Saturday, March 29, 2008

Mishel Ajison: The Lotus Eater


“The Lotus Eater” by Somerset Maugham is about Thomas Wilson “who has boldly taken the course of his life into his own hands.” On the one hand, his decision was very brave, but on the other hand, he did not think forward about the consequences. Mr. Wilson decided to live a hedonistic life because he was hopeless, irresponsible and selfish, which resulted in a tragic end.

Wilson began his life as a commonplace man who saw and tasted pretty much everything. Horses, high status, love, marriage, and disappointment from losing his wife and daughter were just some of his life experiences. Wilson was thirty - five years old when he fell in unusual love with the nature of Naples. This person lived with the present time and enjoyed himself for fifteen years. When Wilson spent all his economic resources and he became stranded, he decided to commit suicide, but his attempt failed. As a result, bad in all respects, he lost his lucidity and “perhaps he died of the beauty of that sight.”

He became hopeless due to the loss of his family. One day, he made an unexpected decision to change his life completely, and he decided to turn over a new leaf in his life. Job and money lost their values in his outlook on life because he developed his own philosophy. His status as a bank manager did not give him any satisfaction any more because of this; it was very easy to forgo this status. Therefore, Wilson had planned to live in a different way and he did everything to realize his dreams. Moving to a place that he felt in love with gave him the reason to continue life. In Italy, he found different felicity from the one he had known before; as a result, he discovered peace of mind.

Because of his irresponsible personality he was driven to obsess on with his own happiness. Being free from all responsibilities that he had before gave him a push to see and understand the beauty of life in a different way. Having leisure became routine of his life. He was living for today without thinking for tomorrow which caused him to lose another importance of life such as to be loved and to love. He was wasting time from morning to evening, and that is why for some people this kind of life seemed as a bold achievement; however, some people were skeptical about this. Everyday bathing was such a common pleasure for him that he came to believe he could not live without it. Since climbing a mountain Wilson learn the beauty of the nature more closely than had known before.

As a consequence of his selfishness, he got what he deserved. Loneliness became part of his life because people found it difficult to understand his way of life, and therefore kept their distance from him. He did not have a real friend because of his soulless demeanor. Due to his strange perspective on life, he died without any relatives. All these years impacted his personality for the worse in the form of depression. His mental instability caused him to have suicidal thoughts, and it is a fact in psychology that healthy people never think about ending their lives like him. He was always characterized by madness due to a chronic disease, but due to his failure to commit suicide, it only aggravated him more.

It is a fact that sometimes people make strange decisions and change their lives drastically. All of them are searching for happiness in different ways. Happiness is a concept that every individual understands in his own way, and the right decision for one can be wrong for the other.