An Analysis Of Modernist Characteristics In The Moon And Sixpence

William Somerset Maugham, a famous British novelist and dramatist, was regardedas one of the most popular literary giants in the20thcentury. As a productive writerwhose writing career lasted for60years, he made great achievements in every field ofliterature in addition to poetry. The Moon and Sixpence was one of his mostrepresentative works. The protagonist of this novel was created according to the life ofPaul Gauguin who was a famous French post-impressionist painter. When the novel waspublished, it not only produced widespread and far-reaching influence because of itsprofound thought and fascinating plot, but also established Maugham’s status in the fieldof international literature.In The Moon and Sixpence, Maugham narrated the whole story vividly from thefirst-person perspective and described modern people’s spiritual crisis adequately. Thenovel showed his thorough exploration of humanity. He believed humanity of modernpeople was repressed and they had lost original courage, imagination as well as theextremely valuable creativity. Furthermore, the thought-provoking questions such as thegeneration and essence of art, the relationship between life and art, the contradictionbetween artists and realistic society were also explored by Maugham who faithfullyshowed his readers the mental state of Western society and the increasingly seriousspiritual crisis of Westerners.There are abundant researches on Maugham at home and abroad which mainlyconcentrate on ideology, naturalism and traditional realism reflected in his works. Andfew researches have been done from the perspective of anti-traditional characteristics ofmodernism. In order to make up for the lack of research, this thesis intends to make ananalysis of the modernist characteristics in The Moon and Sixpence on the basis of theresearch achievements at home and abroad. It makes a systematic expatiation anddiscussion of the novel from four perspectives, including formation of modernistcharacteristics, modernist consciousness, modernist theme, and Maugham’s applicationof modernist techniques. This thesis specifically interprets Maugham’s ideas andtechniques, and analyzes ideological value and cultural value of The Moon and Sixpencefrom a more comprehensive perspective. Moreover, it provides a new perspective tofurther comprehend Maugham’s novels and literary achievements. The thesis consists of three parts: introduction, main body and conclusion.The introduction gives a brief summary of Maugham’s life experience, hisachievements in literature and the study on his works at home and abroad.The main body is composed of four parts:The first chapter mainly explains the reasons why Maugham’s modernistcharacteristics are formed. There are two reasons: the times and Maugham’s personalexperience. The former includes alienation of humanity caused by the unprecedentedlydeveloped industrialization and material civilization, the turbulent social situation, allkinds of ideological trends of modernism, and the impact of British irrationalism. Thesefour aspects are objective prerequisites of modernist characteristics formed by Maugham.What’s more, Maugham’s childhood trauma, his experience at medical school, richtravelling experience, and his own personality and temperament are subjective factors ofmodernist characteristics expressed in his works.The second chapter focuses on analyzing the modernist consciousness in The Moonand Sixpence which mainly manifests in two aspects: the consciousness of death and thethought of nihilism. It is the consciousness of death that arouses protagonist from theempty life and makes him realize all sorts of disadvantages of the utilitarian secularsociety, the hypocrisy of human beings as well as the dark side of society. Rethinking theconsciousness of death continually, he criticizes himself strictly, and determines not to beencumbered with the comfortable worldly life, and rearranges his own life. The thoughtof nihilism is reflected inthe protagonist’s consciousness of solitude and suffering.Nobody can understand the lonely protagonist. It seems that he is a stranger who comesto this world by mistake, and his relationship with the world is disharmonious. Inaddition, the thought of nihilism also finds its vivid expression in the protagonist’s beingfed up with secular society, his strong desire to escape from the realistic society and hishostile relationship with the environment.The third chapter places extra emphasis on the modernist themes of the novel: theway to freedom, the consciousness of irrationality, and the conflict between ideality andreality. In The Moon and Sixpence, the protagonist who has lived rationally for manyyears can no longer put up with the tranquil life which is just like a pool of stagnant water.Therefore, he chooses to walk away from the worldly society fearlessly to seek inner freedom. He regards art as the only way to achieve spiritual freedom andliberation, andthe consciousness of irrationality prevails in his mind which leads him to the crazyjourney of artistic exploration. When his dream is in conflict with the social reality, heabandons everything he has without any hesitation and gets rid of all bondage completely.Living thoroughly for his artistic dream and pursuit, he finally gains the freedom.The fourth chapter aims to describe Maugham’s application of modernist techniquesin The Moon and Sixpence. Maugham’s writing skills were formed in the late19th andearly20th centuries, during which all kinds of modernist works sprang up and a varietyof modernist ideologies emerged in large numbers rapidly. Under the influence of themodernism for so many years, Maugham has virtually been affected by modernismprofoundly so that the artistic works he created revealed modernist characteristic. Thischapter tends to analyze The Moon and Sixpence from the perspective of narrativemethod, plot and character, and tries to explore modernist techniques, so that modernistcharacteristics reflected in the novel can be thoroughly understood. With respect to thenarrative approach, this chapter chiefly describes the modernist characteristic from theperspective of narrator, narrative perspective and narrative tone. As to the plot, thischapter mainly analyzes the modernist characteristic from the perspective of ideology,uncertainty and collage structure. With reference to the character, this chapter analyzesthe characters’ characteristics from the perspective of abstraction and ambiguity.The conclusion summarizes the whole thesis and sums up the ideological values andcultural values of The Moon and Sixpence. It not only gives direction to the young peoplewho are confused about their future, but also helps those who are struggling betweenideality and reality to establish a positive attitude towards life. More importantly, itprovokes the readers of different eras to rethink profoundly, so that they will endeavor topursue their dreams and better life. Therefore, The Moon and Sixpence also plays apositive role in promoting the social culture.