The Happy Man

The text which I'm going to analyse is "The happy man" written by Somerset Maugham. He is a well-known English novelist, short-story writer, playwright and essayist. Maugham was the son of a British diplomat. He was educated at King's School in Canterbury, studied painting in Paris, went to Heidelberg University in Germany and studied to be a doctor at St. Thomas Hospital in England. Although Somerset Maugham didn't denounce the contemporary social order, he was critical of the morals, the narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy of bourgeois society. It was his autobiographical novel "Of Human Bondage" and the novel "The Moon and Sixpence" based on the life of the French artist Paul Gauguin, that won him fame. Somerset Maugham was also a master of the short story. Somerset Maugham's style of writing is clear and precise. He doesn't impose his views on the reader. He puts a question and leaves it to the reader to answer it. When criticizing something he sounds rather amused than otherwise. All of these are the distinctive features of Maugham's style and this story isn't an exception. There the author relates his meeting with a rather strange man who had everything: a good job, a family, tranquil life. These made him a quite successful person on the outside, but inside he was awfully unhappy. His intuition gave him a hint to change the life while his mind resisted it. Being broken-hearted by the problem of choice he came to the author for an expert advice. The author raises the issue about such a philosophical and vital question as the challenge of the choice. I think it's the hardest thing in the life. That is why the main idea of the story can be formulated as "to be or not to be: that is the question". The chief problem is connected with the idea - "the challenge between the voice of a heart and the voice of mind" So it should be mentioned the plot of the story is captivating, and its structure is no less interesting. First of all it's necessary to note