The Force of Circumstance

Brief summaryGuy, an administrator of a sm every British colonial outpost, has lived at that place for ten years. When he was on holiday in England he met Doris. They married and she returned to the station with him. At first they are very happy but then Doris nonices a young Malay char char with three half-caste children hanging around the bungalow and annoying Guy very lots. Finally Guy confesses that he had a relationship with the woman and that the children are his.Doris needs time to consider this shattering news, in the meanwhile they continue to live as before but Doris refuses to share her bedroom with her husband and the atmosphere is strained. at last Doris returns to England although she knows that Guy loves her and understands that he acted out of loneliness. But she cannot overcome her prejudices and cannot accept the idea that her white husband has had an lettered relationship with a native. Guy, unhappy and lonely, allows the Malay woman and their children to come back.Structure of the plotThe story is carefully constructed like a five-act drama with tension rising to the climax of Guys disclosure speech.exposition introduction to the exotic view and the harmonious couplerising conflict the confrontation of charactersclimax Guys monologue and Doriss re processfalling action Doriss unyielding suffering and period of indecisiondenouement Doriss leaving and the restoration of the former circumstancesThere are hints at the beginning which predict the crisis and you will probably guess from the first mention of the half-caste boys what the conflict in the story is about. What creates the tension is the swear to know how Doris will cope with this situation.Doris says that shes thankful Guy never had a Malay woman (p. 43 , ls. 1-2)D. cannot accept the excuses Guy practises for the behaviour of European men (p.43, ls.21-22)Guys unusual display of essence when he drew Doris to him as she passed(p.45.ls.27-28)Guys deathly white face(p.47 , l.3) when he sees the Malay woman at the tennis court and hissilent and bad play afterwards in that respect was a change in Guy (p. 48, l.24)Guys ashy face (p.50, l.10) after his servant has roughly turned the woman a path. He was nervous and irritable (p.51, ls. 6ff.)SettingThe story is put together in the part of Borneo controlled by the British. Which area the story is set in is unclear and not of much importance, as Maugham uses the exotic setting to show the interaction among European and indigenous people and cultures. The newly arrived European woman views the surroundings with a mixture of captivation with the exotic and fear of the unknow. The tropical scenery is described in a way (esp. through colours and sounds) that reveals the mood of the characters.the lead-up to the dramatic climax of Guys disclosure is accompanied by a unsounded storm, reinforcing the rising tensionthe disclosure is made under an open sky (the night was starry)sounds (as well as colours) gai n an immediate presence, esp. the croak of the chik-chak, which appears at crucial moments in the storyDoris tries to import an English deportmentstyle into a home which until her arrival had contained mostly objects from the indigenous culture (p.44/45) - her wedding presents, playing tennisCharactersGuyGuy is a fun-loving, cheerful, ugly and rip-roaring sort of person. He has a naturally optimistic nature and likes to laugh a lot. Doris cannot resist his charm.Having lived all his life in the tropics and coming from a family tradition of colonial service, he seems to be the undefiled type of colonial agent he speaks the native language fluently and moves easily between 2 cultures. From his point of view there is nothing wrong with his going native.He regards the native woman as an inferior person who fulfils his physical needs and helps him overcome his loneliness, alone to be pensioned off whenshe is no long-dated needed. He feels no affection for his children, natives are treated as though they had no feelings or rights.DorisDoris is a pretty, honest person. Before marriage she had a not very important post as secretarial assistant to an MP and cared for her widowed mother. Her decision to marry Guy after knowing him for only a month may have been forced by the prospect of a more interesting and exotic life and material and social betterment. Doris is described as self-contained, competent and has deft hands.She dislikes Guys disrespect and is shocked by the behaviour of European colonizers and by her husbands insensitivity to such immorality. Reasons why Doris will in the end decide against life with her husbandshe is shocked at his strategy of hide his former life from hershe is hurt when she learns the reasons why Guy married hershe cannot tolerate the irresponsible manner with which he treats his black familyshe cannot stand the idea of him touching a black womanDoris is unable to overcome her middle-class British prejudices and instead of ad apting to the new circumstances, of tolerating a certain degree of assimilation toward the native culture, she gives up a relatively happy marriage and returns to the purity of unhappiness and poverty.The Malay WomanShe is never called anything else but the Malay woman or the woman from the kampong and she never speaks, but her physical presence is strongly felt through her continual gaze and the way she intrudes on Guys life. She is a powerful figure, determining the course of action to her advantage, finally taking over the role of the female in Guys home. Unlike Doris she is not humiliated by the existence of another woman and proudly claims her position as wife and mother. She is the stronger of the both .ThemesGoing NativeWhite men actually had a general fear of going native which means adapting to the native way of life. So many white men in the colonies insisted on wearing European clothes or retained their typical European lifestyle.Theywere afraid to lose their own ident ity in having too much contact with the natives which would threaten their authority and power. According to imperialist ideology they felt superior and an intermingling of the races had to be avoided. In fact it was very difficult for the white men in the colonies to resist the temptation of the native women because they were the only females around and their exoticism was very attractive. Isolation and loneliness often made the white men go away the standards of behaviour and their fear of going native.Daily Life in the Coloniesimportation of the British lifestyle to the colonies ( tennis and cricket, afternoon cocktails, and leisure clubs )contact with the homeland is kept up by newspapers and letters the tropical mood structures the rhythm of the day they get up early to make the most of the cool morning, they indulge in long afternoon siestas and enjoy social engagements orThe Force of Circumstance sport towards the evening.Point of viewThe third-person narrator tells the sto ry from an outright omniscient point of view, moving freely in and out of the protagonists minds. He observes, but does not make judgements.StyleA large portion of the story is taken up by dialogue, another theatrical element, and as there are few long descriptive or reflective passages the plot gains speed and concentration. The language utilize especially in the dialogues is informal and sometimes ironic The informal vocabulary, the relatively short, simple sentences and the passages of dialogue gibe spoken language. The descriptive passages of the landscape and the characters make use of more figurative language ( images and metaphors, similes, alliteration and sexual inversion )The authorMaughams travels in the Pacific region were a turning point in his life for there he met a completely new type of person. It seemed to me that these men had more vitality than those I had known . To him it was refreshing to discover people who did not live according to conventional European standards. Although in his colonial stories M. depicts the moral damage doneto colonial agents as well as to natives, he never questions the colonial system as such.