The Painted Veil Lesson Plan

In The Painted Veil, the main character is unfaithful to her husband. In response to this betrayal, he forces her to move with him into an area plagued with cholera. Maugham's story was inspired by a story in Dante’s The Divine Comedy in which a jilted husband equally forces his wife into a dangerous situation. Unlike The Divine Comedy, Maugham's main character survives and is able to somewhat redeem herself. The novel is often hailed as a proto-feminist work, emphasizing the importance of education and productive work for women outside the home. It also contains numerous thematic similarities to Joseph Conrad's 1899 novel Heart of Darkness, such as the exploration of the human psyche...