Kitty's Problematic Characterization: Gender, Sexuality, and History in The Painted Veil Anonymous College

Like every other form of systemic oppression, patriarchy has its roots spread across different cultures, places and time periods. There is no denying that women have been marginalized, both in fact and in fiction, well into the 20th century. In an androcentric world where every other gender is seen as secondary and is used as a mere tool for facilitating the advancement of the man-child, the interwar period saw little to no difference about how women were to be treated and perceived. Recent historians after conducting thorough surveys have reached the general consensus that the so-called emancipation of women that came with the first world war was ephemeral. As an author of the era, W. Somerset Maugham had often and rightly so been labeled as a misogynist for his unfair portrayal of women. His novel the Painted Veil chronicled the life of Kitty Fane, an upper-class woman who had been portrayed as vain and promiscuous. Even though she was the protagonist, her character had been shaped in terms of the relationships and interactions she had with men throughout the course of the novel. Her story arc showed her jumping from one man to another; we never get to know her as a complete individual whose life didn’t revolve around the...