Rapture Sparknotes

One way in which Maugham presents ideas of love and desire is destructively. This is evident when Kitty’s love for Charlie leads to Walter presenting her with an ultimatum; either Walter ‘files for a petition’ or she goes with him to Mei-Tan-Fu. Maugham punishes Kitty’s choices and sends her to her potential death, which shows that Kitty’s adultery can have dire consequences. Kitty’s love for Charlie leads to her virtual death sentence and Walter’s self-hatred of having an unrequited love causes him to go with her into a ‘cholera epidemic’. Maugham himself was a homosexual and knew about the need to hide this from the disapproving society he lived in. Kitty’s affair would have similarly ostracised her from society. In 1920’s society, an adulterous …show more content…
Maugham does not build up to the climax of her affair because he wants to show Kitty as the fallen woman, from the start. However, he changes the narrative to become more traditional and chronological later on, and the effect this achieves is that we see the gradual changes in kitty’s character. Within ‘Rapture’, the poems are written in the first person. This allows for a deeper sense of intimacy to be created. The significant difference between ‘The Painted Veil’ and ‘Rapture’ is that ‘Rapture’ is an autobiography for Duffy to disclose her inner most private thoughts, Maugham’s work is more shrouded in mystery as his position is difficult to pinpoint. Duffy’s poem, ‘If I was dead’, is structure in a way in which it ends and begins with the lover. This achieves the overwhelming sense of want and desire that the narrator has for their lover. Towards the end the lover finds her and brings her back to life. This contrasts with Walter’s death, for he couldn’t be saved. Perhaps Kitty did not love Walter enough and thus he could have been saved. The poem, ‘If I was dead’ presents seven ways to die and Duffy romanticising death, presents an eternal love which is in stark contrast to ‘The Painted Veil’, Walter’s death Kitty sees a moth is reminded of him. "It seemed to her strangely that his soul was a fluttering moth and its wings were heavily with hatred" (pg. 134). Walter's soul is as weak as the small insect, but it is still burdened by the hatred he feels towards Kitty for her betrayal. She does her best to lighten its load before he dies, however it is not enough as Kitty’s selfish action was an indirect cause to his death. Dufy’s poem ‘Grief’, describes the poet mourning the death of the lover. However, the narrator is attempting to come to terms and accept the loss