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Summary
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Of Human Bondage, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Maturation and Finding Purpose
Marriage and Family
Religion and Belief
Poverty and Injustice
Summary
Analysis
In 1885, a female servant wakes up nine-year-old Philip Carey and invites him to go see his mother (Helen Carey). Philip is very sleepy. the servant brings him over to lie next to his mother, who is in the middle of giving birth. The doctors know that Mrs. Carey doesn’t have much time left and eventually take Philip away because she is weak. The new child was stillborn and a boy. The doctor sends for Miss Watkin, who has promised to take Philip in the event that anything happens to Helen.
The beginning of the novel establishes the connections between fictional character Philip Carey and author W. Somerset Maugham, who was born around the same time as Philip and who also lost his mother when he was young. This passage captures Philip’s innocence, with his sleepiness being a sign of how he doesn’t understand the importance of the events happening around him or that this will be the last time he ever sees his mother.
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