Struck by dream
This fiction is adapted from the authentic story of Paul Gauguin. In the book, the Strickland were an average family of the middle class. A pleasant, hospitable wife; a rather dull husband, doing his duty in that state of life in which a merciful Providence had placed him; two nice looking, healthy children. Nothing could be more ordinary and nice. We can’t imagine that the dull Strickland would flee to Paris after leaving a note saying “dinner is ready”. The unreasonable story was set in Paris such a romantic city. It reminds me of the movie The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. In the movie, Midge’s mom also went to Paris after being bored with daily routine life. In Paris, there were not only art dreams, but also love affairs, so Strickland’s wife firmly believed that Strickland run away with another woman. And she said that she would forgive him for another woman, but would never forgive him for a crazy idea.
It’s also no wonder that Mrs Strickland wouldn’t forgive him for he was already forty years old. The story would only reasonably happen on a twenty-year-old young boy. Strickland’s dream was not ordinary as his identity settings like earning much money and having beautiful wife (in fact he has achieved), but was a most crazy dream. In his words, his dream was like “a man falling into the water and he has got to get out or else he’ll drown”. We may see that Strickland was pulled into the dream’s mud against his will, but for him, it’s his dream in his childhood that suddenly burst after years of boring daily work. He is not such a dull man, he is a man who was struck by a dream and then chase for it to an extent that he cared nothing even didn’t care himself.
In order to emphasize his inhumanity and coolness, Maugham creates another man Stroeve. They were both artists, but their characteristics were completely opposite. Stroeve can sacrifice all he possessed for his deeply loved wife; while Strickland sees women as “instruments” and cares nothing for others. Stroeve can give a hand to him even after bitter quarrels and nursed him; while Strickland seized Stroeve’s wife and said “go to hell” frequently. Stroeve was such a modest while the kindest man in the world that he let his home to Strickland and invited him to his country even after his wife’s tragic death......
Under the general unreasonable plot setting that Strickland run away for his dream, there are many reasonable plots in the fiction. For example, in the story, “I” was a writer, so only “I” can pieced Strickland’s meaning together out of interjections, the expressions of his face, gestures and hackneyed phrases. Only when Stroeve is such a warm-hearted man can he support Strickland’s life and satisfied his basic needs so that he would not be sick or starve to death. Only when Strickland was finally considered as a genius can the whole story be reasonable. Supposed that if Strickland has no any gift and paint just for fun, then Stroeve would not support him for his great talent and all Strickland’s behaviors would only be considered as inhuman and crazy. So Strickland fled to Paris as an ordinary man and had great talent and finally was considered as genius —this is a complete logic chain and this may be the reason why Maugham describes Strickland’s talented and profound paintings with wide coverage in the beginning of the book. For example, he describes Strickland’s paintings as “Apart from the aesthetics sense, the most insignificant of Strickland’s works suggests a personality which is strange, tormented and complex; it is this which has excited so curious an interest in his life and character”.
Apart from the story itself, this book also contains many author’s profound thoughts and great ideas. For example, Maugham expresses his ideas about art and literature like “It’s a grotesque misapprehension which sees in art no more than a craft comprehensible perfectly only to the craftsman: art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand.” “ The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of his thoughts; and indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.” Also, author’s language is also very humorous. For instance, he described Strickland’s success as “The rise of his reputation is one of the most romantic incidents in the history of art.”
In the story, author’s reflective thoughts also dig out the deep meanings of the characters’ behaviors. He knew that Mrs Strickland had been prepared to weep to make her seems more moving. He had a strange sensation that the Strickland was only an envelope and he was in the presence of a disembodied spirit. All these help readers to understand more easily.
The time has passed when Strickland was an object of ridicule, and it is no longer a mark of eccentricity to defend or of perversity to extol him. His faults are accepted as the necessary complement to his merits. His paintings reflect a tormented spirit striving for the release of expression. He was under an intolerable necessity to convey something that he felt, and he created them with that intention alone. Facts were nothing to him, for beneath the mass of irrelevant incidents he had become aware of the soul of the universe and were compelled to express it.
In the movie Big Night there is a line “He lives at another level”. I think Strickland lives just at another level. Every man’s identity is a kind of self-kidnapped and only losing those different identities can a man be on the way to freedom. So Strickland refused to be a father, a husband, an English man, etc. Others may be sympathetic about his poverty, but when he seizes his paint brushes, he is the king of his own kingdom. The dream is so scary that people run away from it and chase for money, status and so on. There were six pence on the ground, but Strickland looked up and saw the moon.
After finishing reading this book, I was very impressed by the last scene of the story. On the small island of Pacific Ocean, blind Strickland sat in his own house with walls painted with marvelous colors and listened to the music of colors—white was breeze, red was scream, black was bass, yellow was soprano. I deeply respect his spirit. This is a great man struck by dream, seize it and sacrifice everything for dream. My dream is to be a philosophy researcher who analyze and chase for Buddhism. I hope I have the same bravery and spirit of Strickland. Then I will have no regret for my life.
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