Salvatore Summary

Summary of the story

The story “Salvatore” by William Somerset Maugham begins
abruptly with “I wonder if I can do it.” The writer is doubtful
whether he can hold our attention for a few pages when he
narrates the story of Salvatore.

Salvatore was fifteen years old, the eldest son of an Italian

fisherman. He had a pleasant face and happily took care of his
two younger brothers. He spent his morning lying on the sea-
beach and used to swim effortlessly in the sea where his father
used to catch fish.

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As Salvatore grew, he fell in love and was betrothed to a girl
who lived on the Grande Marina. The girl was pretty and had
beautiful eyes.

Then Salvatore left home for military service to become a

sailor in the navy of King Victor Emmanuel. He felt nostalgic
and missed the islands of Ischia and Vesuvius which he now
realized were parts of his life as important as his hands and
legs. He felt all alone in the battleship living with strangers
and also in the noisy friendless cities where he landed.
Salvatore now grew homesick. And above all these, he missed
his fiancee (the girl he is engaged to) the most.

In service, Salvatore was sent to many places like Spezia,

Venice, Bari and China. He fell ill when in China, and as he
was suffering from rheumatism he was considered unfit for
further service. Salvatore did not mind his illness and rather
felt happy to return to his own home. He was eager to meet
his family and fiancee.
On his return he was very emotionally welcomed by his
parents and brothers with ‘great deal of kissing’ and cry of
joy. But Salvatore was looking for his girl in the crowd, but in
vain. She was not there.

When he went to her house, she was sitting with her mother at
the doorstep. They had already received the news of his
illness and learned that he ‘would never be quite well again’,
‘would never be strong enough to work like a man’. So, his
fiancee’s mother bluntly told him that her daughter could not
marry him now. This was a heartbreak for Salvatore, but he
did not blame the girl.

One day Salvatore’s mother told him about Assunta, a girl

older than him who had seen him at a festival, fallen in love
with him and wanted to marry him. Though at first he denied,
on his mother’s advice he got married to Assunta and settled
down in a tiny house in the middle of a vineyard. Later they
had two children, both boys.

Salvatore had to work hard to earn a living. He used to catch

cuttlefish at night. He also used to work in his vineyard the
whole day.

His rheumatism often took its toll on him; he would then lie
down on the beach with pain racking his limbs but never did
he utter an unpleasant word for anyone. Never did he blame
anyone for anything in his life.

Salvatore was a responsible husband as well as an affectionate

father. At times he gave his children a bath and used to hold
them tenderly as if they were flowers.
Finally the author comes back to where he started. He reminds
us that he wanted to keep us attentive throughout his narration
and he has successfully done so. Maugham depicts the
character of Salvatore as a man who possessed nothing but an
invaluable quality, “the rarest, the most precious and the
loveliest that anyone can have”  – the quality of goodness.

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Analysis of the story ‘Salvatore’
The story Salvatore by Somerset Maugham (pronounced as
‘mawm’) is a very short, simple and straightforward story
written in third person narrative technique. The author just
tells the readers the story of a fisherman named Salvatore who
lived in an Italian Island.

The story is actually a biographical sketch of the

protagonist (main character) Salvatore in chronological
order. The story begins when he was a boy of fifteen and
ends when he is a middle-aged man with two children and a
wife living peacefully a hard life of a common fisherman.

There is nothing extraordinary in Salvatore’s life except that

he catches a disease rheumatism from which he never
completely recovers and the breakup of the engagement with
the girl he had loved. But as a curious reader you may expect
a turn of events, a twist in the tale, towards the end of the
story. But that never happens. The ending of the story may
well dishearten some readers, and at the same time may
amuse others. The lack of a complex plot and a twist that the
readers are used to see most of the time makes us wonder if it
has really been a story or just an accumulation of events.

