Destigmatization Leads to Purity—The "Pure Slut" in Maugham's Works

William Somerset Maugham is a famous British novelist and playwright. He has written many works in his life with distinctive characterization, and the female images he portrays are extremely controversial. Taking Sophie in The Razor’s Edge and Rosie in Cakes and Ale as examples, this paper analyzes the images of “pure sluts” created in Maugham’s works: They are regarded as degenerate and contemptible by the social mainstream of the era because of their “promiscuity”. However, their behavior is not evil, but the result of free option and personality liberation. This kind of freedom and liberation removes the moral judgment meaning of “slut” and makes them get rid of the stigma of “slut” label.

Beauvoir, S. (1953). The second sex. (H. M. Parshley, Trans.). London: Jonathan Cape.

Kalpana, R. (2021). Portrayal of women characters in selected short stories of D. H. Lawrence and W. Somerset Maugham: A comparative study. Review of International Geographical Education, 11(7), 3534-3540.

Lv, P. A., & Liu, H. (2022). Incomplete construction of female subjective consciousness—Maugham’s view of women in The painted veil. Journal of Shenyang University (Social Science), 24(3), 323-330.

Maugham, S. (1951). The summing up. New York: The New American Library.

Maugham, S. (2000a). Cakes and ale. London: Vintage Classics.

Maugham, S. (2000b). The razor’s edge. London: Random House UK.

Xia, J. L., & Wang, H. J. (2016). Analysis of Maugham’s views on the female-based on the female images in his works. Retrieved from https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/essaeme-16/25860288

Yuan, Q., &Huang, J. (2019). Four aspects of Maugham’s view of women—Take Of human bondage as an example. Masterpieces Review, 40(21), 102-103.