Maugham Creature Of Circumstances Analysis

Maugham’s Creatures of Circumstances, represents the Modern age characteristics of English society in the twentieth century. Since Creatures of Circumstances is neither any social tract nor any collection of reformative essays. It is a piece of literature containing fictional plots and controversial story lines which allows every reader to draw out meaning according to their understanding. In his short story collection, he focused on human psyche, individuality and particularly the gender issues, which depicts the environment of Modern English society. The themes in his short stories were projected through his characters, their action and their language, which emphasized psychological issues: depression, personality disorder, passion, existentialist

Mrs. Grange was caught red handed which resulted in her lover’s murder by her husband. The couple is disgusted by each other to such an extent that they are not ready to bear the sight of other, however living together for the social benefits. The stories “The Point of Honour,” and “The Happy Couple” ended up with thrill when troubled relationship turns to bloodshed. Don Pedro not ready to accept the pre-marital affair of his wife and finally commits cold blooded murder and set free by court on the clause of murder on circumstantial requirement. In these two stories men shown their aggression and put it on human beings by imprisoning wives and killed their lovers. In the third story a couple is living with a fake identity as they were accused of a murder in past. Apparently husband and wife Mr. and Mrs. Craig was lover in past when Mr. Craig had a wife named as Miss Wingford. She gets murder by her husband as she was the only hurdle in the union of him and his lover. These stories illustrate the theme of possessive desire where they turned so selfish that killing human beings do not bother them. Previous two stories are about the aggression in men, to control women and the third story is about killing a woman in order to marry another

The fact is considerable that his authorial presence in the stories works actively with a character’s thought process and dialogue delivery. Mostly his point of view could be seen as differently as that of a character’s opinion yet it remains connected with the story. In a story, multi narratives have been placed precisely to create interest. The purpose of narrative frame is to deliver variety of viewpoints and various perspectives, while this technique gives authenticity to the story. Mostly he gives chance to unreliable narrator to speak up. Therefore, readers could never see the story through transparent lens. As George narrates the story with a male biasness, and does not let a single chance to degrade his wife. The readers require to struggle with the story by reading between the lines to explore the hidden message of author. Sometimes he gives chance to a character to be his mouth piece and process his idea in a dialogue or through an action. As in two of the stories he has used Ned Preston as his spokesman who works as an unconcerned