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The novel represents a youth’s pain, confusion, disappointment, setbacks and exploration and how to get rid of all kinds of bondage and seek the meaning of life through the narration of the hero Philip’s life experiences. The writing style is simple, clear and full of meaning. The novel Of Human Bondage marks the new twist of Maugham’s writing career. It has been said that it is the most comprehensive and thoroughgoing declaration of the call of human liberty.
The main value of this novel lies in its profound theme and a wealth of philosophy of life. Philip’s life experiences which include facing kinds of bondage, exploring the meaning of life and experiencing the process of growing up which is highly representative and represent the suffocating social system in capitalism.
The bondage of life that Philip has to face include unreasonable education system, the doctrine of hypocritical Christ, blind sexual pursuit, economic dependence on his uncle, life’s distress and psychological suppression caused by his limp. Those can sum up in three parts: the bondage of love, the bondage of money and the bondage of religion. The most important part is the bondage of love.
II. The Attitude Towards Love
2.1 The Bondage of Love
The main line of this novel is Philip’s emotional life. It describes the emotional torment of his life. He loved four women in his life. And the love with waitress Mildred and a general staffer’s daughter Sally had a significant impact on his life.
Philip meet waitress Mildred when he went with a friend to a snack shop for drinking. “ She was tall and thin, with narrow hips and the chest of a boy.”(374;ch.55) Philip fell in love with her in spite of the fact that she was a vulgar, shallow and romantic girl. “ She was common. Her phrases, so bald and few, constantly repeated, showed the emptiness of her mind; he recalled her vulgar little laugh at the jokes of the musical comedy; and he remembered the little finger carefully extended when she held her glass to her mouth; her manners like her conversation, were odiously genteel.”(389;ch.57) Mildred did not love him. But Philip was obedient to instinctive impulse and indulged himself in her flesh without reason. He became emotional slaves, neglected his study. And he set regardless of his limited economic sources, spent lavishly on the waitress to win her favor. “ He did not mind her faults of person or of character, he thought he loved them too: at all events they meant nothing to him. It did not seem himself that was concerned; he felt that he had been seized by some strange force that moved him against his will, contrary to his interests…”(401;ch.59)
He felt a glimmer of hope when her attitude turned better, she married a German salesman. That made Philip calm down, and he is glad to get free from the grip of passion. When she was abandoned she came to Philip again. Philip still loves her. He released her plight generously, adopted her baby and provided them with room and board. Unexpectedly, she deceived him once again and went away with one of his old classmates. A year later, Philip met Mildred who has become a prostitute in the street. He helped her again. He settled her and her child in his small living room waiting for her to find a suitable job. At this point, he no longer loved her, but felt sympathize for her. He encouraged her to break with the past and begin a new life. But she was tired of the street life and doesn’t want to rush for a living. She burst into anger when she found that she had lost the power to control him. She wiped out all of clothes in his bedroom when he went out and then disappeared into the vast sea of the streets of London.
The last time Philip saw her, she had been ill. And Philip found himself penniless, can not afford his tuition and can not continue to study medicine and had to sleep on the street. He came in the long ranks of the unemployed every day. After the help of his friend, he found a job to be a customer receptionist. His uncle died and left him 500 pounds. It made him able to resume his study and obtain the diploma in the medical school. And he has been rewarded in love: he fell in love with his kind friend’s daughter, a girl who is simple, innocent and healthy, and he decided to be a doctor in a fishing village.