Minor Character's Significance in "The Painted Veil"

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The Art of Being Underrated: The Manchu Princess in the Painted Veil The insightful novel, The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham, is a story of human nature that grasps its readers from the onset and eloquently portrays the deepest truths of our reality. Though at first, a reader may perceive the novel to rely solely and completely on its foundation of main characters, (such as Kitty Fane and her husband Walter), much of the deeper, more conceptual theories that one can draw, are actually inspired by the brief but impactful appearance of the lesser, more insignificant ones. One of these mystified characters only appears in one small section-perhaps only a few pages of the novel, though without her, we as readers would lose much of our insight into Kitty’s character and deepest intentions, thus being denied of the very factors that support the story, and allow us to compassionately identify with the protagonist. While I read The Painted Veil, one of my favorite scenes is not at the climax or even the end resolution; it is the author’s incorporation of the small but significant character of the Manchu “princess” that allowed us to see Kitty for who she really is: a lost soul trying to find the truth of the world, succumbing to sins while on the way of achieving a purifying good existence. On our first introduction to the woman, we learn that she is actually the wife of Waddington, while simultaneously receiving the negative societal perception of her: “‘What is wrong with his morals, ma soeur?’ asked Kitty smiling. ‘Is it possible that you do not know? It is a sin for me to tell you. I have no business to say such things. He lives with a Chinese woman, that is to say, not a Chinese woman, but a Manchu. A princess, it appears, and she loves him to distraction.’ ‘That sounds quite impossible,’ cried Kitty. ‘No, no, I promise you, it is everything that is most true. It

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