Straggling Thoughts on 'Of Human Bondage'
I have started to revisit several books that I read and enjoyed a few years ago. I find that my take on them is somewhat different now than it was before. I find in me a sense of - what I can best describe as tolerance - towards the paths the characters choose, towards the mistakes they make and towards the portrayal of their thoughts. I feel less fiercely about certain things, and think of an achievement or an action as a sum total of experiences rather than a single isolated experience. Perhaps, this is a result of the last few years of my life. For someone as mature as I regard myself, I feel I can be - and have been - unbelievably dense about some things about me that I should've known for a while.
Anyhow, back to the subject. I've just re-read W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage, and it still holds that spell upon me that it did five years ago. Yes, like countless others before me, I too believe Philip Carey is one of the most wonderfully portrayed characters in English literature. However, back when I read this book the first time, I remember believing that the story was about Philip and Mildred and that relationship best illustrated the concept of human bondage. This is exactly what the blurb on the back cover also tells me. But I think I now understand a bit better what Maugham was trying to say there. I know that the recurrent Philip-Mildred theme is probably portrayed the strongest, but this time I was able to read through it to the other questions in his life. Look at the other bonds there:
--- The only tie he has with family is with his uncle and aunt, people with very 'middle class' values and little idea of what Philip was like. As his guardians, they try to mold him, and whether he likes it or not, their impress upon him tells as he's trying to answer the larger philosophical questions in his life.
--- As anyone with limited financial resources knows, the issues of human bondage are never as great as when money is involved. Philip has to fend for himself with lesser money than a lot of others around him. Mildred feels drawn to Philip because, as she puts it, he's "the only gentleman" she knows; but really, you can tell what she means is that he's the only person she knows that will share his little all with her and allow her a free life 'without bondage' all the same. In that very thought, she feels bound to him. On the other side are people such as Thorpe Athelney, whose pride in his family push him to take on the dreary duties of a regular job without in the least actually liking it, or even earning much from it.
--- The sub-theme of Cronshaw with his larger-than-life philosophy, minor accomplishments and his obvious bondage to the woman you're surprised to hear he's living with.
--- Bondage towards professions: Fanny Price and what her art eventually led her to, Philip's freedom from art and his eventual bondage with the medical profession which led to him completing his course despite the obstacles, Mr.Carey's work in the religious profession and how his 'understanding' of the divine had little or no impact on his life as a human being, Mildred's eventual overtures on Philip as a result, perhaps, of her experiences in her profession.
--- "False Bonds", like the desire Philip has of wanting to travel, like his despair on having to give everything up because of the result of his intrigue with Sally, when really, the first isn't a desire at all, and the second is no sacrifice.
--- Then, of course, wonderfully woven into the story, is Philip's club foot. That is, in itself, another type of bondage. As a child it prevents him from doing things that other children his age can do. Psychologically, it makes him extremely sensitive and diffident and insecure, and he retains this all his life, even after the surgery. In some way, it increases his imagination and his fancies. He uses it as an excuse for himself, as a crutch for sympathy, and as an obstacle. Those around him use it as a tool to despise him with - because he allows them to. He is probably even attracted to Mildred ("green pallor, flat chested, anemic") because he sees her physical failings and can't help equating them with his own.
Maugham's perspectives on life are really interesting as well. I particularly remember Thorpe Athelney, on religion and morality:
"... religion is a matter of temperament; you will believe anything if you have the religious turn of mind, and if you haven't it doesn't matter what beliefs were instilled into you, you will grow out of them. Perhaps religion is the best school of morality. It is like one of those drugs you gentlemen use in medicine which carries another in solution: it is of no efficacy in itself, but enables the other to be absorbed. You take your morality because it is combined with religion; you lose the religion and the morality stays behind. ..."
And I read on, breathless, till I understood the parallel of the Persian carpet. It is exactly like he says in the book. The answer eludes you for most of the book, but when it hits you, you wonder how you missed it earlier! I don't at all believe that life is meaningless - why should you live, if it is? - but I couldn't help but admire the way Maugham put it.
Anyhow, back to the subject. I've just re-read W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage, and it still holds that spell upon me that it did five years ago. Yes, like countless others before me, I too believe Philip Carey is one of the most wonderfully portrayed characters in English literature. However, back when I read this book the first time, I remember believing that the story was about Philip and Mildred and that relationship best illustrated the concept of human bondage. This is exactly what the blurb on the back cover also tells me. But I think I now understand a bit better what Maugham was trying to say there. I know that the recurrent Philip-Mildred theme is probably portrayed the strongest, but this time I was able to read through it to the other questions in his life. Look at the other bonds there:
--- The only tie he has with family is with his uncle and aunt, people with very 'middle class' values and little idea of what Philip was like. As his guardians, they try to mold him, and whether he likes it or not, their impress upon him tells as he's trying to answer the larger philosophical questions in his life.
--- As anyone with limited financial resources knows, the issues of human bondage are never as great as when money is involved. Philip has to fend for himself with lesser money than a lot of others around him. Mildred feels drawn to Philip because, as she puts it, he's "the only gentleman" she knows; but really, you can tell what she means is that he's the only person she knows that will share his little all with her and allow her a free life 'without bondage' all the same. In that very thought, she feels bound to him. On the other side are people such as Thorpe Athelney, whose pride in his family push him to take on the dreary duties of a regular job without in the least actually liking it, or even earning much from it.
--- The sub-theme of Cronshaw with his larger-than-life philosophy, minor accomplishments and his obvious bondage to the woman you're surprised to hear he's living with.
--- Bondage towards professions: Fanny Price and what her art eventually led her to, Philip's freedom from art and his eventual bondage with the medical profession which led to him completing his course despite the obstacles, Mr.Carey's work in the religious profession and how his 'understanding' of the divine had little or no impact on his life as a human being, Mildred's eventual overtures on Philip as a result, perhaps, of her experiences in her profession.
--- "False Bonds", like the desire Philip has of wanting to travel, like his despair on having to give everything up because of the result of his intrigue with Sally, when really, the first isn't a desire at all, and the second is no sacrifice.
--- Then, of course, wonderfully woven into the story, is Philip's club foot. That is, in itself, another type of bondage. As a child it prevents him from doing things that other children his age can do. Psychologically, it makes him extremely sensitive and diffident and insecure, and he retains this all his life, even after the surgery. In some way, it increases his imagination and his fancies. He uses it as an excuse for himself, as a crutch for sympathy, and as an obstacle. Those around him use it as a tool to despise him with - because he allows them to. He is probably even attracted to Mildred ("green pallor, flat chested, anemic") because he sees her physical failings and can't help equating them with his own.
Maugham's perspectives on life are really interesting as well. I particularly remember Thorpe Athelney, on religion and morality:
"... religion is a matter of temperament; you will believe anything if you have the religious turn of mind, and if you haven't it doesn't matter what beliefs were instilled into you, you will grow out of them. Perhaps religion is the best school of morality. It is like one of those drugs you gentlemen use in medicine which carries another in solution: it is of no efficacy in itself, but enables the other to be absorbed. You take your morality because it is combined with religion; you lose the religion and the morality stays behind. ..."
And I read on, breathless, till I understood the parallel of the Persian carpet. It is exactly like he says in the book. The answer eludes you for most of the book, but when it hits you, you wonder how you missed it earlier! I don't at all believe that life is meaningless - why should you live, if it is? - but I couldn't help but admire the way Maugham put it.
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