The Key To The Bondage: The Research On "of Human Bondage" By Maugham

W.S. Maugham ( 1874-1965 ) is the realist writer of the twentieth century and the British novelist and playwright. He wrote many works in his life, including novels, plays, essays as well as travel narratives. Maugham's works is full of stories and he is considered to be the best story teller. At the same time, he gain the fame of"the most popular wrtier wrting in English in the twentieth century". His novels are mainly baced on the topic of seeking freedom and breaking away from all the bondage . Humanity problem is the key point in his novels. He spent more than 10years in finishing his autobiographicalnovel"of human bondage"in which the hero, Philip is the embodiment of Maugham, whose perplexity and pursuit, to some extent ,is just reflected back to Maugham himself. For hundred years, the problem on mankind is always the most important one and the bondage for humans till exsit and humans always have to face them. That is why his works is still one of the popular ones. By studying the hero, Philip, in"of human bondage", this essay just tries to do a research on the problems of"bondage"which human face to, in the specific condition ,with a close relation to modern people.In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the essay will give a discourse on the issue of"human""bondage"by means of social history research and psychoanalysis within four sections. In section I, first, clear concept will come into being after the discrimination on the concepts of"life","humanity","human"and"bondage". Next, psychoanalysis on the inner individual psychology is used to find out what the"bondage"really means. It means the conflict between one's inner individual new ideas and old ones as well as one's own characteristic disfigurement. In section II, it is a discussion on how the"bondage"formed. With the method of social history research, it is found out that the"bondage"resulted from the conflict between the absurd social environment and the natural humanity. The long term pressure of the social environment turned the"bondage"into its inner state, which rooted and it was very hard for men to break it off. In section III and section IV, it starts from the very deatail, first breaks of the"bondage", then keeps the spiritual freedon and its independence, balance the thinking system so as to find the key to the"bondage"."of human bondage"appears full of pessimistic philosophy but it gives reveals the optimistic philosophy. It finds the meaningful human life from the insignificance and it views from two aspects of the"bondage", turning the pressure into power. Philip started his new life by finally choosing compromise and balance in the conflict between ideal and reality.The essay ends with a conclusion that"the key to the bondage"means to seek the key to the bondage. But the problem is that the key can be found only for the physical bondage, not for the invisible one. We can not break away from the ubiquitous bondage. How to break away from the bondage is what we are thinking about and what we generation are fathoming and searching for. Although Maugham saw the bondage caused by the social system, he could not change it and his limitation made the bondage come under humanity.