La visión femenina de una vida auténtica en la novela El velo pintado de W. Somerset Maugham

摘要

A poem by Shelley gives the title to William Somerset Maugham’s novel The Painted Veil, published in 1925. The moral of the poem is very pessimistic: the veil of life should not be lifted, because underneath there is no truth. As this article proves, this negative vision coincides only partially with the novel. In fact, Kitty Garstin, the heroine, raises the veil over her life and discovers the true face of it: something deceptive and superficial. In other words, Kitty realizes that until then she had not made any decision on her own. On the other hand, by discovering her false life, Kitty is able to first glimpse a new existence. In this sense we can consider this novel as a descent into the depths of the human heart, crushed under layers of social stereotypes, personal prejudices and, in general, hypocrisy. Therefore, the structure of this essay follows a triple hermeneutic operation: showing the veil; unveiling the hidden reality; and revealing the possibility of a new feminine existence which does not try to imitate male values but to discover those that are truly women's.