversation. Oh, I know what you think of me. You'll never believe I am seriously ill, right? I looked her straight in the eye (Strode,1946, 13).

7. Louis was married twice before. Her husbands did every that they could keep her happy and even Tom gave up his game he excelled in. Knowing that Louis was going to die of weak heart, they made sure that he let her live in peace for the rest of her life (Anthony, John, 1987,44-56).

8. After the war, Louise settled in London. It was still thin, a fragile woman, eyed and pale, but although she was over forty, no one gave her more than ...