An Interpretation Of Spiritual Ecology In The Moon And Sixpence

William Somerset Maugham,a well-known writer in the modern English literature,has been regarded as one of the most popular British writers in the twentieth century.He is a prolific writer whose works cover various fields in the literature and novel is a very important part.The Moon and Sixpence,one of his most representative novels,is also one of highly contentious works of his.For instance,from the theme of the novel,the relationship between Charles Strickland and Paul Gauguin,to its reflection to the writer's life,none of these is uncontroversial,thus it also attracts generations of literary lovers and researchers.In The Moon and Sixpence,Maugham adopted an unique means of narration to unfold the whole life of Strickland who showed no consideration for the secular bondage and pursued his ideal of painting without any hesitation.The writer presented his deep exploration of human nature by his description of Strickland,an eccentric talent who put all his heart and soul into art and knew nothing about the way of the world.Besides,Maugham also explored many thought-provoking questions such as the relationship between life and art,the contradiction between artists and the social reality.Along with Strickland's self-realization,the increasingly serious spiritual crisis of Westerners was also faithfully revealed by him.The fever of research into Maugham never dies away and there are abundant researches on The Moon and Sixpence at home and abroad.Foreign researchers mainly focus on the character,theme,gender,means of narration,psychoanalysis and so on while domestic scholars concentrate on its theme,narrative techniques,artistic characteristics,symbolism as well as its relationship with Paul Gauguin.Hence,few studies have been done from the perspective of spiritual ecology.This thesis intends to make an analysis from this perspective and explore the new way to achieve the harmony in the spiritual ecology through the answer given by Maugham in The Moon and Sixpence.This is the innovation of this thesis and also gives some guidance to those confused and perplexed people.Therefore,to some degree,it also has a good influence on promoting the positive social culture.The thesis consists of three parts,namely introduction,main body and a conclusion.Some background information is given in the introduction,including a brief summary of writer's life experience and his important works,also a brief introduction to The Moon and Sixpence,the research target and contents and so on so as to make preparations for the research perspective and the basic idea in the main body of this thesis.The main body consists of four chapters.The first chapter is mainly about scholars' studies on Maugham and his representative work The Moon and Sixpence at home and abroad as well as a systematic introduction to the theory of this thesis--spiritual ecology.The second chapter concentrates on the symptoms of the spiritual imbalance presented in this novel.According to the spiritual ecological theory and Professor Lu Shuyuan's ideas in his Ecological Research in Literature and Art,the symptoms of modern people's spiritual imbalance mainly include the following five aspects: the spiritual vacuum,the behavioral incapability,the existential alienation,the assimilation of the life style and the spiritual materialization.This thesis will mainly focus on the existential alienation with the proof of Strickland's gradual alienation from people and society and so on,the assimilation of the life style shared by people around Strickland and also the spiritual materialization of the whole society.The third chapter analyses the causes of spiritual imbalance.As a theory which pays close attention to the relationship between man and himself as well as the relationship between man and environment,spiritual ecology advocates that both people's inside feelings and the environment they are in should be considered when we try to analyze their spiritual imbalance.In the Maugham's age,the British material civilization was highly developed.Under this circumstance,people often ignored their spiritual needs and pursuits.Therefore,this chapter will explore the causes of spiritual imbalance from two aspects: the external and internal factors.External factors will discuss the contradiction between the primitive civilization and the modern civilization as well as the bondage of worldly life.Internal factors will focus on the conflict between the spirit and the flesh,the contradiction between the ideal and the reality,and the slavery of will.The fourth chapter concerns about the methods of realizing the spiritual salvation.At first,Strickland escaped from his regular life to pursue his ideal of painting in Pairsand finally found his inner peace in Tahiti in the South Pacific.In the whole process,Strickland went through spiritual contradictions many a time.Different from other writers and due to his special experiences,religious beliefs and philosophical viewpoints,for example,his craze to art like a kind of religious fever and his mysterious worship to soul,Maugham gave his original answer about realizing the absolute spiritual freedom and harmony in The Moon and Sixpence.This chapter will discuss the way to achieve the spiritual salvation by returning to nature,and by resorting to art.The conclusion generalizes and summarizes the whole thesis,and it will also sum up the value of analyzing The Moon and Sixpence from the perspective of spiritual ecology so as to give rise to readers' self-reflection and give some guidance to confused and perplexed people,especially those who are troubled by reality and struggle against the contradiction between the reality and the ideal.