Title: Emotional Fragmentation and “Fragile Happiness”: The “True Self” in Maugham’s The Painted Veil

Abstract: This paper analyzes the metaphorical implications of “the veil” in The Painted Veil as emotional fragmentation and moral meaning. The relationship between Kitty and her lover, Charlie Townsend, reflects a distorted satisfaction of desire and emotional control. Townsend’s behavior reveals the moral decay of colonial officials and indirectly critiques the frailty of imperial values. The pathological communication between Kitty and her husband, Walter, illustrates a misaligned emotional identification and emotional stagnation. The extramarital affair and the cholera epidemic serve as two sociological “event” units. Through dual narratives, Maugham constructs a field of traumatic memory. Kitty’s self-awakening reflects the profound interaction between personal development and social change. Maugham captures sensitive historical signals and offers a moral critique of the social crises hidden beneath the surface.

Keywords: The Painted Veil, emotional stagnation, fragmentation, true self, responsibility, Maugham

Author: Qiang Hu, Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, Hunan, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2026.01.009