On the Effect of Inferiority on Love in Of Human Bondage Based on Inferiority Compensation Theory

Of Human Bondage, one of W. S. Maugham’s great works, is supposed to be created on the basis of the real life of the author. It centers on the psychological growth of the hero, Philip, from a crippled boy to a mentally matured man. Following Alfred Adler’s theory of inferiority compensation, through a close look into Philip’s experiences with different women in his life, this paper tries to probe into the effect that the initial inferiority in Philip could produce on his view of love and also on his mentality and aims to explore the compensation Philip seeks to get for what he is deprived of in his early age.