Critical Analysis of “The Kite” by Somerset Maugham

“The Kite” is a short story written in 1947 by William Somerset Maugham, a popular British
novelist, playwright, short-story writer, and the highest-paid author in the world in the 1930s.
Mr. Maugham is well known for his very popular short stories, which are quite easy to read and
understood by everyone.

Critical Analysis:

In the short story titled “The Kite," the author uses the kite as a symbol of Herbert’s love and
loyalty towards his mother. The narrative highlights how his mother taught him the correct way
to drink tea, indicating the strong bond between them. Herbert’s mother is portrayed as the head
of the household and wants complete control over her husband's and son’s lives, which makes
her akin to a dictator. She spends most of her time with her son and wants to keep him and her
husband to herself.

In my view, the kite symbolizes “freedom” as well as Herbert’s affection and devotion towards
his mother. The story illustrates that Herbert’s life was entirely dominated by his controlling
mother’s influence. Despite becoming a successful accountant and turning twenty-one, he still
handed over his entire salary to his mother, who would use it to pay for his transportation and
provide him with pocket money. Even as an adult, he behaved like a well-behaved child who,
despite his stubbornness, would never challenge his mother’s authority.

Herbert longs for the ability to live freely and make his own choices as he ages. He feels a strong
connection to the freedom that a kite displays as it soars through the sky. Despite the limitations
placed on him by his mother and wife, Herbert finds joy in flying kites more than anything else.
Every Saturday afternoon, he flew a kite with his family and felt a sense of liberation. In my
opinion, this may have provided some relief to his repressed inner self.

In another scenario, Beatrice Sunbury may beusing the kite as a means to assert her power over
her child instead of allowing it to be just a toy. To keep her kid under control, Mrs. Sunbury pulls
the thread of the kite (emotional attachment). So that she should continue her dominance over
him. As a result, she taught her son Herbert how to fly the kite, and it quickly became his
favorite pastime. Knowing how obsessed Herbert was with kites, his mother used it as a means to
separate him from Betty and maintain her control over him.
As Herbert grew up, he developed feelings for a girl who resembled his mother. This
phenomenon is the basis for Freud’s Oedipus complex, which states that children are more
attracted to and devoted to parents of the opposite gender. Betty Bevan looked quite similar to
Mrs. Sunbury at her age. Her eyes were relatively small and beady, and her features were as
sharp as ever.

As the story progresses, we come to know that initially, Herbert’s mother had absolute control
over his life. After marrying Betty, Herbert’s wife became a new person who had different
effects on his life. Despite his mother’s objections, Herbert fell in love with Betty and married
her. Mrs. Sunbury didn’t think Betty was up to her son’s standards, but Herbert followed his
instincts. Betty became a barrier in his relationship with his parents, and it could be argued that
she wanted complete control over her husband. She convinced him to move away from his
parents and live in a different house with her.

After getting married, she quit her job, which put Herbert in a position where he had to support
her. But she had more control than that—she also prohibited him from flying kites, which had
always been a significant part of his life. Betty destroys Herbert’s new kite when he visits his
parents and refuses to return to her. The destruction of the kite demonstrates Betty’s attempt to
deprive him of his "freedom.”. Its destruction also signifies Betty’s possible desire to sever
Herbert’s relationship with his mother and have him live exclusively with her. She tears the kite
into pieces as it represents Herbert’s love and loyalty to his mother.

Finally, we see Betty Bevan’s envy of the kite. However, in my view, she is more envious of
Herbert’s mother than of the kite itself, as Herbert learned how to fly a kite from his mother.
Therefore, I believe that because Betty is a narcissist and too possessive, she is equally to blame
for his breakup with her husband. She objects to Herbert’s mother having power over him. In her
opinion, she wishes to take control of her husband’s life by severing his bonds with Mrs.
Sunbury and The Kite. This would not have occurred if she had allowed her husband to fly the
kite and set aside her ego and intransigence.

The intricacies of the human psyche are explored in this tale. Between two women stood
Herbert. Although he wanted to make them both happy, he was unable to do so. It also
demonstrates or represents our contemporary community. One’s mother becomes unhappy when
he tries to make his wife happy, and his wife gets sad when he loves his parents. Therefore, it is
impossible for a human to truly make both of them happy in the real world.
I hold Mrs. Beatrice Sunbury accountable for all that is going on in Herbert’s life. Mrs. Sunbury
is a selfish individual who only desires admiration and demands obedience from her family. She
is in charge of her spouse and son. Herbert’s emotional development is harmed by this overly
protective mother. From a very young age, Mrs. Sunbury had a terrible influence on her son. She
tried to control Herbert’s every move and made her presence known in his life. Herbert learned
at a young age to do as his mother told him. Herbert received advice from his mother to emulate
her behavior as well as the morals and principles she felt were appropriate.

