In the literal work “The escape” written by W.S.Maugham, irony plays the inevitable part in making the success of the story. The narrator recites how his friend, Roger Charing, tries to get rid of a woman, Ruth Barlow, through the process in which he escape from the little lady, the author expresses his severe irony towards Ruth Balow and her scheming deeds.
First of all, irony refers to the incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs. Right from the beginning, Maugham has stated a rather funny anecdote like this: "If a woman once made up her mind to marry a man, nothing but instant flight could save him." It sounds as if the woman is a persistent predator that is willing to chasing its prey to any corners in the world, thus no man can escape from the trap laid by a lady, especially a beautiful one. This suggests the irony towards marriage and, more importantly, expresses the sarcasm towards women in love. Ruth Barlow is characterized as a lovely angel with “splendid dark eyes and they were the most moving I ever saw, they seemed to be ever on the point of filling with tears”, eyes are considers as windows of soul, and through her doleful eyes, we can somehow anticipate her personalities as weak and fragile. Along with scornful appearance is a miserable background. She is described as “twice a widow”, that means she has suffered from the most hurting event in a lady’s life, not only once but even twice – her husbands’ funerals. Such a lady deserves intensive protection and sympathy. That’s where the irony starts. Judging a book by its cover in this situation may brings indescribable trouble, and it did happen with characters in this story.
Though appearing as naive and harmless, Ruth is led to gradually reveal her true character. She is willing to cheat with her lover’s best friend in a card game, she even pretends to forget to send him money afterwards, which means that lady with those "splendid dark eyes", "the most moving eyes", "big ad lovely eyes" is not as weak as Roger, the narrator as well as we readers predict. Nevertheless, she shows her real personalities as opportunistic and to some extents, dull. The narrator says that “"she had never had any conversation", it is said in Vietnam that the virtues of a lady are shown in her words, in this situation, perhaps it is not the point that Ruth Barlow never sheds a sentence, but the truth is she never makes a real conversation, which means she does not have ideas, thoughts or something like that in her mind. All that fills her head is just emptiness, which makes an impression that other than the pathetic look, this woman is a hollow.
The story turns into a new leaf when Roger, after realizing her real personalities and soul, decides to fall out of love and break with her. As her vulnerable look would strip men off their sensibilities, he chooses an effective and ironic way of falling apart with her. He grabs her into an endless hunt for a “suitable” house. In the story, the word suitable for Roger means perfect. It mustn’t too large and it mustn’t too small, it mustn’t too far from the center of things and it also mustn’t too close, it mustn’t too stuffy and it also mustn’t too airy, it mustn’t too dark and it also mustn’t too bleak. In short, it must be a perfect work. And there is no such a thing exists in the world. The seemingly endless hunt turns out to be unbearable for Ruth that she becomes a "silent and scornful" woman with "sullen" eyes. She finally gives up her "patience of an angel", breaks up with Roger and rushes herself into an instant marriage with "someone who is anxious to take care of me." So ironic was Roger while he keeps saying “we’ll get married the very moment we find a house”, and he even pretends to be broken-hearted when hearing the news from Ruth’s marriage with another man: “Ruth, your news shatters me. I shall never get over the blow, but of course your happiness must be my first consideration.” He is just a perfect actor in love just like her. Here comes the irony for love, love just a lie, a seemingly beautiful love is full of lies, in which both of two people are liars.
The fact that ironic details appear everywhere in “The escape” finally constitutes a humorous as well as interesting story for readers. Not saying direct words but through the profound implications, the author secretly send us deep messages about love, marriage and personalities.