Female images in william somerset maugham's novels

     Presentation for the defence of the term paper

     “Female Images in William Somerset Maugham’s novels” 

     William Somerset Maugham whose authorship lasted 65 years lived and worked in the period when the structure of Western society was becoming more complex, and, consequently, the role of ideology which provided the monotonous behaviour of people who played similar social roles was increasing. Being drawn into that ramified system a person loses his individuality.

     Not only caustic and uncompromising mock at the vices of the post-Victorian society – vacuousness and vanity, aspiration for the upper circle and elementary ignorance – gives Maugham the credit. Maugham asserted the high mission of literature – to describe life and people such as they are. Directly or indirectly he constantly came back to the problems of the life essence, the essence of the Man, the price for independence and individual freedom, the causes of evil and people’s sufferings. Maugham tried to find the answers for those questions and the characters created by him helped Maugham to achieve his aim and that range of problems touched in his works could not but influence the colouring of his heroines.

     Thus, the problem here to be studied is the peculiarities of the female image description in the novels written by William Somerset Maugham.

     The subject of our investigation is William Somerset Maugham’s novels “Theatre”, “The Painted Veil”, “The Razor’s Edge” and “Cakes and Ale, or The Skeleton in the Cupboard”.

     The Object of our investigation is the system of female images in the novels “Theatre”, “The Painted Veil”, “The Razor’s Edge” and “Cakes and Ale, or The Skeleton in the Cupboard” by William Somerset Maugham.

     The aim of the paper is to examine the peculiarities of female images – Julia Lambert, Kitty Fein, Isabella Maturin and Rosie Driffield – created by William Somerset Maugham.

For carrying out this aim we were to solve the following tasks:

• To study academic and critical literature on the problem
• To consider William Somerset Maugham’s biography
• To examine and to take independent analysis of the images of Julia Lambert, Kitty Fein, Isabella Maturin and Rosie Driffield.

   Biographical sketches dedicated to life and creative work of William Somerset Maugham and his novels “Theatre”, “The Painted Veil”, “The Razor’s Edge” and “Cakes and Ale, or The Skeleton in the Cupboard” were used as the source for our investigation.

   To solve the problem under discussion we used the methods of observation, analysis and description.

   The practical value of this term paper is that the result of our investigation can be used in an educational process during English Literature lessons.

   The term paper consists of Introduction, two chapters, Conclusion and List of Literature.

   The first chapter contains the information about Maugham’s life and creative work. Here we cover his background, childhood, education, and his becoming a successful writer. In that chapter we also enumerate his great works such as “Of Human Bondage”, “Now and Then”, “Theatre”, “Catalina”, “The Painted Veil”, “The Moon and Sixpence”, “The Razor’s Edge”, “Christmas Holiday” and “Cakes and Ale, or The Skeleton in the Cupboard”.

   Then we pass to the second chapter which is the main point of our investigation. Here we examine and give characteristics for the images of Julia Lambert, Kitty Fein, Isabella Maturin and Rosie Driffield.

   As any female characters of any other writer, the female characters of William Somerset Maugham have their own distinctive features. But, as we know, similar people do not exist, so the women on the pages of his novels are very different from each other.

     Relying on the analysis made in the second chapter, in Conclusion we sum up all the information we got.

     Thus, in the novel “The Razor’s Edge” which tells about Larry Darrel’s search for God the image of Isabella Maturin plays an important role in the novel. Her image, her aspiration for creature comforts and sober practical mind are opposed to Larry’s lofty spiritual development and aloofness from the material world.

     In “Theatre” Julia Lambert’s words reflect the author’s point of view on the essence of art and its destination. Julia is acrimonious and straightforward, she has self-irony, takes a dim view of people around her. We see her as a reflection of Somerset Maugham, sharp in his opinions, shocking, a person who is used to call moral principles of the society in question.

      In the novel “The Painted Veil” the main heroine Kitty Fein gets a chance to grow from a light-minded girl into a woman and a personality at the cost of the husband’s life. Though his death made her think about the essence of life for a moment, she still didn’t learn the lesson. This is the proof for the saying “one cannot learn from his/her mistakes”.

      Rosie Driffield embodies everything that the English society despises. She does not possess such traits as arrogance, stiffness, coldness and restraint, but has commutability, sincerity, lightness and sincere affection which she is eager to share with each man whom she likes. She does what she wants and wants what she does.

      As you see, with the help of female images Maugham tries to express his own view on eternal questions: the meaning of life, love, death and beauty, the destination of art. Troubled by the problem concerning comparable value of the moral and the beautiful Maugham constantly returned to it and chose the moral, that is why the lives of the characters created by him are the incarnation of the highest form of beauty.