Perkins is a professor of American and English literature and film. In this essay, Perkins focuses on the damaging effects of war and social class on the women in Maugham's play.
Ted Morgan argues, in his biography on Maugham, that For Services Rendered is "an indictment of a whole nation." He claims that Somerset Maugham exposes "the patriots and promise-makers, the apostles of a better world" as "rogues and hypocrites." Maugham does this by showing the devastating effects of the war on an English family. Sydney Ardsley's heroic actions during World War I earned him the Military Cross but little else. Blinded in the war, Sydney is confined to his home and must depend on his family's kindness and care, since the government has turned its back on him and the other soldiers who bravely fought.....
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