In the previous assignment, the author of the essay chose to write a short story as a project. In this work, a famous English writer, W. Somerset Maugham, will serve as an inspirational example. This author has been chosen because he wrote short stories and was a physician whose characters were his colleagues, among others. However, despite his having written many short stories, his longer novels are the main source of inspiration for the author of the essay. Some of the more optimistic elements of his otherwise pessimistic novels will inspire the future project, while his methods of portraying problematic situations and feelings will be used as an artistic technique.
W. Somerset Maugham’s works are characterized by pessimistic elements, but they still inspire the author of the essay. The most inspirational aspect is how Maugham advised against writing to achieve a certain objective. Instead, he advocated for being completely sincere and convinced in the topic of the work, putting little effort and creating inspiration alone. Another one of his appealing qualities is his belief in self-expression and finding a purpose, despite being otherwise disillusioned with a lot of ideals. Maugham’s dedication to the topic and material of his writing and his ability to find a way through otherwise pessimistic situations appear to be motivating to the author of the essay.
W. Somerset Maugham’s works are contradictory in the aspect of ultimate ideals. On the one hand, his shorter works are quite pessimistic, as the author himself was disillusioned with the concept of love as a basis for relationships. On the other hand, in his major novels, protagonists like Philip Carey from “Of Human Bondage” successfully achieve their aims or ideals (Mambrol, 2019). In doing so, they find acceptance and a better understanding of their lives. Another such character is Charles Strickland from “The Moon and Sixpence”, whose genius finds recognition after being realized late in life and going through societal obstacles (Mambrol, 2019). Likewise, passion is one of the main motivators for Maugham’s characters to try to control their destinies. For example, Philip’s fate is decided by factors such as passion, disillusionment, and the search for a purpose in life (Mambrol, 2019). Therefore, despite Maugham being skeptical towards the ideal of a loving relationship, he still valued love as an ideal, self-expression, or finding a purpose. Thus, his characters were still driven by their passion, emotions, and existential search.
Unlike other writers, Maugham’s purpose is not to educate but to entertain. Known to take his real acquaintances, including himself, as examples for his works, he subjected them to numerous changes, creating a perfect illustration of a topic he had been inspired to illustrate. Then, through this illustration, the reader grows in sympathy for a character and, consequently, for the topic in question, such as a passion or a simpler emotion. However, Maugham doesn’t explain deeper meanings or reasons of the emotion in question; creating an entertaining case for a story is sufficient to him. Rather than giving reasons or foundations, Maugham reveals the negative details of the chosen topic, such as Philip’s deep love for Mildred being harmful rather than beneficial (Mambrol, 2019). This unorthodox and characteristic method is original and effective at entertaining the reader.
As discussed above, on the narrative level, characters in Maugham’s works function believably in the situation described in the books. On the cultural level the stories contain elements that generalize said situation, making it a solid representation of events in reality, believable and associative for the reader. These elements can seem non-standard but still serve their function. For example, in “The Moon and Sixpence” Maugham uses paintings to characterize Mrs. Stroeve: “Two paintings by Chardin and one by Manet are strategically introduced to calibrate the ethical and social tone surrounding Mrs. Stroeve” (Wright, 2017, p. 42). Wright (2018, p. 45), in addition to this observation, highlights the fact that Maugham’s disguise of the people he used as an inspiration for his characters comes from his personal life experience: “add some knowledge of his biographies and autobiographical essays, and a very different situation emerges”. For the future project, this approach may be instrumental in representing cases of different ailments. Maugham’s novels are written in a simple and idiomatic style, making them easily understandable to the reader; it can assist in picturing different cases of certain situations in the project as well.
W. Somerset Maugham is an unorthodox writer whose main aim in his writing is to entertain his reader with an intriguing depiction of a life problem or an emotion. His key method is while being inspired by a topic, creating a character via projecting his own experience onto a person he knows. That person then serves as an example of the topic without uncovering its nature. To further this end, Maugham proceeds to make this illustration enjoyable and, at the same time, relatable for the reader via non-standard characteristics such as paintings in Mrs. Stroeve’s case. The author of the essay aims to employ these methods for future projects.
References
Mambrol, N. (2019). Analysis of W. Somerset Maugham’s Novels. Literary Theory and Criticism. Web.
Wright, L. (2018). Character palimpsests in Somerset Maugham’s The Moon and Sixpence: The biographical roots of Dirk Stroeve and Charles Strickland. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 32(1), 45–50.
Wright, L. (2017). “Picturing” Mrs. Stroeve, in Somerset Maugham’s The Moon and Sixpence. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 31(1), 42–50.