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Situational Irony
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
The style of W. Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence is formal and inquisitive. The story serves not only to answer questions about the great Strickland's life but also to raise questions about the choices that he made to achieve said greatness. As a drawn-out recollection of Strickland's life events and a series of interviews of the people in Strickland's life, the story resembles an inquiry. Even though the story attempts to be formal, it is told from the narrator's perspective, which imbues it with inherent bias and a sense of colloquialism.
Because much of the portrait of Charles Strickland is told through the narrator's own recollections, the reader cannot accept everything as truthful. This style of writing creates an unreliable narrator and therefore a strong bias. In this case, the bias is for Strickland, especially since the narrator never fails to justify Strickland's immoral actions using the greatness of his art. The narrator even admits in Chapter 1 that Strickland's "faults are accepted as the necessary complement to his merits." He is aware that Strickland's behavior is not accepted by the rules of society, yet he chooses to overlook this fault. For this reason, the style of the novel is also somewhat sycophantic.
Related Themes:
