And the same book < The shackles of life >

Content Introduction

The protagonist of the novel Carey Childhood parents, unfortunately, congenital disability, in the cold and unfamiliar environment to spend a child, character so withdrawn and sensitive. The years spent in boarding school made him suffer from the irrational school system, and when he went into society, he went through the pain in love. In the bumpy road of life, he every step, have to pay hard struggle, but the thought and individuality are independent unruly Carey, has been trying to break free from the religious and ordinary citizen consciousness of the shackles of their own spirit, trying to chaos in the turbulent life swirling flow, seeking the true meaning of life.

about the author

William Samersette Maum (William Somerset Maugham) was born in Paris on January 25, 1874. His father was a lawyer and was at the British Embassy in France. Small Maugham under the age of 10, his parents died, he was sent back to England by his uncle to raise. Maum after the Royal Public School, because of short stature, and serious stuttering, often by older children bullying and torture, and sometimes by the Dong scholar's unwarranted humiliation. Lonely sorrow childhood, in his tender heart cast a painful shadow, to form his withdrawn, sensitive, introverted character. The experience of the young has a profound influence on his world outlook and literary creation.

At the beginning of 1892, he studied for a year at Heidelberg University in Germany. There, he comes into contact with the philosophical thoughts of Nor Faichil, a historian of German philosophy, and the new theatrical trend represented by Ibsen. In the same year, he returned to England, where he was a six-week trainee in an accounting firm in London, followed by the St. Thomas Medical School in London. The five-year-long career in medicine has not only given him the opportunity to understand the living conditions of the people at the bottom, but also made him learn to cutaway life and society with the same cold and sharp eyes as the scalpel. His first novel, Lambess, was written according to what he saw during his internship.

Since 1897, Maugham has abandoned the literature on medical specialization. In the next few years, he wrote several novels, but in Maugham's own words, none of them could "make Thames, R. Fire". He turned to drama, succeeded, became a smash hit playwright, and staged his four plays on the London stage. His tenth play, "Mrs. Frederic", was staged for a year. This unprecedented pomp is said to be the only Bernard Shaw of the famous playwright. But the bitter past, the nightmare of his heart, not let him have a moment of peace, more and more strongly asked him to express, to create. He decided to temporarily interrupt the creation of the drama, with two years of time devoted to writing the long-simmering novel "The Shackles of life."

During the First World War, Maugham first rescued the wounded in the Belgian line of Fire and later worked in the British intelligence service to Switzerland, Russia and the Far East. The experience provided material for his later writing of the spy novel "Eschenden". After the war he visited the Far East and the South Pacific Islands, and in 1920 he wrote a volume of Chinese stories. In 1928, Maugham settled on the Riviera of the Mediterranean Sea until the Nazi invasion in 1940, when he hurried away.

During the gap between the two wars, Maugham was the most energetic period of his creation. In the 20 's and early 30 's, he wrote a series of revelations, intrigue, moral depravity, satire, such as "The Cycle", "the people who are more noble than us" and "the Faithful wife". These three plays are recognized as Maugham in the drama. The "Skeppe", which was finalized in 1933, was his last play. Maugham's dramatic works, the plot is compact and tortuous, the conflict is fierce and reasonable, the characters written, not much of the image and prominent, vivid dialogue, humorous and playful, so that people feel fresh and powerful. But in general, the depth of content and characterization, and not his long, short stories, although his novels are not profound. The important novels of this period are: the Moon and six pence, which reflect the bondage of modern Western civilization, stifle the individuality and creation of the artist, the "pleasure" depicting the ridiculous and despicable phenomenon in the literary world, and the exotic short episode of "The Tremor of Leaves", which is based on the eastern colony of the British Empire. Short stories occupy an important place in the creative activities of Maugham. His short story style is close to Maupassant, the structure is rigorous, the transferee falls Natural, the language is concise, the narration eloquence. The writer tries to avoid making comments in his works, but through ingenious art processing, so that the characters show their inner character during the unfolding of the plot.

During the Second World War, Maugham to the United States and spent six years in South Carolina, New York and Vingad. 1944 published the novel "Blade". In this work, the writer tries to reveal the contradiction between the spirit and the materialism through the story of a young man exploring the philosophy of life. After the publication of the novel, the response was strong, especially in the war in the United Kingdom and the United States active military personnel welcome.

In 1946, Maugham returned to the French Riviera. 1948 wrote the last novel "Katalina". Thereafter, it was confined to writing memoirs and literary commentary, and fallacy of his own. Maugham has a high reputation in his later years, and the British University of Oxford and the French Toulouse University respectively awarded him a prestigious "honorary Knights" title. January 25, the British famous Garrick Literature club specially hosted a banquet to celebrate his 80 birthday, in the history of English literature received this courtesy, only Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope three writers. 1961, his alma mater, German Heidelberg University, awarded him honorary manager of the title.

Maugham died on the French Riviera on December 15, 1965 at the age of 91. The ashes were buried in the Royal School of Canterbury. After death, the famous Yale University in the United States set up archives for remembrance.

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Aichoko the path to the inner world of Freedom http://book.douban.com/review/5565733/

1 Shackles
"The shackles of human nature" is a story about how the protagonist Philip abandoned the shackles of life and finally got the freedom of the spirit. Philip was born with a leg disease, his parents died early, and was sent to the old-fashioned uncle's foster care at a small age. As the father's uncle to little Philip did not love, selfish indifference, resulting in this precocious child more sensitive and shy personality. Philip's life path is not smooth, he carried out many attempts to experience a lot of pain to gradually remove the religion, education, love, friendship, the world's vision, personality, secular expectations and so on in the life of all the shackles, to obtain the peace of mind and spiritual freedom.
Philip's experience, that is, how he removed the shackles of human nature to free the process, each chapter is very interesting to read, but in a comprehensive view, I think the most interesting is not how Philip through the two veins to obtain a change of mind, but he in the heart and "shackles" conflict when he repeated psychological struggle, remorse- Abhorrence--aversion--indulgence--again the tangled process of remorse. For example, for the first time, he was fanatical about God because he listened to his uncle's sermon and thought that as long as he was sincere enough to pray to God, he could heal his lame, and when he found out that his wish had not been achieved, he complained of his lack of piety, then doubted and even hated God, and then regretted, and insisted on reciting the Bible For example, Philippe Canterbury Royal Public School Worship principal Mr. Perkins, the enthusiasm of the whole is stimulated, will be dedicated to God to lead the ministry, but this enthusiasm is fleeting, because he lost a child of the same school friendship began to hate school life, decided not to continue to Oxford as a priest, After seeing his uncle as a priest and other parish priests inconsistency and narrow-minded acts, and determined to leave the established sacred path into the Earth, but when his resolution finally experienced a lot of obstacles to obtain the headmaster's consent, but the heart heavy, feel infinitely depressed, "finally reached the goal, Instead, I hope to choke myself! Philip's entanglements are the best manifestation of the paradox of human nature, which is not a logical act. This irrationality of man is an important expression of individuality, as imperfect, not perfect, defines human nature. If Philip had not been so tangled up, he would not have been able to gain the breadth and depth of his thinking through time and again through self-talk, and could not have finally realized the shackles on his head, and would not have been able to break these shackles and gain the ultimate freedom.
Because of this, Philip must be covered in chains, whether active or passive, he must first experience the shackles of human nature all the pain and sweetness, warmth and insolent, only to talk about the shackles of freedom to get free. Those who have not experienced such pressing and remorse are not qualified to oppose the shackles, because they have an invisible yoke called "ignorance" on their heads, making it difficult to make comprehensive and effective judgments.
Philip's life gave me the deepest impression of two points, one is his self-analysis of the constant self-denial of courage. Second, he dares to be responsible for his own life attitude. Whether he was young and reckless to go to Germany's impulse, or from the London accounting firm resigned to go to Paris to learn painting, the boy did not complain, he will struggle with himself, the people around him also inevitably have a view of evaluation, but he does not anger in person, success failure are honestly accept the reality, Even the end of the rope is ashamed to be gracious. The goodness of this human nature eliminates many of Philip's possibilities in life, but it also brings more possibilities.
2 Mildred
Philip's love for the pastry waitress Mildred is worth careful analysis.
Philip was the first to accompany his friend, Dunsford, to pursue the waitress at the shop in London's Capitol Street, Mildred, who had a very scornful impression of the "lanky, narrow buttocks, flat-eyed boy" of a woman: "In Paris, no one would look at her." Not only that, the woman is also shallow and mean, a pair of daughter-in-the-way arrogant manner is really annoying. But because of her arrogant attitude to Philip's love, which seriously hurt Philip's sensitive self-esteem, the feelings of disgust began in the tangled depression slowly evolved to the soul of the Dream department. Not only that, with the Mildred every time Philip's play, deception, insult deepened, Philip that must get the heart of the desire to become more intense, to finally unexpectedly developed to pay for Mildred and dew lover Holiday to the point of joy. This kind of love is really unfortunate.
But in Philip's relationship with Mildred, Philip's powerlessness was not blind ignorance. In other words, Philip was aware of the vulgar boredom of Mildred's character and his humble greed for the woman's character, but he couldn't put it down. If this attachment is the first sexual mischief-Philip had self-analysis, that "only make Mildride for his mistress, can get rid of the torment of despicable lust", then he found in the street has become a prostitute Mildred, and decided to provide food and lodging but refused to have a physical relationship with her is incredible. In fact, Philip's terrible sentiment towards Mildred was the main reason for the criticism of the shackles of human nature after its first publication in 1915: The Times Literature Supplement argues that Maugham should not be in the relationship between Philip and Mildred: "We are not opposed to being forced to spend a lot of time on such an unattractive figure. , but this kind of character is endowed with the life of the setbacks. "(It is not the only, we resent being forced to spend so much time and so unpleasant a creature. We resent the twist that's given to the figure of life.) "The New York World newspaper" evaluates Philip's love for "a pathetic idiot of sentimental Slavery" (the Sentimental servitude of a Poor fool), the Philadelphia newspaper also said the protagonist of the novel was "a Life-wasting Philip" (futile Philip).
I tried to understand Philip's almost self-inflicted love for Mildred, and felt that Philip's weakness in character and life was still to be returned. Philip's congenital and acquired growth environment has further contributed to his overly sensitive self-esteem and shy personality, aunt to his true love and affection he was grateful but not unforgettable, and the more he was refused to be hurt, his heart left scars more and more obvious. Philip's love for Mildred stems from the humiliating rejection of self-esteem, especially in contrast to the momentary dew of his old maid, Miss Wilkinson, who had the heart of his heart, and Philip was in fact a fickle of the ability to be unkind to Miss Wilkinson toss. It is in the long-term unwilling and become inertia of humiliation and deception, Philip's deformed love to thrive. This misfortune gave Philip a long, self-pity cause and a clear goal of life, in a sense, the painful love made Philip obtain the self-consistency and self-proof of the personality.
As for Philip, who realized that he had to leave Mildred but was as addicted to self-control as a junkie, I felt that a large part of the reason was the tragic eruption of good and weak character: Philip's feeling of Mildred's miserable situation was a pure sadness--The Remembrance of youth, The unbearable sorrow, Perhaps there is a subconscious affirmation of self-history. Whatever the reason, Mildred has become a part of Philip's personality and spirit, out of the bondage of the real man. In this sense, I doubt that Philip will ever be able to completely unload this heavy yoke.
3 Authors and works
The shackles of human nature is probably the closest novel to Maugham's autobiography. Philip's childhood bereavement, lame, lodging aloof and heartless Pastor Uncle's home, this and maugham his parents premature death, homestay Pastor Uncle's home experience coincides. Maugham, stuttering, bullying at school, being aloof at home, introverted, shy, overly sensitive, and seriously insecure-all are very much like Philip. Maugham 16-year-old refused to re-read the Royal Public School, to Germany Heidelberg University to study German, philosophy and literature; After graduation, he returned to England to enter an accounting firm, but resigned one months to study medicine at St. Thomas Hospital in London. Such tossing and turning of the study and inauguration experience with Philip also expatiating. Although Maugham himself that "the shackles of human nature" is a non-autobiographical literary creation, 1938 (4 years after the shackles of human nature) Maugham admits that "facts and fiction are so tightly intertwined in my work that I can hardly separate them now." "(" The Fact and fiction is so intermingled in my work, "then, looking back on it, I can hardly distinguish one from the oth Er. " ）
I have always believed that understanding the author is the icing on the cake, not the indispensable thing. The works are born from the author, but the work is irreversible to become a complete individual from the author as its own independent existence. A piece of work from the production to completion but only out of the artistic realization of half the distance, the complete realization must through the audience to the art of the reception to finally set up. The audience's understanding and recognition of the author can make the process of artistic realization a perfect ring, but the ring does not represent the only possibility of artistic realization, and even for some works, the ring represents the closure of thinking and the loss of artistic possibility, because the author's motive does not completely determine the extension space that the work can open. As an art to realize the other half of the elements of the audience is actually full of possibilities, each of the different audiences, or each of the different times of the audience is likely to bring the implementation of the work into a completely random direction and dimensions (although in most cases these directions and dimensions are private, unknown or no further analysis of the common value), In advance of the author's motives or style has been pre-defined, or later in order to close the author's motives to abandon the extension of the work space to refuse further thinking, I think in some way is a kitsch compromise. This is a regrettable loss for both the work itself and the audience.
