Guilty or victim? - essay about The Force of Circumstance by W. Somerset Maugham

The first 200 words of this essay...

Guilty or victim?

/essay about The Force of Circumstance by W. Somerset Maugham/

Maugham's work was one of my favourite short stories during the semester. So it was out of question which story I would like to write about.

The Force of Circumstance has touched me very much even when I read it for the first time. It was easy for me to understand in two senses. Firstly, Maugham's language usage is very clear and understandable. Secondly, he tells a tale about a perpetual problem in connection with trust. Though the story takes place in a far and exotic country, it can happen anywhere, anytime and with any of us. So this story is everlasting and it remains relevant in every era.

It is about the collapse of a marriage between Doris, an English girl and Guy, a man from Sembulu. They were made one after only a short acquaintance. They moved into Guy's home and they seemed to be very happy. But something happened. A native woman appeared and everything went wrong. It turned out that before Doris she had belonged to Guy and they had three children. Doris asked for time to think over