Christian View Of Humanity Reflected Through The Biblical Archetypes In The Painted Veil

William Somerset Maugham was a popular British writer in the 20th century,who wrote many short stories and novels in his life.Among his representative works is The Painted Veil,which tells a story about human depravity and redemption.Numerous studies from different angles have been carried out on this novel.Due to its exotic elements and oriental background,many scholars have discussed the eurocentrism in the novel from the perspectives of Imagology or Orientalism,or tried to reveal Maugham's China complex.Others have focused on the love story of the protagonists and explored the writer's view of marriage and love,whereas still some others,taking feminist approach,have studied the heroine Kitty's awakened self-awareness and spiritual growth.There have also been scholars who,focusing on the religious issue,analyzes the influence of Taoism and Nihilism in the novel and concludes that Maugham has abandoned Christianity.However,in her reading the present author notices that the novel carries many biblical archetypes,and argues that they reflect the Christian view of humanity.Therefore,this thesis digs out and analyzes the biblical archetypes in terms of characters and plot structure,using the Bible as reference to explore Christian view of humanity reflected in this novel.This thesis falls into five chapters.Chapter One gives a brief introduction to Maugham and The Painted Veil,summarizes the previous researches on the writer and the novel,and explains the main points and structure of the thesis.Chapter Two,Chapter Three and Chapter Four constitute the body of the thesis.The present author argues that the structure of the novel is imitation of its biblical archetype representing the process of the fall of man and his redemption,and in Chapters Two to Four she analyzes the novel following the three stages of the biblical archetypal structure and reveals the significance of using biblical archetypes to the reflection of the Christian view of humanity.Chapter Two analyzes the fall of the protagonists.It presents the two protagonists' desires and weaknesses,analyzes the causes and process of their depravity,and concludes that human beings by nature have desires,which are the root cause of human depravity.Chapter Three is an analysis of the protagonists' punishment and ordeals as a result of their fall.They experience great spiritual sufferings.Disillusioned with love and despaired about life,they leave Hong Kong for Mei-Tan-Fu,a hell-like place where they undergo many hardships,which symbolizes their loss of paradise.The protagonists'ordeals also tell us about the Christian view of humanity—because man has sinned and fallen,they must be punished and suffer,just as what is told in the Bible.Chapter Four explores the protagonists' path to redemption and their regain of paradise.Through their introspection and their devotion with generous love,Kitty and Walter are able to regain the paradise in their own ways.Such ending of the novel reflects its approval of human goodness and reveals the view that humans can be redeemed through repentance and good deeds.Chapter Five is Conclusion.Through a summary of the biblical archetypes used in The Painted Veil,it thus concludes the Christian view of humanity reflected by this novel:human nature is tainted with desire and weakness,which causes the fall of humans;they have to suffer after the fall;but through repentance and sacrifice,they may be redeemed.The view of humanity reflected by this novel is in concert with what is told in the Bible.Therefore,it is reasonable to assert that this view of humanity has been influenced by Christianity,which to some extent further challenges the view held by some scholars that Maugham has deserted Christianity.