Suspense

Maugham's plots follow the traditional characteristics of a well-made play, with a clear pattern of conflict, climax and resolution. Often his plots focus on secrets that are eventually revealed by the end of the play. Suspense is heightened as the audience waits for the secrets to be revealed. For Services Rendered follows this pattern. There are two main secrets in the plot: Mrs. Ardsley's cancer and Lois's relationships with both Wilfred Cedar and Howard Bartlett. While Mrs. Ardsley's secret does not produce much conflict in the play, Lois' does: the play ends with her decision to run off with Cedar and perhaps enter into a sexual relationship with Howard, her sister's husband, which will affect her sister, Cedar's wife Gwen, and the reputation of Lois's family. The other conflict in the play, which centers on the relationship between Eva and Collie, ends in tragedy when Collie kills himself...