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The story enacts the theme of bondage and freedom at its best. Physical bondage is represented through Philip’s club foot, economic bondage through his dependence on his uncle, and religious bondage is presented through religious restrictions and compulsions at the vicarage and in the church at Blackstable. Philip’s love affair with Mildred represents the bondage of sexual passion. Philip has to struggle hard to break these bondages and be a free man. Finally, he does break them and gets freedom. We have already seen that freedom and bondage is not the only theme of Of Human Bondage, there are sub-themes too like illusion and reality and the meaninglessness and futility of life. Philip’s own experiences bring out the theme of illusion and reality. Being very sensitive and imaginative he is easily taken in by illusions. But each time he is disillusioned he suffers bitter sorrow. This theme is best brought out by Philip’s idea of love and his real experience in life, especially Philip’s realization of the truth about Mildred. The same theme is brought out by Philip – Miss Wilkinson episode which will 14 W.Somerset Maugham and the Quest for Freedom, p.92. 153 be later treated as a digression. The futility of life is presented through the episodes connected with Fanny Price and her death, and Cronshaw and his futile life and insignificant death. The plot has been justified on thematic ground by Calder and from a thematic point of view it is probably the best novel of Maugham’s. But if the plot of this novel is observed in the light of Maugham’s own idea of the story structure, its perfection is doubtful. It is not compact and coherent. It is loose, long, and discursive. Plenty of time is spent talking about irrelevant incidents and long speculations and discussions. In the first section of the novel, the details of Philip’s life at two schools are unnecessarily long. The detailed descriptions of his teachers are distracting, they do not advance the story of Philip Carey. Chapter XV deals with the % history of the King’s School, Tercanbury, the traditions of teaching, and the teachers teaching there. Except for a few lines about Mr. Perkins, the whole of the chapter has nothing to do with Philip or the theme of the novel. If there is any relation that too is far-fetched. It brings out the conventions of the school as a bondage. Similarly in the Heidelberg section the descriptions and histories of some of the teachers, like Wharton and Ducroz, are unnecessary. They do not advance the plot of the novel and they 154 are not concerned with the theme either. Likewise, the stories about the girls at Frau Professor Erlin’s are very long. Though they provide Philip the raw knowledge about the passion of love, they can very well be shortened. Then comes Hayward. He plays quite an important role in Philip’s life. But the descriptions of his personality, his birth, and his likes-dislikes and way of life are too lengthy. They can also be shortened. The same is true of the affair between Philip and Miss Wilkinson. It brings out the theme of illusion and reality but in an indecent way in the sense that the physical description of Miss Wilkinson and her gestures and behavior fill us with disgust. The theme of illusion and reality in fact has been amply brought out with better illustration through Philip’s illusion about the Bohemian life of the Parisian art students or the Mildred affair. Miss Wilkinson and Philip’s affair also shows his disillusionment about love and the object of love.’ It is comically entertaining to see Philip falling prey to her pretensions, a boy of twenty ensnared by a woman of more than forty. But when she seduces him, it nauseates him. This episode too does not in any way contribute to the advancement of the plot. It is a digression. The episode provides entertainment at a very low level. The Paris section of the novel has also some irrelevant portions such as the whole episode where Albert Price meets Philip and the love affair between Lawson and Ruth Chalice and their visit to Moret. There are too many restaurant scenes. In 155 some of them there are discussions about the meaning; of life with Cronshaw. But Philip does not reach any conclusion. Here Maugham deviates from self-expression in the form of his own criticism of life through Cronshaw. The description of Cronshaw’s personal life, his wife, and his way of living is all irrelevant. The Philip-Mildred affair is stretched to a considerable length in the novel probably for the purpose of bringing out Philip’s obsession with Mildred. Philip’s philosophical speculations at Blackstable after the death of his aunt can also be shortened. Similarly, the long conversations between Athelny and Philip about El Greco have nothing to do with the theme and story of the novel. Even the story of Athelny’s past life has nothing to do with the mainstream of the plot. There are digressions in the plot construction not only due to unnecessary episodes but also because of unnecessary characters such as Albert Price or Clutton who are not directly concerned with the theme of the novel or Philip’s life
Of Human Bondage combines the autobiographical and the thematic, that is it structures the human search for freedom through the personal struggle of Philip Carey for an active realization of freedom. Hence it has earned the appreciation of critics like Calder even though, as pointed out earlier, it fails to structure the search for freedom around the psychological nucleus of germinal action.
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