To look at the shackles of human nature in such a way, the protagonist Philip and author Maugham exactly how many coincident to the literary value of the book is very insignificant, of course, the study and analysis of the author's life or add gossip is worth exploring. I do not deny the pleasure of knowing that Maugham's vicious and caustic deeds in the language of royal public Learning will produce the thrill of a feeling of resentment between his friend and his friends in the book, but I still think that Maugham's own experience is not the key to understanding Philip's mental state. A good writer does not equate the real occurrence of life with the "axiom" in his work, forcing the character to behave in the same way without paving, rendering, explaining. The artistic life of good works is always complete and independent of the author's motive.
4 Meaning of life
In the shackles of human nature, Philip unloaded the final yoke of life is happiness. He experienced the disillusionment of his ideals and Ming pain, and observed the despair of his friends, poverty or emptiness, and came to the conclusion that "the efforts made by people in their lifetimes seem disproportionate to their final outcome". This conclusion made it clear that he really understood that before the Heidelberg poet Cronshaw had given him a broken Persian rug to reveal the true meaning of life's mysteries: "Life is meaningless." ...... Man is not more meaningful than other living things, and man's appearance is not the culmination of creation, but the natural response to the environment. "In the story of the Eastern Roman Empire, a philosopher distilled the history of mankind, and concluded that" life is meaningless, and there is no purpose for people to live. Born or not born, alive or dead, is irrelevant. Life is trivial, and death is insignificant. This conclusion and Milan Kundera in the "unbearable Light of Life" completely deny the lightness of life, and then further negate the history of the heavy and political essence, so that the ultimate proof of human nature and happiness in the essence of the contradiction is fully consistent.
But contrary to the tragic conclusion of Kundera, Philip decided to abandon the pursuit of happiness after reaching a meaningless conclusion of life-"life is just a pattern ... Life is just a matter of satisfying one's pleasure. "Popular point, since life is illusory, so no matter what kind of life, also has its own pattern of fun." "Happiness is as trivial as pain, and their advent, like other details in life, is simply making the pattern of life more complicated." "Kundera said that the essence of human nature and the pursuit of happiness is the root of the tragedy of life, and Maugham let Philip give up the pursuit of happiness, and realize that the uniqueness of all life patterns and artistry, is beyond the tragedy of the breakthrough." This and "Soldier assault" in Xu more than three that simple plain English "good live is meaningful, meaningful is good to live" actually coincide--since everything is meaningless, then all the meaning is reasonable, all the pattern also has its own wonderful.
I really like the conclusion that Maugham borrowed from Philip, which is the negation above the negation, is the greatest affirmation. First of all, the failure to realize the vision and disillusionment to pay the heavy cost and misfortune, is the real success, those who pay for the hard work, compromise and humiliation combined with the weight and success itself is only afraid of each other quite. This is not to say that life should not pursue happiness or success, but that happiness and success are not the only measure of life. In other words, the criteria for success should be personalized and diversified. In the case of Philip, a person from birth to the end of his life to achieve a successful completion of the pattern of success, during which a variety of bumpy ups and downs, a little bit of the mystery of life, bathing the scenery of life day by day is already fun. In the final analysis, the meaning of a person's life is only true to himself. Life does not have to prove anything to others, it is not necessary to strive for social recognition and fame and profit. Happiness or pain, success or failure, MO Wai "not negative my heart," the four words, in addition, everything is floating clouds.
I admit that this extreme idealism of outlook on life lacks the consideration of social responsibility and lacks the understanding of the relationship between the inner world and the external environment. I think this may be Maugham's work was criticized by critics and writers at the same time as "lack of literary value", Maugham himself deprecating "ranked number one second-rate writer" (in the very first row of the second-raters) an important reason. But then again, the macro-external world is, after all, an individual's experience of being independent. If a person can not first deal with their own inner world relations, can not be done to "do not bear my heart", then how to talk about the real significance of historical value and social responsibility? The responsibility and mission of conformity can easily become the pawn of politician's slogan and interest, and the inner clarity and chaos are probably the only difference between fireworks and cannon fodder. At least in my opinion, the province and the outward are equally important, which is not contradictory, but also at all.

And the same book < The shackles of life >