Strickland’s Ethical Dilemmas In The Moon And Sixpence

William Somerset Maugham(1874-1965),is one of the greatest British novelists in the 20 th century.The Moon and Sixpence,which was published in 1919,is considered as his best long novel after Of Human Bondage in 1915.In the novel,Maugham makes use of the brave escape of the protagonist to expose the ethical dilemmas of people faced in the absurd society.Though critics have carried out sufficient researches on The Moon and Sixpence from different aspects such as the character analysis,the theme and the narrative features,the studies from the perspective of ethical literary criticism are not thorough enough.So the thesis tries to conduct a more comprehensive analysis of ethical dilemmas the protagonist faced in The Moon and Sixpence.The thesis can be divided into three chapters.Chapter One analyzes the Strickland’s ethical conflicts with his wife,his friends and his lover from human-other relationship.Chapter Two refers to the ethical conflicts between Strickland and different societies including London,Pairs and Tahiti from human-society relationship.Chapter Three discusses Strickland’s ethical conflicts with his identity,ethical consciousness and pursuit from human-self relationship.Through the analysis of these ethical dilemmas,the thesis draws a conclusion that Strickland betrayed the traditional ethics concepts and did some immoral or extreme behaviors during the journey to the moon,but he realized his painting dream and explored a way of self surpassing for people in modern society.