摘 要

《月亮与六便士》是英国作家威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆的三大力作之一。作品以法国印象派画家保罗·高更的生平为素材，描述了一个原本平凡的伦敦股票交易所经纪人查理斯·斯特里克兰德突然对艺术着魔，抛妻弃子，放弃本来安稳的生活，换以一种孤独而又辗转困苦的方式生存，只为追求绘画理想的故事。本文试图运用拉康的镜像理论，分析主人公三个生存状态的形象——世人眼中安分富足的股票经纪人、在巴黎作画的流浪汉和塔西提岛上自由满足的艺术家，探讨其追求自我的心路历程。想象界中的斯特里兰克虽然生活安逸，但却认同错误；由于忽略自我的躯体和过度沉溺精神生活，在追求艺术的过程中遭受挫折，使其无法进入象征界，而停留在实在界；最后，经过不断的探寻和努力，斯特里兰克在物质与精神、艺术与生活的象征界寻找到自我平衡，进入到艺术王国的自由境界。

关键字：威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆；《月亮与六便士》；镜像理论；自我

Contents

1. Introduction -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1
2. Demonstration --------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
   1. The state of the Imaginary-----------------------------------------------------------------3

2.1.1. Material family life ----------------------------------------------------------------------3

2.1.2. Confusion about career -----------------------------------------------------------------4

• 1. The state of the Real-----------------------------------------------------------------------6

2.2.1. Refusal of love --------------------------------------------------------------------------6

2.2.2. Focusing on spirituality ----------------------------------------------------------------8

2.3. The state of the Symbolic ----------------------------------------------------------------9

2.3.1. Ideal personal life -----------------------------------------------------------------------9

2.3.2. Freedom in the realm of art------------------------------------------------------------10

1. Conclusion ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------11

Note----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12

Works Cited-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------13

Bibliography ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14

Selfhood-Seeking in The Moon and Sixpence

1. Introduction

William Somerset Maugham is one of the most famous and realist writers in the history of English Literature at the turn of the 20^th century. His works have been specially charming until today, because his style of writing is sober and insightful. His household works are Of Human Bondage, Lisa of Lambeth and The Moon and Sixpence. Having experienced the turbulent times, he continued to absorb the advanced thoughts in various fields such as philosophy, literature and psychology, and formed a unique writing feature. The Moon and Sixpence is a famous work popular in Europe and even the whole world. This novel, based on the life story of the French impressionist Paolo Gauguin, tells that Charles Strickland renounces the common life summoned by the special power, and chooses to live alone and poorly only for pursuing his painting ideal.

For this novel, scholars and experts at home and abroad apply different theories and viewpoints to analyze Maugham and The Moon and Sixpence from the writing techniques, character analysis, motive, different themes in the work, and so on. The foreign researches almost focus on two aspects. On the one hand, researches tend to pay more attention to the life story of Maugham himself than the novel itself. On the other hand, in some studies, they all emphasize social responsibilities and gentleman spirit, believing that Strickland is a putschist. Ted Morgan analyzes Strickland as a selfish person in cold blood in A Critic of Human Nature--Maugham Biography. In recent years, domestic scholars have set out to analyze the characters firstly, and dissected The Moon and Sixpence from different themes. For example, Gao Junli shows the readers the humanity in The Moon and Sixpence through analyzing Strickland’s virtue and vice, Mrs. Strickland’s earnest and falsehood, Blanche’s beauty and ugliness. In this novel, three female images cannot be ignored, Wang Mingxia analyzes The Moon and Sixpence from the feminist view, and compares the three female images to explore Maugham’s view towards women. Many scholars have discussed the implicit meanings in the title. Li Nan connects the symbol of “moon” and “sixpence” with ideal and reality to explore the meaning of life.

In general, the researches on The Moon and Sixpence are too numberous to enumerate, the views of scholars are also original. In fact, The Moon and Sixpence is a novel of Strickland’s selfhood-seeking, Strickland’s psychological growth shows his self-discovery, while Lacan’s Mirror Image Theory plays an important role in the formation of people’s identity. So, this paper attempts to apply Lacan’s Mirror Image Theory to analyze Strickland in the three states of the Imaginary, the Real, the Symbolic, and mainly to explore his adventure to seek selfhood.

The thesis is to demonstrate Strickland’ selfhood seeking and the paper is divided into three parts. First, it is the brief introduction of the writer and his works, and other researches done on the book. Secondly, it elaborates Strickland’s three states and analyzes the reasons. Finally, the third part makes a summary of the whole paper.