Of Human Bondage. somerset Maugham Masterpiece

 

Of Human Bondage, By Somerset Maugham

Being caught up in a crazy relationship where we find ourselves being ridiculed, and mocked while we try desperately to win the abusers love and affection is a scenario we are all familiar with. Sometimes it is referred to as The Rules of Attraction, and other times we call it Human Bondage, as Somerset Maugham did in his best selling book.

Of Human Bondage was a best selling novel published in 1915. The title and the basic story is one that everyone relates to at some point in life. For we have either given our emotions to someone who has strangled us with them, or we have witnessed someone else go through the torment of loving someone who repeatedly damages their well being.
We seldom use common sense when falling in love, and no matter how much the facts are on the table, emotions kick in with a mad desperation and the belief that "just maybe by doing this one thing it will change the whole negative scenario once and for all". This unfortunate situation is not just something that the extremely dumb, and dim witted people find themselves in, because love is purely emotional, not intellectual.
When one a person gets caught up in the cycle of a tormented relationship the destruction of spirit can ruin lives permanently. There is nothing that destroys ego and turns a person cold like giving genuine love and being taken advantage of by the one person held most precious. Continually seeking to win the tormentor over with kindness is the Human Bondage cycle.




Loving someone and making every effort to win their heart while the loved one seeks someone else and tries in vein to win that person over is what has been referred to as the rules of attraction. When too much love is given to someone they don't appreciate it and seek a difficult person to win over. The instinct is to be kind and loving to gain acceptance, but the kindness seems unimportant and as the loved one seeks to be accepted by an elusive love of their own.
The novel, Of Human Bondage follows Philip Carey, a boy with a congenital clubbed foot through his life as a young boy in boarding school, and his affair with an older woman named Miss Wilkerson. He is not attracted to the older woman but is romanced by the idea of having an affair with a woman. Philip indulges, putting aside all emotions outside of enjoying the experience and ego boost of this flirtation. Miss Wilkerson falls in love with Philip, and he stops responding to her. Miss Wilkerson is left devastated and confused. She is the victim of the cycle.
Philip then decides to become an artist, and sails to Paris where he meets Miss Price in art school, where she falls madly in love with him as he remains completely oblivious to her emotions. Miss Price is poor and can not afford art school, but she continues taking classes with hopes that Philip will fall for her. Miss Price runs out of money and can no longer attend art school. With no money, and no more opportunity to see Philip, she commits suicide. Philip realizes he will never be a truly great artist and heads for London to pursue medicine.This is the particular portion of the novel that all three movie versions of the Somerset Maugham classic focus on. His relationship with Mildred.

Enter Mildred

Philip meets Mildred, a lower class waitress in a cafe, and falls desperately in love with her. She is cold towards him, and he does everything he can to win her heart, and fails constantly. With each attempt to win her over, she humiliates him mercilessly and when Philip proposes in hopes of winning her heart through marriage, Mildred breaks the news that she is engaged to someone else and will soon marry this "older gentleman" leaving Philip heartbroken and tortured as he can now think of nothing other than Mildred marrying and sleeping with this man while he wanted more than anything to be the man in that position.




Philip goes back to medical school and keeps hammering away at his studies alone until he meets a young lady who admires him. Norah is now devoting her time to helping Philip pass his studies while enjoying every free moment together. Norah loves Philip deeply and hopes to marry him some day, which he had been thinking would be a good match and a wise decision. But he knows in his heart that he does not have the fire for her that he felt for Mildred.
One day Mildred comes back into his life after being used and dumped by her other man. Now pregnant Mildred is destitute and in need of financial aid. Philip does the only noble thing he can think of. He tells Norah that he no longer cares for her because his attentions are all on Mildred now.
After Mildred has had the baby and is used to Philips financial help she begins to feel confident again. This confidence leads her to ridicule him constantly as she did when she first met him, and soon Philip finds that Mildred had been seeing one of his friends from medical school. When confronting Mildred she admitted it and ran away with Philips school friend.

Left alone again Philip is devastated but as soon as Mildred's fling was over he took her back in after discovering that she was prostituting. This time he felt cold towards Mildred and although he could not stand to turn her into the streets, he was not in love with her.
Mildred was beginning to think that she should be nice to Philip and she tried to create an atmosphere of romance. Philip was too hurt and disgusted to trust and enjoy Mildred's company and this led her to violently destroy all of his belongings. It was only at this point that Philip told her to leave his home.
It took a long time before he became involved with another woman and he did not begin marriage plans until he received the news that Mildred was dying in the hospital of disease.

Masterpiece Novel and Movie

The novel was considered a masterpiece and in 1934 Bette Davis was given the role of Mildred in the movie version. It was the first real chance Bette Davis had to prove her acting skills. She was positively brilliant as Mildred and Leslie Howard as Philip. The movie was remade several more times, but this is the best version largely because of Bettie Davis' portrayal.
There was another very good version made in 1946 with Eleanor Parker and Paul Henreid. It was as good as the the earlier one in many ways, and in some aspects it was superior as far as budget and direction, but it lacked the intense Bette Davis.
In 1964 there was another attempt to recreate the classic story with Kim Novak as Mildred. This was definitely the weakest of all versions. Kim Novak did not seem to have a grasp on the part and the cruelty of Mildred was absent.