The Moon and Sixpence is one of the most representative books of the famous British novelist and playwright William Somerset Maugham. The story is narrated by”I”, an onlooker to recount the life experience of a broker, Strickland who gives up everything to pursue his art dream. Strickland has emotional entanglements with three women in the book but none of them can escape the pitiful and tragic destiny. Facing the choice of life, Strickland is always obsessed with the “moon”, regardless of the “sixpence” around him.

Appreciating the novel Moon and Sixpence that crosses the boundary between pure literature and popular literature, scholars abroad and at home explored it from many perspective. Both overseas and domestic research can be mainly classified into 3 types. The first type is focusing on the protagonist, Strickland’s image and personalities. Some researchers pay attention to what Strickland has done on painting and by reviewing his legendary path to success they show great admiration on his contribution to art and his dauntless spirit. Like Roger states in A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia(1997) that Strickland is an artist who refuses to compromise with the hypocritical conventions of his society. There are also researches at home like Sun Qianqian’s “Burning for Art — An Interpretation of Maugham’s The Moon and Sixpence”(孙骞骞, 2006). The second type is focusing on female’s behaviors and characters. Abroad, Woodburn O.Ross states in “W.Somerset Maugham: Theme and Variations”(1947) that women in Maugham’s book may have different personalities but due to their desire for sexual needs, who always end by the same tragic fate. Some domestic research share the same direction, such as Cong Siyu’s “A Study on Female Character of The Moon and Sixpence”(丛思宇, 2016) and Su Ling’s “Vulgar woman, Evil woman, Uncivilized woman—Deconstruct Maugham' s Views on Female Characters in The Moon and Sixpence”(苏玲, 2004). The third type focuses on the narrative style or the narrator himself of the novel, like Macey Jr., J. David‘s “Fantasy as Necessity: the Role of the Biographer in The Moon and Sixpence”(1997) and Wei Yuan’s “A Brief Discussion on the Narrative mode of The Moon and Sixpence”(魏媛, 2016). Apart from previous three aspects, some of the Chinese researchers put their eyes on the translation of this work. They might compare different versions of this masterpiece or simply criticize a certain version, such as Zhang Baihua, Yang Liu’s “Stylistic Transmission of Literature Works from the Perspective of Stylistic Marker Theory: A Case Study of the Chinese Version of The Moon and Sixpence”(张白桦, 杨柳, 2017).

To sum up, most of the research mainly put their eyesight on the analysis of the leading character, Strickland and very few of them pay much attention to the female characters. Although some of the scholars showed their sympathy to the females in the novel, few of them analyzed the female characters from the author’s characterization, such as their remarks and behaviors, as well as their psychological activities, since they are not important as the major role like Strickland. Therefore, based on all the information or standpoints reflected in these previous studies summarized above, the author of this thesis will interpret the female characters in detail, analyse their tragic fate and try to call for people’s attention to the discrimination against women by patriarchal society and call for a true equality between the two genders.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

Contents

1 Introduction

1.1 the Author and the Work

1.2 Literature Review

1.3 Research Goal and Research Significance

1.4 Framework of the Thesis

2 Interpretations of the Three Main Females