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But the main theme of the story, as the writer Maugham
himself clarifies at the very end, has been the portrayal of a
quality in Salvatore’s life — “Goodness, just goodness”.
Hence, the story, though apparently seems to be mere
narration of events in a young man’s life, is actually a
masterly character sketch of the man.

If there is anything mentionable about the style, the beginning

and the ending of the story are somewhat uncommon, as
the author directly communicates to the readers to say
that he just tried to see whether he could hold our attention for
a while as he went on to draw the portrait of a man named
Salvatore.

Moreover, the writer has not used a lot of direct speeches as

we see in most short stories. He rather relies on his own
narration of the events. In many places (Salvatore’s marriage
with Assunta, his relationship with her etc.) author avoids
details to keep the story short.

Use of similes (a direct comparison between two things

using ‘as’ or ‘like’) in ‘wept like a child’, ‘thin as a rail’,
‘enormous hands, like legs of mutton’, ‘they were like
flowers’ etc. are rather common in the story.

theme
The beauty of the inner goodness : One of the themes of
the story is that there is nothing like innate goodness.
Salvatore is a common, simple-hearted fisherman.
When he is rejected by his beloved and fiancee, he is
sad and heart-broken. But he does not say a harsh word
of the girl he has loved so well. He moves forward in life
and marries a girl who is ugly. But he remains devoted
to her. The narrator, towards the end, points out a rare
quality in him that shines in him brilliantly , and that
quality is “Goodness, just goodness”.
Ill-effects of hearsay : Another theme which is rather
obvious is about a common human weakness. For most
people the things spoken about oneself are more
important than the man himself. That causes lots of
difficulties and misunderstandings which ruin the
happiness of persons involved in the case forever. After
returning from military service when Salvatore meets his
fiancee, she tells him bluntly that she cannot marry him.
In fact she and her parents have heard that Salvatore
can never be well again. On the basis of this they have
made up their minds that Salvatore can never be strong
enough to work like a man. So they will never give
consent for marriage. A lot of nonsense that the doctor
talked has created such misunderstandings that
Salvatore’s hope are dashed to the ground. He is sad
and heart-broken . However , he begins life anew and
proves that the hearsay about him was just nonsensical.
Message
The message of the writer can easily be drawn. It is the
beauty of a man is defined not by his inner
characteristics, but by his inner world. This idea
consistently helps us to formulate the controlling idea of
the novel – more than often mankind forgets about
morals and inner world of man and that is much valuable
than his outer features. In other words – the only
valuable quality of goodness is much more than many
unimportant and unnecessary ones. Salvatore
possesses one quality. Salvatore has essential
goodness. He marries an ugly looking girl but adjusts
himself so well with his life that he never complains. He
remains contented with his lot.
Title
Since the whole story revolves round Salvatore, its title
‘Salvatore’ is quite appropriate. It describes the early
youth, love, marriage, and finally settling down of
Salvatore to a peaceful life.
The focus of the story remains on the protagonist. Other
characters, except Assunta , are not given any names
for they are insignificant. It is Salvatore who draws our
attention by his simple, straightforward life. We are
moved when he is rejected by the girl who mattered to
him the most in his life. We cannot fail to appreciate that
he is sad but not embittered by her unexpected reaction
on her parents’ bidding. He utters not a single harsh
word on her. With Assunta, his wife, he leads a hard but
happy life. He is really an embodiment of the rarest of
human qualities called goodness.
Characters
 Salvatore
Overview
 protagonist of the story

