The Fall of Edward Bernard Literary Elements

Short story.

Tahiti, San Francisco and Chicago in the early 20th century.

The narration is from the third-person point of view with the primary perspective being that of Bateman Hunter.

Though the tale is seen told from the perspective of Bateman Hunter, his point-of-view is framed through the lens of persistent irony. While the mood is ironic, the tone is not of the sarcastic kid. Indeed, Bateman is for the most part presented rather sympathetically which serves to either intensify or dilute the ironic distance as the reader must choose—either consciously or subconsciously—to alight themselves with either Bateman’s perspective or Edward’s.

Protagonist: Edward Barnard. Antagonist: Bateman Hunter (though merely as representative of the ideological lifestyle that Edward rejects rather than personally).

The conflict at the heart of the story is Edward Barnard’s seemingly inexplicable decision to give up pursuing the American Dream in order to life, loaf, and love in Tahiti and the subsequent decision by Bateman Hunter to bring him back to his senses and the fiancé he left behind. This conflict is further fueled by the conflict within Bateman who stands to gain the girl of his dreams by failing in his mission to bring Edward back.

Edward’s fiancé removing her engagement ring and effortlessly shifting her position into becoming Bateman’s future bride.

Edward Barnard’s decision to chuck pursuit of material possessions as the path to personal happiness foreshadows the appearance of the character who will become the iconic representative of this recurring literary trope in the Maugham canon. Almost a quarter-century later, Barnard’s underwritten stereotype will have evolved into the much more fully developed character of Larry Durrell in Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge.

The final words of the story, spoken with profoundly callow misapprehension by Isabel, is a masterpiece of understated irony: "Poor Edward," she sighed.

The title is an ironic allusion to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in which Edward falls into an Edenesque paradise and finds contentment by rejecting all the fruits from the tree of knowledge that Mr. Hunter continues to offer as bait.

A subtle allusion to Shakespeare’s comedic structure can be detected in the decision to write pursue a “framing narrative” to the story in which it begins and ends in the city with the middle section taking place in a kind of magical paradisal setting. As in Shakespeare’s comedies, the settings are juxtaposed through dyadic contrast in which Chicago represents repressive adherence to order while Tahiti represents the unleashing of repressed desires and the realization that one can enjoy them without becoming degenerate.

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"I read for examinations. I read in order to be able to hold my own in conversation. I read for instruction.”

Bateman’s view of the superiority of Isabel: “in her veins flowed the best blood in Chicago.”

“San Francisco was provincial, New York was effete” and throughout the story Bateman speaks of Chicago as if it were a beloved person to whom he is eager to return rather than a complex city.