Positive and Negative Abstractions in Maugham’s Short Stories “Princess September” and “The Three Fat women of Antibes”

Abstract

This research has illustrated a comparison between positive and negative Abstractions in Maugham’s short stories “Princess September” and “The three fat women of Antibes”. The focus of this research is to search beauty in abstractions. Beauty is an art that does not lie in objects directly. It exists in the perception of a person. Perception varies from person to person. Human senses perceive this beauty even in ugliness. Aim of this research is to find beauty in emotions i.e. love, care, sincerity, pleasure, even in emotions which people commonly consider have no beauty i.e. hate, anger, jealousy, selfishness. Researcher has explored beauty in these emotions through the characters of Princess September and The three fat women of Antibes. Methodological approach for this research is qualitative and descriptive. This approach falls under the mantle of literary analysis of specific criticism that exists as secondary resources of the research. Primary resources of this research are selected short stories of W. Somerset Maugham. This research focuses on the theory of aestheticism given by Francis Hutcheson including the works of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schiller and George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The conclusion of this research debates upon aesthetic beauty lies in the mind. The short stories “Princess September” and “The three fat women of Antibes” manifest beauty in these emotions through sense experience. Researcher has made a distinction between positive and negative ideas that reflect beauty in a same manner. Beauty is not present physically, but present internally. Our mind is not enough capable to perceive beauty alone. It can be experienced through sensation and people attain pleasure. So it can be said that beauty provide satisfaction in the form of pleasure.