Abstract: William Somerset Maugham, as a well-known English novelist and playwright, creates a number of great works, among which his short novels are succinct, attractive and meaningful. This thesis takes his representative short novel--A Friend in Need as the object of study, illustrating writing techniques and intrinsic meaning through analysis with examples. Firstly, with a view to contrasts and its function, this thesis has some comparisons in appearance, addressing, manners, personalities and others between two protagonists--Edward Hyde Burton and Lenny Burton, as well as theirs own inner contradictions. By means of contrasting, character description becomes more genuine and lively. At the same time, irony develops into an outstanding feature of this novel, which deepens thematic meaning. Then we divide the analysis of irony into two parts, including the absence of human kindness and the absence of human responsibility. At last, we move to discuss narrative skills from point of view and “story within a story” narrative structure to detail description of dialogue and environment. All in all, after an elaborate analysis and comprehension of A Friend in Need, this thesis presents some basic features of Maugham’ s short novels, and brings readers some inspirations in literary creation.

Key words: Maugham; writing techniques; contrast; irony; narrative skills

Content

摘要：

Abstract:

Introduction-1

1. On the Contrast of Two Protagonists-2

1.1 The contrast of Edward Burton’s characters-3

1.2 The contrast of Lenny Burton’s characters-4

2. On the Irony of Human Nature-6

2.1 An absence of human kindness-6

2.2 An absence of human responsibility-9

3.On the Narrative Skills-11

3.1 Point of view and “Story within a story” narrative structure-11

3.2 Detail description of dialogue and environment-13

Conclusion-15

Bibliography-15

Acknowledgments-16