The Moon and Sixpence Text Analisys

‘’The Moon And Sixpence’’ by Somerset Maugham
Text Analysis by Sirbu Mihaela
William Somerset Maugham was an English playwright, novelist, and short story writer. He was
among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s.
His novel ‘’The Moon and Sixpence’’ was first published in April 15th, 1919. It is told in episodic form
by a first-person narrator, in a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character
Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stockbroker, who abandons his wife and children abruptly
to pursue his desire to become an artist. The story is in part based on the life of the painter Paul
Gauguin. The book was made into a stage play in 1925 at the New Theatre with Henry Ainley as
Strickland and Eileen Sharp as Ata and a film of the same name directed and written by Albert
Lewin.
The story is told through first-person follow by the narrator who is a character that knew
Strickland for a while before he left his family and his job as a stockbroker in England to pursue
his artistic interests. When Charles abandons his wife, she is certain he is having an affair,that’s
why she sends the narrator to Paris after his husband to ask him to come back home.
However, when the narrator gets to Paris and finds Strickland, he learns that it is not another
woman that has drawn him away from his family, but his desire to paint.
The idea that the author want to implement in the text is that one must always follow his
vocation.As we can observe in the text, Strickland wasn’t living a happy life in London as a
successful stockbroker.He was almost quite and we can understand that he was unhappy with
his life until he decided to leave to Paris,to dedicate his life to painting,Later we can notice him
being extremely pleased and happy with his simple,modest life in Tahiti.
An important theme driving this story is the theme of sacrifice for one’s condition. Strickland
sacrificed his previous life, he had the strength to left his wife and family behind for his own
happiness.You have one life and you deserve to live it happy.And our protagonist had the
courage to understand that and to put his own happiness on first place which isn’t a bad or
even more selfish. Every action of ours have consequences and faster we understand that and
accept it, better and easier our life becomes.
The text starts with the introduction of our characters describing them pretty vague, reviling
some details of their lives. The rising action occurs when out of nowhere ,Mr.Strickland left his
family without any warning. Being sure that her husband left her for another woman, he
reached one of their common friend,the narrator asking him to talk to her husband and making
him to come back home. The narrator accepted Mrs. Striclands request and did as he was
asked to. When the narrator or confronted Mr. Strickland, he finds out that he left his wife due
to his wish to dedicate himself to painting. The climax of the story is when Mr.Strickland learn
that he suffers from leprosy. Despite his struggles, he is firm convinced to continue painting.In
this way,he painted his hut until his last day,being taken care of his Tahitian wife.After his
death,his wife burnt the hut to the ashes per his dying orders.
From author’s words, Mr.Strickland seem like a dull. He is not good at socializing however he is
a good father and husband, a honest broker but there was no reason to waste his time over
him. He was pretty quite and from everyone’s shocked reaction, we can deduce that he didn’t
seemed the type to leave his family out of the blue but as it says ,don’t judge a book by it’s
cover. He wanted to paint. From his decisions to left his previous life behind ,the character
proves his courage and bravery sacrificeing everything he had for his own happiness.As soon as
he discovered his true vocation,he demonstrate his dedication towords art.
The one character that remind me of our painter is Akakii Akakievici from the short novel ‘’The
Overcoat’’ by Nikolai Gogol.Akakii Akakievici worked his entire life as a copywrighter.He lived a
modest,simple life, without any luxuries,earnig his money from honest and hard work.He never
earned much money from his work but he never wanted to change his job because he was
obsessed with his job and was doing it with pleasure,with all his heart exactly like Mr.
Strickland. Both of them never cared of what others had to say about them because the only
thing that mattered for them was that they were doing what they love.Even if both of the
stories ended tragically,with both their deaths, I think that the fact that they never stoped doing
what they like,made their lives better and happier despite all of their other problems.

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‘’The Moon And Sixpence’’ by Somerset Maugham

Text Analysis by Sirbu Mihaela

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