A Psychological Study Of Maugham As Reflected In The Moon And Sixpence

W.S.Maugham enjoyed the excellent reputation as a playwright and novelist in the 20th century, and was a precious leader in the Britain even the world literary circle. The difference between Maugham and his contemporary writers lay in the writing motif. He focused his eyes on the motif irrelevant with the era meaning. The era Maugham lived was in the World War, and people generally lost the confidence of capital industrialized society. They even lost their religion faith. They might be in the maze of the war debris. The naked materialism was just like layers of mental shackles and choked people into death. Their consciousness began to awake, and attempted to seek a totally fresh new life pattern. They were in difficulties, or they maybe had sacrificed many life treasures. In other people's eyes, this self-rescue was just like self-burning and was a sort of coward escape. It was regarded as an abnormal behavior format under the influence of pessimism.The character Strickland this thesis tended to explore was just a typical one. He owned a well social status and lived in a happy and stable family. His life was enviable by many people at that time. However, he left his family and wife without any hesitation just for his dream of painting in his childhood, which was ridiculous in the conventional creed. This consciousness of art stimulated him to break the obstacle of censures and shackles from the society. He struggled harshly in his dilemma and spared no effort to pursue his dream and paradise, which served as a rest place for his soul.In the first chapter, the thesis gave a general introduction of Maugham's life journey and summed up his writing career and creating style. Then in the second chapter, the thesis summarized the criticism by the critics at home and abroad for Maugham's works, especially for the The Moon and Sixpence. In the third chapter, the thesis implemented the Maslow's hierarchy of needs to analyze the interdependence relationships on Strickland himself. And it then evaluated the chains among his kinship, love and career in order to realize his self-actualization. Next in the fourth chapter, this thesis further analyzes the role of Maugham's life experience and psychological course playing in the creation of this famous novel. Maugham had unconsciously or consciously added his elements into his work in order to realize the spiritual exchange and communication between him and Strickland. Last but not least, the thesis summed up the basic paper ideas in the end.It was no doubt that he had poured many efforts to this work and embedded with his own life experience. He used the daunt escape of Strickland from the modern civilization to accomplish his long time dream which he was after but did not have the courage to do so. From the discussed above, Maugham was continuously pursuing his and even the whole humankind's means of salvation, which was the most gratifying thing for the people.