 hard-working , simple-hearted

 a sensitive person

 kind and nice

Salvatore is the protagonist of the story. The whole story

revolves around him. He is a pleasant, hard working,
noble and kind-hearted fisherman. He is an embodiment
of the loveliest and the rarest quality anyone can have,
and that quality is goodness.
In spite of being an ordinary Italian fisherman he holds
the reader’s attention during the whole story. Salvatore
is a static characters because he doesn’t change in the
story. He is a very sensitive guy. This quality is really
important and interesting for the reader to understand.
When his beloved tells him bluntly that she cannot marry
him because he is not strong enough to work like a man,
he does not compel her to agree. But he weeps on his
mother’s boson. He is terribly unhappy but he does not
blame the girl. He knows that a girl cannot afford to
marry a man who might not be able to support her. That
is why, he does not complain, nor does he speak a hard
word of her. Salvatore a strong man. He can hold on to
his feelings.
Another quality of Salvatore is that he is really a hard-
working person. When the story begins we learn that he
helps his father to look after his younger brothers. He is
very diligent. Even at the end of story, after his marriage
with Assunta, he works hard all through the fishing
season. At other times, he works in his vineyard.
Despite his disease, which Salvatore got during military
service, he continues to work hard. The writer tells us,
“He (Salvatore) was working in his vineyard from dawn
till the het drove him to rest and then again.” Often his
rheumatism prevented him from doing anything, still
after taking rest for a short while, he would continue to
work.
A lot of people may think that he is lazy but it is not true.
He is really hard-working. The doctors told him that he
would never be quite well again. But Salvatore proved it
to everybody that it was a mistake.
Salvatore is a kind person. He has extremely good
manners. When the parents of his beloved prohibit her
for marriage with Salvatore, he makes a decision that is
unexpected. He lets the girl go. He realizes that no girl
could marry a man who might not be able to support her.
This is the only right decision in relation to his love. The
author says, “He had the most beautiful manners.” This
quality of Salvatore makes the readers love him. They
feel that Salvatore is extremely good and well
mannered. He has a lot of troubles in his life but he does
not change.
Salvatore’s goodness remains in focus. He possesses
nothing in the world except this quality which is the
rarest, the most precious and the loveliest. It shines in
him with radiance. No wonder by the time the story
ends, Salvatore leads a good life with his wife, children
and property.
Assunta
Overview
 a picture of inner beauty

 rational and practical

 mature girl

 materialistic

Assunta is one of those human beings who are rational

and practical. She represents what we can call inner
beauty – the beauty that shines through good deeds.
Assunta is introduced to the readers by the mother of 
Salvatore as a young woman who is willing to marry
Salvatore. According to Salvatore, She is “ugly as the
devil”. She is twenty-four or five, older than him. She
had been engaged to a man who, while doing his
military service, was killed in Africa. She has seen
Salvatore at the fest, and since  then she had fallen in
love with him.
Assunta is a mature girl. She is practical and
materialistic. She has a little money of her own. With this
she thinks that she can win the young man whom she
secretly loves. Very cleverly, she tells Salvatore’s
mother that if her son marries her, she can buy him a
boat of his own. Moreover, they can also take a vineyard
which, at the moment, is without a tenant. This offer
works well. Salvatore goes up to High Mass at the
parish church, has a look at Assunta and gives his
consent for marriage. They get married and settle down
in a tiny white-washed house.
Their marriage proves happy and fruitful. Assunta loves
Salvatore. They have two sons and they lead a happy
life. Assunta, with the passage of time, becomes a grim-
faced female with decided features. She looks older
than her years but she has a good heart and is quite
sensible.
Critical Appreciation
Interesting story : ‘Salvatore’ is a gripping story. It is told
in such a way that we remain curious as to what is going
to happen to this simple-hearted young fisherman.
When he receives the most crushing blow to his self-
respect by the girl whom he loved so much we hope to
hear some nasty words about her. But Salvatore shows
no bitterness. He goes on to accept a girl whom he
compares in ugliness to the devil. And yet he remains
happy and faithful.
Throughout the story his character does not change. He
is basically a good character, and like many static
characters, he is simply lovable.
Narrative Style : The story is told by some acquaintance
of Salvatore in the first person. We do not know much
about the narrator. Whoever he is, he is a great admirer
of Salvatore. That is why, the last line focuses on one
great quality of Salvatore – and that is goodness. The
narrative is chronological and straightforward.