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    The Lotus Eater by W. Somerset Maugham

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    Nadezhda Rashkevich
    1) The story follows Thomas Wilson, a man who leaves London to live on the Italian island of Capri in pursuit of idealistic ideas about rejecting society's rules and living freely. 2) While Wilson initially finds happiness living independently on the island, his money eventually runs out and he is forced to rely on others for assistance. 3) By the end of the story, Wilson has a mental breakdown and isolates himself, having lived through periods of both happiness and misery over the course of his life according to his unconventional choices and circumstances.

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    The Lotus Eater by W. Somerset Maugham

    Uploaded by

    Nadezhda Rashkevich
    211 views1 page
    1) The story follows Thomas Wilson, a man who leaves London to live on the Italian island of Capri in pursuit of idealistic ideas about rejecting society's rules and living freely. 2) While Wilson initially finds happiness living independently on the island, his money eventually runs out and he is forced to rely on others for assistance. 3) By the end of the story, Wilson has a mental breakdown and isolates himself, having lived through periods of both happiness and misery over the course of his life according to his unconventional choices and circumstances.

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    1) The story follows Thomas Wilson, a man who leaves London to live on the Italian island of Capri in pursuit of idealistic ideas about rejecting society's rules and living freely. 2) While Wilson initially finds happiness living independently on the island, his money eventually runs out and he is forced to rely on others for assistance. 3) By the end of the story, Wilson has a mental breakdown and isolates himself, having lived through periods of both happiness and misery over the course of his life according to his unconventional choices and circumstances.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    211 views1 page

    The Lotus Eater by W. Somerset Maugham

    Uploaded by

    Nadezhda Rashkevich
    1) The story follows Thomas Wilson, a man who leaves London to live on the Italian island of Capri in pursuit of idealistic ideas about rejecting society's rules and living freely. 2) While Wilson initially finds happiness living independently on the island, his money eventually runs out and he is forced to rely on others for assistance. 3) By the end of the story, Wilson has a mental breakdown and isolates himself, having lived through periods of both happiness and misery over the course of his life according to his unconventional choices and circumstances.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 1

    The Lotus Eater by W.

    Somerset Maugham
    All stories of W. Somerset Maugham are full of different problematic topics, that’s why they are so
    interesting to read for different kinds of people. They bring up so many human problems, and it
    makes you think about your life, the choices you make, the people you know…
    The story is set in Italy. It’s about the life of a man, Thomas Wilson. He left a well-settled life in
    London to live on an Island of Capri. The first half of the story is fraught with the idealistic ideas of
    life put into practice—that of living the way one wants by rejecting society rules and dying when
    one wants because the meaning of life had been achieved. While the second half of the story goes
    on to tell what happened to Thomas Wilson when his money ran out.
    In «The Lotus Eater» we can see the theme of acceptance, change, courage, freedom, independence
    and happiness. From the beginning of the story the narrator judges that the majority of people who
    are happy to simply work through the day, go home at night and repeat the same course of action till
    they die. It is as though people do not imagine that they can change their lives and that all it takes is
    a little bit of courage. A courage that Wilson shows throughout the story. Something which
    intrigues the narrator as he cannot imagine someone taking such a risk. If anything, Wilson stands
    out for the narrator simply because he has a plan on how he wants to live his life and is putting this
    plan into action, while the majority of people would not consider Wilson’s plan to be something
    that they themselves would think of doing. Wilson prefers to have a period of happiness and then to
    end his life. It is like he is allowing himself the freedom that other people crave: to live his life as he
    sees fit. However, it might be important to mention that Wilson never actions his plan after his
    annuity runs out. His life progressively gets worse and he becomes reliant on others for assistance.
    And after some period of time, when other people stopped trusting him on returning his debts and
    when he came out of hospital, he appeared to have a mental breakdown and isolated himself from
    others.
    It seems like Wilson has lived two separate lives: one full of happiness while his annuity paid for
    things, and the other life when he got into hospital and lived a miserable life. And even though the
    narrator suggests that Wilson didn’t lack the courage to kill himself, he still didn’t do it. And it may
    be the point Maugham tried to make: in life one needs to be prepared for all eventualities and
    changes that might occur. A plan that may have previously seemed reasonable at one stage of life
    may not be considered to be so reasonable at a later stage. The important question the reader must
    ask himself: was it even worth it? He could have had stability, security in life if he had stayed in
    London. Maybe, he would have retired and had a great pension, a wife, children and grandchildren.
    But he made such a decision as to leave everything behind with unknown consequences. In my
    opinion Wilson’s views on life a worth admiring, because I think I would never allow myself to act
    in such way. In some way his decisions and his way of living are foolish, but still, isn’t it important
    to be happy and to live your life as if there’s no tomorrow? I believe the narrator remains on
    Wilson’s side in the end of the story, despite the fact that the final years of Wilson’s life were
    miserable. The narrator in some way respects the course of action that Wilson has taken. But even
    though the narrator is intrigued by Wilson, he does not wish to live his life in the same manner. And
    I have the same opinion on this matter.
    This story can be compared to a full-day – a day with its morning (when he started developing his
    ideas), afternoon (his brif moments of happiness) and night (his miserable life in the end). However,
    even though he died a broken miserable man, he still had an oblivious moment of his lifetime, lived
    as he wished to. And that’s something some people can even envy.

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