Mrs. Sunbury despises Betty, her son’s wife, because she could have wanted her son to wed the
woman of her choosing. She likely believed that if her son wed someone else of his choosing,
she would get hold of her son’s soul and leave her with nothing. She therefore desired that her
son marry the girl of her choosing to maintain her control over him. She thus naturally goes to
great lengths to sever Herbert and Betty’s relationship. Her son would not have left her if she had
permitted her child to marry anyone he desired.

Finally, Betty destroyed Herbert’s kite, believing it to be a barrier in their marriage, because he
was not responding to the ringing bells and was not communicating with her. Herbert gets
enraged upon learning about it, feeling as though someone has crushed him and his hopes. She
symbolically destroyed Herbert and his desires. It was as if someone had ruined his ambitions
and him by destroying his kite. Consequently, to take revenge on her he refused to pay furniture
installments.

As the narrative comes to a close, Herbert expresses a preference for living independently and
going to jail rather than being under the influence of either of them. since he refuses to serve her
mother and his wife as slaves.

Q. “The Kite” by W. Somerset Maugham deals with the psychological complexities that go on
shaping what Lacan had called “I-ness”. Do you think Herbert becomes an independent person at
the end of the story?

A: This story revolves around a family consisting of a husband, a wife and a son Herbert. Mrs.
Sunbury, Herbert’s mother, had always controlled her son. When he fell in love with Betty, she
played very thriftily to take her son back. In return, Betty destroyed the thing that was dearest to
Herbert, his kite. The title of the story is not merely based on an object that is used for
entertainment, rather it symbolizes Herbert. According to Lacan’s psychoanalysis when a child
sees something that fascinates him, he idealizes it. He wants to be like it. Similarly, the kite
became an “ideal-I” for Herbert because it was the only thing Herbert had control on. The kite
was the nucleus of his life, he desired to be like it; free, but to be controlled by a thread. The kite
reflected his subjectivity. Herbert was a homodocilis, he was conditioned to obey the orders. He
had always been controlled by his mother since his childhood and he made that robotic life his
comfort zone. His mother imprinted herself on her son and tried to bind herself and her family to
her fictional selfhood. Mrs. Sunbury taught Herbert what she wanted him to do, for instance,
when she taught him to drink tea and he asked why to drink it that way, she said: “That’s how
it’s done. It shows you know what’s what” (Maugham 771). She was the superego that
suppressed the ‘Id’ and the ego of Herbert by imposing traditionalist rules on him. For instance,
Maugham wrote Herbert grew tall in spite of growing up. Herbert had always been a pampered
child, that is why when he grew up he still had that delicate, smooth and clear skin (Maugham
771). Mrs. Sunbury conditioned him through interpellation, she gradually made him the way she
wanted him to be, as she said: “If you’re a good boy and wash your teeth regularly without me
telling you I shouldn’t be surprised if Santa brings you a kite on Christmas day” (Maugham 773).
In his whole life, the only freedom Herbert had was to fly the kite, it was the reflection of his

desires and it somehow allowed him to break barriers as has been by Maugham: “It became a

passion with Herbert” (Maugham 773). Moving on, Herbert fell in love with a girl who looked
like his mother, that is what the Oedipus complex by Freud is based on, the fact that children are
more attracted and attached to the parent of the opposite gender, as narrated in the story: … Betty
Bevan looked very much as Mrs. Sunbury have looked at her age. She had the same sharp
features and the same rather small beady eyes (Maugham 774). When Herbert married Betty
against his mother’s will, he somehow became independent, but moving out of his comfort zone
was very hard for him, that is why he started meeting his parents, this made Betty felt insecure.
Herbert cannot buy a kite due to lack of money and his mother was well aware as to how
obsessed he was with kites; she used it to snatch him from Betty. It was Mrs. Sunbury’s
conditioning that led Herbert to suffer in the battle between two women. Being a part of a
patriarchal society, both Betty and Mrs. Sunbury needed Herbert in order to have agency. It was
his mother’s vindication that made Herbert leave Betty and, in return, Betty destroyed his kite,
assuming that it was an obstacle in her relationship. She symbolically destroyed Herbert and his
desires. Destroying his kite was like as if someone had destroyed him and his dreams. His Id that
has always been repressed by the superego burst out by this childish act of Betty. Therefore, in
order to take revenge from her he refused to pay furniture installments, because it was very dear
to Betty, as he said: “I can see her face when they take the furniture away. It meant a lot to her, it
did, and the piano, she set a rare store on that piano” (Maugham 783). He preferred to go to jail
rather than paying her money. In my opinion, Herbert became a free man at the end of the story
because destroying the kite made his repressed Id come out, that is why he made a firm decision
not to pay any sort of money for her. The childish behavior of Betty and Herbert ruined their
relationship. Hence, my analysis reveals how Herbert developed his I-ness as described in
Lacan’s psychoanalysis. The kite was the emblem of his Ideal I and when it was destroyed, his
anger that has remained dormant throughout his life, exploded and destroyed everything.