A Study On The Lonely Characters In Maugham's Novels

William Somerset Maugham(1874—1965)is a famous British novelist,playwright,essayist of the second half of the nineteenth Century to the upper half of the twentieth Century.Maugham created many distinct characters in his novels,but whether in the tangled emotions of men and women,or the fame monger,or the free spiritual seekers,they are in a state of loneliness in loner image in action.However,the study on the lonely character in Maugham's novels has been ignored by researchers.At present there is no special papers or monographs to research the lonely characters in Maugham's novels.Therefore,this article will be based on a close reading of the text using the method of Maslow's Humanistic Psychology combined with Existential criticism for its analysis and interpretation.Taken The painted veil,Of Human Bondage,The moon and The sixpence and razor's edge as example to analyses the different loneliness characters in Maugham's novels and their cause of formation,to investigate the meaning of existence of loneliness itself and this psychological experience influence on the author and his characters,and further elucidate the lonely characters for the role and significance of Maugham's exploration of the human survival predicament and spiritual home reconstruction.This article is divided into three parts:the introduction,the text and the conclusion.The introduction part raise the problem in the first place,namely the existence of a large number of lonely figures in Maugham's novels.However,the academic circles of these figures have also been a lack of research,there is no monographs appear.Then is the review on the study of Maugham's novels,and the significance of the topic of this article and research methods.The first chapter analyzes the "loner who lack of psychological needs",the representative figure are Kitty Fane(The painted veil),Sophie McDonald(The Razor's Edge)and Fanny Price(Of Human Bondage).Based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory these figures can't satisfy the psychological demand so result in the negative psychological sense of loneliness as the main performance of the experience.This kind of loners for alienation leads to loss of different psychological needs,everything around them and gradually alienated,make themselves fall into the solitude situation inevitably.Maugham through this kind of loners show the alienation caused by individual psychological disease and distortion of human nature,exposes the social ills caused by alienation.The second chapter analyzes the "loner who has no spiritual sustenance",the representative figure is Philip Carey(Of Human Bondage).He became the loner because his spiritual rootless,the cause of his spiritual sustenance nowhere is largely due to his loss of faith,his ideal can't be achieved and his compromise to the reality,and his fascination with emotion it is too distorted and fragile to be a spiritual sustenance.All of these make his hopes that search for spiritual sustenance have been dashed once again,and he was in a state of mental wandering and feel lonely.The third chapter analyzes the "loner who pursuit of artistic ideal",the representative figure is Charles Strickland(The moon and The sixpence).He was willing to put himself at the opposite of society,in order to pursue the artistic ideal.Facing the contradiction between individual and reality clings to his own loneliness,guide his behavior by irrational forces,make himself farther away from social groups.He bear loneliness in his pursuit process of artistic ideal,and finally,the lonely will be sublimation while the artistic ideal completion.The fourth chapter analyzes the "loner who seek existence value and the significance",the representative figure is Larry Darrell(The Razor's Edge).Comes from his own search for the meaning of existence he begin to think about his own life.Loneliness is his character as well as his existence state.His loneliness comes from the awakening of his consciousness.Let him though in a society but always has aloof state.His outside of social life choices and his forward-thinking made him look like a outlier in the eyes of others,however his loneliness helped him to get the answer to life.The fifth chapter analyzes the forming reasons of these lonely characters in Maugham's novels.The social reason is the war blow to the traditional beliefs,it caused the people's spiritual world in despair,and the estrangement between people caused by the social alienation.The personal reasons is the writer brought himself into a lonely mood at the time of creation,the writer's reconsideration of western culture and his pursuit of new spiritual home are all reflected on those lonely charactersThe conclusion part points out that the lonely characters in Maugham's novel reflect of Maugham to explore the human survival predicament and spiritual home reconstruction efforts.His attention to modern people's lonely situation and unique thinking on people's survival condition is Reflects his ideological value and humanistic care of his works.I also hope that through the analysis of the Lonely characters in Maugham's novel to make more people be able to recognize the ideological and seriousness of the works of Maugham,to let more people to re-examine Maugham's"second-rate writer" status in the history of literature.