The+house+of+Julia+and+Michael

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Everybody knows that the house and the furniture in it can say a lot about its owner. In “The Theatre” the author gives us the description of the rooms of the main heroes Michael and Julia. In my opinion from these descriptions we can find out some traits of their characters. At the beginning of the novel we can find the description of the interior of Mihael’s office. =====

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“ It was a very proper room for the manager of a first-class theatre. The walls had been panelled (at cost price) by a good decorator and on them hung en­gravings of theatrical pictures by Zoffany and de Wilde. The armchairs were large and comfortable. Michael sat in a heavily carved Chippendale chair, a reproduction but made by a well-known firm, and his Chippendale table, with heavy ball and claw feet, was immensely solid. On it stood in a massive silver frame a photograph of herself and to balance it a photograph of Roger, their son. Between these was a magnificent silver ink-stand that she had herself given him on one of his birthdays and behind it a rack in red morocco, heavily gilt, in which he kept his private paper in case he wanted to write a letter in his own hand. The paper bore the address, Sid-dons Theatre, and the envelope his crest, a boar’s head with the motto underneath: Nemo me impune lacessit”. =====

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From this description we can understand that he was a quite famous person because he even had his own crest and motto. He was a man of a high rang, from a rich society because he could afford to buy an expensive furniture, he liked luxury, it showed his social position. But we can feel he was a family man: the photographs of his wife and son stood on the table. =====

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 Their house was furnished in an extremely good taste, with a ju­dicious mixture of the antique and the modern, and Michael was right when he said that it was quite obvi­ously a gentleman’s house. Michael’s room was a fair-sized one behind the din­ing-room. Though it was supposed to be Michael’s pri­vate sitting-room it was chiefly used as a cloak-room when they had guests. There was a noble mahogany desk on which were signed pho­tographs of George V and Queen Mary. Over the chim­ney-piece was an old copy of Lawrence’s portrait of Kemble as Hamlet. On a small table was a pile of type­script plays. Michael always was devoted to his work and even at home he always remember about the theatre. There were no mirrors in the room because even without them Michael knew that he was very handsome. The room was surrounded by bookshelves under which were cupboards. Michael was a tidy, business-like man, and Julia’s photographs were kept in large cardboard cases, dated and chronologically arranged. His were in other card­board cases in the same cupboard. He was a man of order. He kept in order his things and his life. =====

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Julia on the contrary was a very passionate woman and her room tells us the story of her nature. Julia, had insisted that she must have her bedroom as she liked, and having had exactly the bedroom that pleased her in the old house in Regent’s Park. The bed and the dressing-table were upholstered in pink silk, the chaise-longue and the armchair in Nattier blue; over the bed there were fat little gilt cherubs who dangled a lamp with a pink shade, and fat little gilt cherubs swarmed all round the mirror on the dressing-table. Julia liked bright colours because her life was bright. She always needed mirrors. She wanted to be sure that she looked attractive. Her appearance was very important for her. On satinwood tables were signed photographs, richly framed, of actors and actresses and members of the royal family. She like her husband was involved to the scene and liked theatre. She was proud that she was an actress. The decorator had raised his supercilious eye­brows, but it was the only room in the house in which Julia felt completely at home. Julia adored writing letters at her satinwood desk, seating on a gilt Hamlet stool. =====