Of Human Bondage By William Somerset Maugham Summary

William Somerset Maugham
By looking at Of Human Bondage, one can see that William Somerset Maugham included themes of relationships and life patterns because they played a major role in his life. He took his life experiences and put them into his books. This made him very successful, but he still seemed to have trouble finding his place in society. Both Maugham and his characters had personal struggles with family and themselves and that is what makes his books so good for all ages of readers to identify with.
William Somerset Maugham was born January 25, 1874, in Paris. His father, Robert, was an English lawyer and solicitor to the British Embassy in Paris, and his mother, Edith, was a writer (thefamouspeople.com). Maugham was the fourth son

Philip suffers greatly in silence only to find someone to love him without condition (bookrags.com). This book is considered to be an autobiographical novel describing Maugham 's unhappiness and anxiety in his early life and recounting his experiences as a medical student (bl.uk). “Philip battles society 's definitions of what it means to be a gentlemen and he variously accepts and rejects roles as an accountant, store clerk, art student, and medical student. In this respect, Philips situation mirrors Maugham 's, who was orphaned at the age of ten and sent to Paris to live with his uncle in England where his profound stutter impeded his social development and drove him into the solitary pursuits of art and literature” (enotes.com). Like his protagonist, Philip, Maugham would live for many years in search of his calling and a place where he belonged (online-literature.com). Philip and Maugham were both orphaned and then sent to live with their unsympathetic aunt and uncle when their parents passed away. This affected their beliefs dramatically. The two boys lost their faith at a very young age because life was just rough and nothing seemed to make sense. To pray, to trust, to believe, would prove difficult to Maugham and for Philip as well (Burt, Forrest D.). Maugham and Philip both went to school and majored in something to please their uncles, who could care less about what they really wanted to accomplish in life, but when they finally got situated in their careers, they fleeted from their jobs as accountants. Traveling played a major role in their careers to help them build their creativity and be themselves. The two basically lived the same life until that point. The one major similarity between the two in their later life is they both got married to someone they never truly loved like they did someone else. They both had more than one love life that they