Portrayal of Women Characters in Selected Short Stories of D H Lawrence and W Somerset Maugham: A Comparative Study

Abstract

It was during the Victorian period that one could truly and tangibly witness important developments in literary standpoints. D H Lawrence and W Somerset Maugham, who belong to this era, present an endearing panorama of themes, multitude of emotions and a stream of vivid characters - a sequential aftermath of war-torn country. With male members being lost to war by death and the so-called weaker sex emerging as bread winners of the family, this period saw the robust bloom of matriarchal society. In their short stories, D H Lawrence and W Somerset Maugham deal with the contemporary issues and complications arising over the ownership of changing familial roles of women across various spheres and relationship issues following industrial revolution. Back then, women were required to shoulder responsibilities much beyond their capacities and were also forced to fulfill them meticulously. Feminist theorists seek to probe inequalities constructed on the basis of age, “race”, sexual orientation, class, economics, ability / disability and First / Third world citizenship. The champions of this movement contest inequalities of power, gender, class, age, religion, language, nationality, citizenship status, education, professional status, economics and other dimensions of differentiation associated with different distributions of power. The paper presents a comparative analysis on the portrayal of women in the writings of D H Lawrence and Somerset Maugham. Being effortless storytellers, both these authors bring out various themes that revolve around women handling different situations in their short stories. Feminist principles have been applied in this article to exemplify the treatment of women in the short stories of these two authors. D H Lawrence and Somerset Maugham captured the happenings of the society according to the contemporary standards of the Victorian era, gleefully addressing recurrent feminist themes such as the domineering presence of strong female protagonists and a critique of patriarchy. Fascinatingly, it appears that these female characters set themselves free from male supremacy, but not without experiencing their share of mental, physical and emotional traumas as consequence