A Study Of Maugham’s Novels From The Perspective Of Feminism

William Somerset Maugham is a well-known British novelist and playwright.He has worked hard all his life and created abundantly.This thesis takes Maugham’s three novels "Mrs.Craddock","The Painted Veil" and " Theatre" as the main research objects,and uses the theories of feminism to analyze the process of women who in love and marriage by Maugham turn into "The Other",the various explorations after the awakening of subject consciousness,and the problems of seeking solutions after the failure of these explorations.The main body of this thesis is divided into four chapters:The first chapter mainly uses Beauvoir’s feminism theories to analyze how women in love and marriage become "The Other" gradually,and the reasons for this phenomenon.This chapter is divided into two sections: the first section discusses the process of women in love turn "Self" into "The Other";the second section discusses that women who in marriage become men’s appendages and lost their discourse power at the same time.The second chapter discusses the self-exploration of women after the awakening of female subject consciousness.This chapter is based on the first feminist movement and the historical background of British to analyze the awakening process of female consciousness.According to the awakening processes from the elementary to the profo und,the chapter is divided into three sections: self-understanding,self-liberation and self-pursuit.The first section discusses the re-examination of the female consciousness,re-establishing from "The Other" to "The Self";the second section discusses the erotic indulgence and the secular pleasure under the spirit of liberation after the awakening of the female consciousness;the third section discusses the higher level of female consciousness——get out of family and step into the society,and explore personal value and meaning actively.The third chapter mainly talks about the problems of women in the process of struggling after the awakening of self-consciousness.Their final endings are back to the roles of the family after ran away from home,and they could never have a place in society.Therefore,the struggle of these women is not completely.It attributes to themselves as well as society.In the final analysis,the solutions for women’s resistance in order to owning a career and achieving economic independence.For the women of Maugham’s era,women’s liberation still has a long way to go.The fourth chapter mainly analyzes Maugham’s views of women.Maugham’s views of women are changing constantly,and this change has roughly gone through three stages.The first stage is having a prejudice against women;the second stage is having attitudes toward women changed from prejudice to understanding and sympathy gradually.Maugham’s views of women are very contradictory during this period;the third stage is the stage from disgust to tolerance.It can be seen from these that Maugham’s attitudes towards women has generally changed from conservative to tolerant.As a calm observer and bystander,he has always keenly captured the changes of women under the changing times and objectively showed the true face of women in that period of his works,his contradictions and changes are the results of the combined effects of the times,society and personal experiences.In addition,in his works,he also actively explored the solutions for women’s resistance,and pointed out a way for women to get rid of lust,get out of the family,and step into society.This has certain significance of the times.