摘 要

毛姆（1874-1965）是20世纪著名的英国小说家和戏剧家，被誉为自狄更斯后拥有最多读者的英国小说家，其作品以引人入胜的剧情和对人性的描写而令人称道。与他的其他作品相比，这部《情迷弗罗伦萨》较少为人所知。它讲述了一个女人和三个男人之间的故事。本文通过荣格的原型理论来分析这部作品中的四个角色的人格特征。本文分为四个部分：第一部分介绍毛姆及其作品，文献综述和荣格的原型理论；第二部分分析这部作品中女性角色玛丽及其人格特点，并探讨了毛姆作品的婚姻原型；第三部分同样是运用原型理论描绘男性角色的人格特点；最后一部分是总结。通过这些叙述，读者能领会到毛姆作品的魅力，也能对分析自身有启发作用。

关键词：毛姆；情迷弗罗伦萨；原型理论；人格

Abstract

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) is a renowned English novelist and dramatist in 20th century. He is called the writer who owns the most readers in the English fictionist after Dickens. His fascinating story and probe of human nature are admirable. However, compared with his other works, this “Up at the Villa” is less well-known. The plot happens between one woman and three men. This paper aims to use Jung's archetype theory to analyze the personality characteristics of four roles in this work mainly. It will be divided into four parts. The first part introduces the author and his works, literature review, and an overview of Jung's archetype theory. The following section analyzes the female character Mary's personality. Moreover, the marriage archetype in Maugham's works is also explored. The third part depicts male characters' archetypes. The last part is conclusion. Through these narration above, readers can not only appreciate the charm of Maugham's works, but also get the knack of analyzing their own personalities.

Key Words: Maugham; Up at the Villa; archetype theory; personality

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 The Author and His Works 1

1.2 Literature Review 2

1.3 The Archetype Theory of Jung 4

2 Archetype of Female Characters 7

2.1 Mary's Personality and Women's Liberation 7

2.2 The Marriage Archetype in Maugham's Works 10

3 Archetype of Male Characters 12

3.1 Rowley Flint and the Self 12

3.2 Edgar Swift and the Persona 13

4 Conclusion 15

References 16

Acknowledgements 17

Analysis of Up at the Villa from Perspective of Archetype Theory

1 Introduction

The Author and His Works

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) is a renowned 20th Century British fictionist and dramatist. For up to sixty years writing career, he has published twenty novels, more than thirty plays, more than one hundred short stories, and a lot of literary reviews and travel notes. Overall, Maugham's fictions have wide range of topics, vivid plots, twists and turns. He has so exotic and attractive writing style that he is called the writer who "owns the most readers in the English fictionist after Dickens"(唐颖，2014，p.1).

It is his life experience that causes his works as they are. When he is less than ten years old, his parents have passed away. He is sent back to Britain, raised by his uncle. At school, he is often bullied by older children. Sometimes he goes through endless humiliation because of short stature and severe stuttering. Lonely and desolate childhood casts a painful shadow in his tender soul, developing his sensitive and introverted personality. "Bereavement pains in childhood, compounded by lack of love in adolescence, took root in Maugham's personal unconscious. Jung's research proves that all that one has been experienced will not evaporate; they are just buried in personal unconscious."(Chen Yan, 2009, p.5) Childhood experiences have a profound impact on his world view and literature view.

In early 1892, he went to Heidelberg University to study for a year. There, he has been exposed to German philosopher and historian Kunnuo Fisher and new trends in drama with Ibsen as a representative. He returns to Britain the same year as a trainee in an accounting firm in London for six weeks, then into medical school to study medicine. His physician career makes him have the opportunity to learn not only the living conditions of people at the bottom, but also calm and sharp view of life and society. Therefore, owing to his childhood and career, his works is filled with both emotion and ration.

Additionally, his experience on the battlefield makes him have deeper insight of humanity. And his embedded loneliness makes him solemn and dare to challenge western civilization (秦宏，2008).

Maugham once writes that whatever kind of book a writer writes, it depends on what kind of person he is. It is reasonable to understand his personal history related for deeper understanding of his works (李钰铮，2013). To be specific, Maugham's experience leads to his character filled with a series of contradictions. Critics say he has unpleasant gloomy and split personality. From biographies on him, an impression can be drawn that he is a cold and imperious man, difficult to be approached. However, through in-depth investigation, another feel will give us a shock. His grim appearance is above shyness and insecurity caused by his own growing experience. Although his life is considered prestigious, with enough fame and fortune, he still feels that the pain he has suffered in life is much more than happiness, which lead to his spending on seeking relief in a philosophical sense and from human's natural desire. (吴亮，2007)

Nowadays Maugham's fictions are still reprinted in the world, enjoying great popularity. Among all of his works, there are three well-known novels "Of Human Bondage"(1915), "The Moon and Sixpence" (1919) and "Blade" (1944). These masterpieces have already been analyzed by many scholars world-widely. However, his work, Up at the Villa, is not as famous as other works, thus the amount of discussion on this work is less than others', let alone from the perspective of archetype theory. In Up at the Villa, Maugham portrays four impressive figures --- Mary Panton, Rowley Flint, Edgar Swift and Karl Richter. Through analyzing the four different and typical characters, human nature can be probed to a certain degree.

Let’s look at the plot of "Up at the Villa". One day Mary's older and prosperous friend Edgar proposes marriage to her, and Mary demurs and decides to postpone her reply a few days. But driving alone one evening, Mary offers a ride to a handsome stranger Karl. Suddenly, her life is utterly, irrevocably altered. The fact that this stranger is a refugee of war makes Mary to harbor a weird passion to give him absolute happiness. However, before morning, Mary observes bloodshed --- the young man commits suicide after knowing that Mary's action is out of pity. She is forced to seek advice and assistance from a frivolous man Rowley, and she has to face the truth about her own yearnings.

It is an erotic, haunting, and maddeningly suspenseful story. At the beginning of the novel, readers might think Mary will receive Edgar's proposal, but what happens to Mary further changes unexpectedly the plain tendency. Maugham penetratingly portrays the complexity and impermanence of human nature and his opinion on liberation of humanity in order to release shackles for women.

Literature Review

Despite Maugham's popularity among the average readers, abroad scholars have a highly controversial option on him, mixed with praise and contempt. In France, he is seen as a natural Flaubert doctrine originator and the "King of short story". In Turkey, his works are repeatedly published. In Spain, many people admire him. However, in the United Kingdom, there are considerable critics who consider Maugham as just a best-seller writer while his works have inadequate connotation to be investigated. For instance, Rubinstein writes, in "The Great Tradition of English Literature"(1998), Maugham's presence is simply ignored. However, it goes without denying that for many readers of Maugham, reading Maugham is not only a fascinating process, but thought-provoking.