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Among his several novels, the Moon and Sixpence is less discussed than any other novels. This novel is about Strickland, a weird genius painter whose story is based on the life of Paul Gauguin, the famous French post-impressionist painter. As a complex writer, Maugham’s thoughts are hard to comprehend. His complexity can also be found in The Moon and Sixpence which has been poured into his sentiment. In a way, Strickland is the epitome of Maugham. There are many similarities between them, for instance, they all suffered by their wife, who is vain and mean and they all have chased their art dream bravely. So we can know a lot about Maugham’s life and experience from The Moon and Sixpence.
1.2 Introduction to The Theory of Three Structures of Personality
This study will use psychoanalysis to analyze this novel and focus on the reason of Strickland’s escaping from reality. In the area of psychoanalysis there are at least 22 theoretical orientations regarding human mental development. Although these theories differ from each other, most of them continue to stress the strong influence of unconsciousness on people’s mental lives. Freud’s psychological analysis is not that abstruse and obscure. The analysis focuses on the issue of human existence and development. His analysis is firmly related to human life which is the origin of his theory.
2 The Theory of Three Structures of Personality
With the fast development of society, people have become more indifferent with others and paid more attention to their inner world. Freud’s personality theory provides a method to adapt to this change which is based on modern science and philosophy. It focuses on human beings’ inner world and takes humans psyche as the study target. Freud’s three structures of personality consisted of id, ego, and super-ego. Human beings were born with id which was consisted of many instincts. In the second year of our life, human develop into ego which obeys the rules of reality. At the age of five, super-ego is formed. It represents our world views and moral standards. The relationship between them can be illustrated with an example: someone sees one hundred Yuan at his friend’s home. Id wants to take it, while ego realizes that he must do something to take the money away without being known by others. But super-ego was conscious of guilty for doing so even keeping others unknown. So harmonizing the relationship among them is the foundation of a healthy personality.来!自~751论-文|网www.751com.cn
2.1. Super-ego
The super-ego is described by Freud as follows: “The long period of childhood, during which the growing human being lives in dependence on his parents, leaves behind it as a precipitate the formation in his ego of a special agency in which this parental influence is prolonged. It has received the name of super-ego. In so far as this super-ego is different from the ego or is opposed to it, it constitutes a third power which the ego must take into account” (Freud, 2003: 146). As a little baby growing up, his originated megalomaniac narcissism gradually disappeared: he no longer regarded himself as the super baby who was powerful and self-centered. All his libidinal instinctual impulses undergo repression by the ethical ideas acquisition. Therefore, the ego-ideal is hard to achieve by his ego. Taking teeth-cleaning after breakfast for example, you will obey it even you have left home for many years or you will be uncomfortable.
The ego power also can be seen from the life experience of Maugham. It is no doubt that Maugham appreciates the life position indulging oneself and escaping self-discipline. He stayed away from UK and traveled all over the world. The life among women and men is a case in point of his life attitude. The leading character in the novel, Strickland’s life was much more arrogant than Maugham, who took a rebelling road from superego to ego and then to id.