教養小説としての『人間の絆』 : 真理の追究のための物語

概要

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William Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage is his autobiographical novel in which Philip Carey, its protagonist, tries to find the meaning of life. Philip's project can be paraphrased as an attempt to emancipate himself from any kind of worldly constraints and to attain a perfect freedom. I divided this long novel into several parts so that I can delineate some aspects of Philip’s growth into a liberated man. This novel, therefore, clearly belongs to the genre of Bildungsroman. Philip suffers from a clubfoot and I analyzed how this deformity affected his character. Although the clubfoot caused his loneliness among friends, it contributed to develop his strong ego. Philip’s atheistic tendency was also discussed and I tried to show his disillusionment about Christianity opened his eye to multifarious values of the world. Medical studies also developed Philip’s peculiar view of human beings that every man is somewhat abnormal mentally as well as physically. I also analyzed how Philip’s attitude to Mildred Rogers changed mainly under the influence of his medical studies. Finally, I tried to show how Athelney and his family members contributed to Philip’s success in solving the riddle of Cronshaw’s philosophy of Persian carpets.
2006-10-31