Lesson-3. Princess September – E.Somerset Maugham summary

Lesson-3.  Princess September    –         E.Somerset Maugham      

summary

INTRODUCTION:

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) holds a unique place among the English writers of this century as an entertainer. He wrote novels, plays and short stories and delighted his readers in every form of his art.  Princess September is a delightful fairy tale. It is a short of fantasy, identity, jealousy, resentment, freedom, trust, control and innocence.  It is a story of the girl, the  youngest of nine sisters to the king of Siam.

CONTENT

The King of Siam had nine daughters named after the months of the year. The youngest daughter named September had a very pleasing personality. Her other sisters were all of sullen nature. One year on his birthday the King gave each of his daughters a beautiful green parrot in a golden cage. The parrots shortly learnt to speak. Unfortunately, the parrot of Princess September died. She was heartbroken.

Presently a little bird bounded into her room and sang a lovely song about the king’s garden, the willow tree and the goldfish. The princess was thrilled. The bird decided to stay with her and sing her beautiful songs. When the princesses’ sisters became jealous when they came top know of the sweet bird that sang better than their parrots. The malicious sisters urged Princess September to put the bird in a cage.

The innocent princess put the bird into a cage. The bird was bewildered but the princess justified caging the bird as she was afraid of the lurking cats. When the bird tried to sing, it had to stop midway as it felt wretched in the cage. The next morning the bird asked Princess September to release her from the cage, she did not listen to it. Instead she assured the bird that it would have three meals a day and nothing to worry all day. The bird was not happy with it and pleaded to let it out from the cage. September try to console the bird saying that she had caged the bird because of her love for it. The distraught bird did not sing the whole day and stopped eating its food.

The next morning the princess noticed the bird lying in the cage still. Thinking that the bird was dead, she started weeping. Then the bird rose and told the princess that t could not sing unless it was free and if it could not sing it would die. Taking pity on the bird, the kind princess released the bird. The bird flew away. Yet, it returned to enchant the princess with its sweet songs. The princess kept her windows open day and night for the bird to come and go whenever it wanted.

With time, September grew up to be a paragon of beauty. Her youth was exuberant. At the right age, she was married to the King of Cambodia. On the contrary, the eight sisters became uglier and uglier with time. They had never slept with their windows open. They were given away to the councilors with a pound of tea and a Siamese cat. Their wicked minds drove them to such disgrace.

Conclusion:

In the story Maugham is suggesting us that if a person do good things, then they live happily as the Princess September lived after marring the king. Good things will happen to a Good person. By keeping the window open she has learnt the importance of freedom and what freedom means. Thus she could learn many important lessons of life from that bird. Maugham has also shown us the other side of the ugliness of people through Princess September’s sisters who lived their life controlling their environment and driven by jealousy. Thus, couldn’t achieve much in their life.

“God Bless the good and Curse the bad!”