A wise patient tells his doctor to love small pleasures and never marry a lady. Norah as pulp romance author represents the middle ground between art and commerce which Leslie Howard cannot chose. His sees his idealized love in medical texts, on skeletons and bedroom walls. Watch him plod over the help-wanted ads. But some of the cloudy disolves and wipes try too hard at art, like Maugham's character. He has industry and intelligence but no talent. Howard shows great self-respect in giving up greatness and art to be of use in medicine.
Howard lacks self-respect in mooning over an inconstant and cold-hearted waitress. Oedipus lacked insight before he lacked sight. Howard must repair his self-respect before his club foot. The wasted waitress case file ends in pieces, just as the paintings of Paris models. Howard, hounded by taxi noise, realizes he had to be free in order to tear up his travel brochures as a wedding present. Maugham is master of the razor's edge, the art of deferred be/coming, in the modern era where it involves vocation, or human bondage.
Howard lacks self-respect in mooning over an inconstant and cold-hearted waitress. Oedipus lacked insight before he lacked sight. Howard must repair his self-respect before his club foot. The wasted waitress case file ends in pieces, just as the paintings of Paris models. Howard, hounded by taxi noise, realizes he had to be free in order to tear up his travel brochures as a wedding present. Maugham is master of the razor's edge, the art of deferred be/coming, in the modern era where it involves vocation, or human bondage.
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