THE LOTUS EATER Somerset Maugham

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The Lotus Eater is one of the finest stories written by Somerset Maugham, an
acknowledge master in the field of English Short Stories. The title and the
background harks back to the description of the Lotus land in Homer's Odyssey. The
Lotus Land is a land of enjoyments, ease, and inhabited by the lotus people who ate
the lotus flower and spent their time in rest and peace. After wandering for nine
days for nine days on the surface of a storm tossed sea Ulysses and his companions,
while returning from Troy after burning the city, set foot on the tenth day on a
beautiful island where lived a strange people who fed on the Lotus fruit thatmade
them forgetful, dreamy contented, lethargic in nature. Some companions of Ulysses
atethe fruit as a result of which they became lazy and dreamy and gave up all
intention of going back home to their native land Ithaca after hard rowing across a
turbulent sea. The men did not want to continue their journey, fight the waves and
the turmoil of life but spend the rest of their lives in peace and rest and ease in the
land of the Lotus Eaters.

- Somerset Maugham's Short story presents the amazing life and actions of a
modern Lotus eater Thomas Wilson. Wilson came to the land of Capri during one of
his holidays and fell in love with it. Possessed by the charm of the land, he decided
to give up everything and spend the rest of his life in care free bliss in Capri. Most
people lead humdrum, dull, routine bound lives that circumstances thrust upon
them. It is not often thatone finds a man who has boldly taken the course of his life
into his own hands. Thomas Wilson was such a man. This is the reason why the
writer Somerset Maugham was curious to meet him.

- Wilson was a bank manager but he gave up his job where he had been toiling all
his life and collecting all his dues, annuities, made for the land of his dreams, his
lotus land, Capri. The unusual thing had been done by Wilson. At the age of 35,
Wilson bought an annuity for 25 years and did not seem to care for what he would
do after that. At writer's suggestion his friend asked Wilson to have a drink with
them at Morgano's.
- Thomas Wilson's shirt and trousers were much creased and none too clean. He
wore a pair of oldrope- soled shoes. His face indicated that he was good looking in
his youth. They sat in a garden. After the drink, Wilson got up and left the place.
- They met Wilson again at the Baths of Tiberius. While the writer's friend was
swimming, Somerset Maugham talked alone with Thomas Wilson. Wilson
-told him that he had been living in the
place since 15 years.

- He further stated that he fell in love with the place at the first sight. Wilson had a
similarity with the fictitious story of the German who came here to have lunch and
a look at the Blue Grotto but stayed forty years. Sybaris and Crotona are the names
of two Greek cities. Sybaris is famous as a city where people enjoyed to the fullest
pleasures and joys of life. Crotona was the city where the people lived an
industrious and laborious life of hard work and toil.

- In their Next meeting, Somerset Maugham and Thomas Wilson climbed a

mountain and then got back by nightfall to an inn to dine and drink. Wilson
expressed his views that leisure was the most priceless thing a man can have and
most men don't even know that it is something to be aimed at. They work for
work's sake without realizing that the only object of work is to obtain leisure.
- The beautiful and peaceful scenery had a firm hold on him. Afterall he had no one
dependent on him. His wife and daughter were already dead and his uncle had
settled in Australia before his birth. There was no reason why he should not do
exactly what he wanted. He had been working since at the age of 17.Wilson's
return to London might make him change his mind. In this way, he foolishly wasted
one full year. The beautiful scenes of Capri began to haunt him. The only thing that
bothered him was whether he was justified in not working like others. But the
reading of a history book By Marion Crawford helped him to drive away all his
hesitations.

- Money was a real difficulty. The Bank gave him gratuity instead of pension. With
this, the sale of his house, and his savings he bought an annuity for 25 years and
came back to Capri. He was 35 years then. Already he had spent 15 years. He
thought that his annuity would bear his expenses up to sixty. 25 years, according to
him, was a long time. Many people die before that. After 25 years of perfect
happiness one ought to be satisfied and stop continuing it.

- It was 1913, a year before World War 1st. The World went on in an easy,
comfortable way. No one could have imagined that anything shattering might
happen to disturb the calmness of human existence seriously. But the First World
War brought manychanges. My friend had moved to a smaller place for which the
Writer had to put up at a hotel when after 13 years Somerset Maugham, the writer
went to Capri again. From his friend the writer knew the very sad and grim story of
Wilson after spending 35 years.

- Wilson's plan had a flaw in it. After 25 years of perfect happiness Wilson
-would gradually lose his strength. His
landlord gave him notice to leave the house
unless he paid thearrears of rent before a
certain date. He managed to hang on this way
for over a year. Then there was no one to
lend him money any more. The day before this
he tried to commit suicide by suffocating
himself. Lighting a brazier of charcoal he
closed the doors and windows. Next morning
Assunta who still acted as his servant found
him unconscious but alive as the room was
airy. It looked as though at the last moment
he had suffered from a certain infirmity of
purpose, Wilson was taken to the hospital
where he recovered. However, because of
charcoal poisoning he was no longer in his
right mind. When the writer's friend went to
see Wilson, Wilson looked at him in a funny
way.
- Assunta allowed him to stay in their wood shed and share their meals. This she
did because Wilson was all along a good master and a good tenant. The writer's
friend told Somerset Maugham that his room was icy cold in Winter and terribly hot
in Summer. His food was quite rough. He further told that Assunta's husband
grudged the cost of his keep and made him fetch water and clean the cowshed., " It
looks pretty rotten'"..........................................................." He brought it on
Himself, He's got what he deserved" according to the writer Somerset Maugham
and his friend.

- Thomas Wilson was suffering mentally. Two or three days later while the writer
and his friend were walking along an olive grove, the writer's friend suddenly drew
thewriter's attention to Wilson's presence nearby. Out of the corners they saw
Wilson was hiding behind an Olive tree. While they passed, Wilson made a
scamper, running hastily in fear.

- He died last year after enduring a hard life for six years. He was found one
morning onthe mountain side lying quite peacefully. " perhaps he died of the
beauty of the sight."
Wilson's end was also in harmony with his love of a dreamy life. This is the final
observation of the writer Somerset Maugham on the death of Wilson amidst the
splendour of the most beautiful sight in Capri. His body was found one morning on
the mountain side where he obviously went to see those two great rocks called
Faraglioni, bathed in the splendour of thefull moon. In spite of the fact that Wilson
had to face great suffering in his last, this final comment seems full of sympathy and
presents the serenity of his death. As the writer notes,perhaps the excessive beauty
coupled with the loneliness of the setting had struck him dead. All these
characteristics of Wilson clearly show that the title of Maugham's present story is
correctly chosen and apt.

- Somerset Maugham's The Lotus Eater is a wonderfully tragic tale of a protagonist

who takes the reign of his life in his own hands and meets his
-doom in the end. Possessing all qualities
of a good story like brevity and unity of
action, a novelty of theme, peculiarity in
the main character and a symmetrical pattern
with a dramatic end, this a short story is
unique in itself, and should be marked very
high in the lineage of short stories. Very
similar to the character Dr. Faustus in
Christopher Marlowe's tragedy by the same
name, thecharacterof Wilson would not qualify
as a tragic one simply because his tragedy is
not the result of a purgation of pity and
fear. Undoubtedly Wilson generates sympathy,
admiration to a certain extent but because he
was fully aware of his fate after 25 years
whilechoosing his life of ease and languor,
Wilson is not a conventional tragic hero.