Salvatore by W. Somerset Maugham
Question: A static character in a story is the one who remains primarily the same through out the story. The events in the story do not alter his character’s outlook and personality. Does this description of a static character fit in with Salvatore? Give reason to support your answer.
Answer: Yes. I think the description of a static character fits well in with Salvatore. The love and affection, the caring nature, the calm,happy and forgiveness or we can say the goodness of remains intact throughout his life.
As much loving and caring, Salvatore was for his brother at the age of fifteen, so much he is loving and caring for his children now.
” he used to bring his children down to give them a bath ….They scrawled about at the water’s edge stark naked and Salvatore standing on a rock would dip them in the water.”
The author further says –
” his laugh was like the laughter of an angel. His eyes then were as candid as his child’s. ”
Salvatore was originally a free soul “who had never been less free than the birds”. He was used to live in a peaceful and calm island. When he was away from his home to become a sailor he missed his home, his family and his fiancée in the foreign land . He could not befriend strangers on those noisy cities, this homesickness makes him I’ll.
In a biographical account, a static character is the one whose character traits does not change throughout his life. Although Salvatore had to face his misfortune twice in his lifetime, in the form of rheumatism and the rejection of his beloved. But still his attitude towards life did not change.
His attitude to accept everything that comes to him with all its positive and negative impact stands him away from the crowd.
In China, When he fell ill and had to spend months in the hospital ” He bore it with the mute and uncomprehending patience of a dog.”
When he learnt, that he was suffering from rheumatism and from which he would never recover, it did not shatter him but ” his heart exulted, for he could go home ” to meet his beloved.
When he came back home from his military service, he was shocked as he could not find the girl with his family. Later the girl’s mother bluntly told him that her daughter would not marry a man suffering from a disease. Salvatore was brokenhearted. “He wept on his mother’s bosom. He was terribly unhappy, but he did not blame the girl”. She refused to marry him but his inherent goodness and true love that he felt for her did not allow him to say a
“hard word for the Girl he had loved so well.”
Salvatore accepts his life as it comes to him and never complains. Even when the fits of rheumatism rack his limbs, ” he would lie about the beach , smoking cigarettes, with a pleasant word for everyone. ”
Salvatore is just a common fisherman but the rare quality of his inherent goodness makes him uncommon. After all these incidents of his life ,his inherent goodness remains with him and there is no threat that his goodness will ever change.
This is the reason why the author chooses a static character as Salvatore rather than a dynamic one.