The Veil: The Path of Self-Growth from Mae Tam province to the Bahamas

Maugham, who is familiar with the great British writer, knows that his "The Shackles of Life", "The Moon and Sixpence", "Blade", and "Seeking Pleasure" are the most representative works. How to say that Maugham's characteristics are that he really listens to the elegance and popularity and is easy to understand, and his style is to advocate naturalism rather than criticism, non-dualism of good and evil, and respect for human nature. In addition to the above works, there are no exceptions, and in another novel about him, "The Veil", it also represents the author's style.

The story of the novel mainly takes place in Hong Kong, China, and in a place called Chinese mainland Guizhou "Meitan Province". The heroine Kitty because of the adultery with Hong Kong assistant secretary Charles Tang Sheng, was discovered by her husband Walter (bacteriologist) and coerced her to go to the cholera-ridden Mae Tam Province, and finally Walter unfortunately contracted the disease and died, Kitty returned to Hong Kong, at first re-thrown into Charlie's arms and was ashamed, but the result was the pain of widowhood and motherhood. Eventually, Kitty returned to England to reconcile with her father and went to live with him in the Bahamas.

First of all, the structure of the story is very storytelling, and the story pushes the story to a climax at the beginning. The author uses flashbacks and interludes to write the contradictions and story of the novel very seamlessly, and has the skills to attract attention. For example, at the beginning, it is said that the specific scene details of the adultery between Kitty and Charlie Tangsheng are mentioned. It also portrays a spiritual emptiness; she yearns for love, but loves the vanity of the figure. The author then details the reason for Kitty's infidelity, a selfish and rich lady who lives in London's Vanity Fair, and she is beautiful. But because of the delay in marriage and the forced marriage by her bitter mother, and the pressure of her sisters to be married, her own marriage with Walter was hastily completed.

In the previous part, it is worth mentioning Kitty's portrayal of her mother, such as the example of her in chapter seven, which is a controlling, mean and ambitious woman, miserly and stupid. This bought the groundwork for Kitty's tragic love. In Kitty's portrayal, it is said that she agreed to Walter's marriage proposal under the tragic proposal. And because she admired his indifference and calmness. In addition, it talks about the saying that "getting married before the age of twenty-one will give yourself regrets", which also metaphorically points out that the tragic love of the heroine has laid the groundwork for the follow-up. Such remarks are also very much in line with the infinite opposition of modern and contemporary leftover women, and the voice that resonates with the hostess.

After that, it talks about the hero and heroine who came to live in Hong Kong after marriage, and also mentions Walter's bacteriologist who is not good at words, taciturn, and lacks the interest in life, and also shows that he is a gentleman, and has a wisdom with a clear love-hate and a very big picture, and has a great ambition for society. When it comes to their life in Hong Kong after marriage, because of Maugham's pursuit of stories, naturally the description of Hong Kong in the novel is also limited, but it only talks about the place where there are club tennis courts and other sounds and horses. After all, Maugham is different from other writers, he pursues a kind of plot beauty of character development. And for Charles Tang Sheng, he wrote about his versatility

Another climax is the dispute between the hero and heroine before they prepare to go to Meitan Province. In this way, the image of the scumbag Charlie Tangsheng is proposed, which naturally reflects that Kitty will embark on the road of Meitan Province and begin the process of self-redemption. Among them, there is a description of meitan province in the mist, such as fog.

At this point, the story develops into a depiction of the hero suffering from cholera, highlighting the dangers of cholera. And the setting of such a play to Meitan Province is very much a reflection of the author's novel writing superb, this superb embodiment: the reason why the hero and heroine go to Tan Province for the purpose of pun, on the one hand, it embodies the great spirit of the hero's dedication to science. On the other hand, it is natural to explain that going to Meitan Province is a way for Kitty to hone herself and make Kitty fall in love with the hero's self-redemption and self-growth again.

And in this, as the author also claims, because of Dante's "Divine Comedy" embodied in the journey of Purgatory in Mae Tam Province, the spiritual pillar of the novel is given. Because the heroine reflects a lot of love for her deceased husband in the pain of widowhood. She also gets the help of her friend Veddington in the process, so that the heroine can realize and phoenix nirvana as soon as possible, and re-pursue life. Here it has to be said that Weeddington, who played the role of a mentor, was content to play the part of his instrument with orchestral music, which is an example of self-pursuit. It also uses Chinese Taoist ideas to impress the heroine and get the spiritual support of a stronger spirit. It is also worth noting that the author also let the heroine know the existence of the Chinese Chastity Arch during the trip to Meitan Province, and the author also used the living wife of Weeddington, a vivid oriental female character, to illustrate the worship of The wife of The Bodhisattva's splendid civilization, which naturally becomes a beautiful character for the heroine to learn love and responsibility, as well as loyalty.

Finally, the author thinks that the more finishing touch in the novel is that the male protagonist Walter said before his death, "The dead is the dog". We know that the sentence is from Goethe's "Elegy": Goethe's "Elegy" is about a person who kindly adopts a dog, and then the dog goes crazy and bites people, causing people and dogs to turn against each other, here we all think that the original sin of dogs going crazy and biting people is that people do not look after their dogs, people should be the biggest original sin, and the result is the dog. The author's metaphor here is to express that the original sin in Kitty and Charlie Tangsheng's affair should be Charlie Tangsheng. The victims were Kitty and Walter. And the result is that walter, the good guy, is dead, and here he says all the lamentations of life and then helplessness and resentment. But man lives again, so the heroine, who is pregnant with the hero's child, is more father, and continues to travel to the strange and vibrant Bahamas to live. And the final bahamas road, passing through the phoenix nirvana of Mae Tam Province, makes Itwise that Kitty and her husband's children, who represent hope, will surely lead to peace and tranquility.

In the Chinese concept of good and evil, the novel's treatment is quite unappetizing to the reader, because it should be Charlie Tangsheng who should be the most damned, but he did not die, and spent the rest of his life triumphantly. This is inevitably the inadequacy of this novel, but it is thought that this kind of novel involvement is the author's best response to Walter's deathbed remark that "the dead are dogs".

The meaning of the so-called veil as the title of the book is actually to show that the author has explained their love path through the tragic story of The love of Kitty and Walter to truly unveil the mystery of loyalty, love and responsibility, self-reflection and self-consciousness growth in love. Struggling in the vortex of love, betrayal and death, Kitty, after experiencing disillusionment and parting from life and death, finally lifted the veil of life from her eyes, and has since embarked on the road of unrepentant spiritual growth.