An Anatomy Of Human Dilemma In The Moon And Sixpence From Fromm's Humanistic Theory

William Somerset Maugham(1874-1965)was a cross-century English Writer,whose works not only inherited the vivid description from the traditional realism in the 19 th century but also concentrated on the individuals' spirits which was absorbed from the modernism in the first 20 th century.He always tells different complicated stories through his plain,understandable language and exposes the dark side of human inner world sharply.The Moon and Sixpence is one of Maugham's masterpieces and the French painter Paul Gauguin is the prototype of the protagonist.Once published,The Moon and Sixpence has been paid great attention.Maugham gives a story from the first-person point of view about a conventional middle aged stockbroker Charles Strickland who suddenly abandoned all his family and wealth to pursue his dream of painting.In the novel,it is very different and weird about Charles Strickland from others in that society.Obviously every character in the novel including the protagonist was depicted vividly and which shows the Maugham's deep insights to human spirits and the very concern to the spiritual crisis of modern people.This paper attempts to combine the modern social and cultural backgrounds with the humanistic theory of Maugham's contemporary philosopher Erich·Fromm(1900-1990)to analysis The Moon and Sixpence.It firstly analysis the character of the main characters in the novel,who lost their minds in the material society and then throws light upon the real causes to modern people's nonproductive character orientation and spiritual crisis both from the social and individual causes.According to those analysis,it is supposed to find out the solutions of getting rid of spiritual crisis and help modern people establish the sane and sound character as well as building a harmonious society.