Naturalistic Tendency In The Razor’s Edge

William Somerset Maugham, a famous and transitional writer between the traditional and modern times in the history of British literature, inherited the traditions of Realism as well as accepted the notions of Naturalism in lots of his works with The Razors Edge as the representative. The Razor’s Edge is one of his most popular works. Attempting to analyze the naturalistic tendency, this thesis discusses that The Razor’s Edge is a try of Maugham, though being mostly regarded as a realistic writer, to go beyond the Realism.This present adopts the theories of Naturalism and narratology to analyze the characters, themes and narrative skills that respectively embody the scientific principle, the notion of "return to nature" and impersonal principle of Naturalism in this novel.This thesis is composed of introduction, body and conclusion. Introduction offers a concise review on The Razor s Edge. By analyzing the reasons of Maugham’s naturalistic tendency, this part brings out the significance of applying this approach to the study of this novel.Chapter One investigates the characterization of Isabel, Sophie and Elliott to study the embodiment of Naturalism’s scientific principle which views Man from the scientific perspectives of physiology and demotics.Chapter Two focuses on the embodiment of Naturalism’s notion of "return to nature" on the themes of "Man" and "society" in The Razor’s Edge, which is a reflection of Maugham’s naturalistic tendency and his attempt to go beyond the Realism.Chapter Three, discussing the embodiment of the impersonal principle on narrative skills from the aspects of narrative perspective, concealed narrative subject and the fragment-associated narrative structure, exposes that Maugham accepts the "impersonal" claim of Naturalism reflected in the narrative skills in The Razor’s Edge.In Conclusion, the author of this thesis maintains that the naturalistic tendency in The Razor’s Edge is the illustration for Maugham who is not totally restricted himself in the scope of Realism, but also accepted the reasonable part of Naturalism. Therefore, this thesis expands the understanding and recognition of the novel and Maugham’s creative viewpoint.