# Chapter VIII explained — The Moon and Sixpence > Chapter companion for The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham. ## What happens The narrator reflects on the Stricklands as an ordinary middle-class family, then learns from Rose Waterford that Charles Strickland has abandoned his wife. He visits Mrs. Strickland, who is distraught, and her brother-in-law Colonel MacAndrew reveals that Strickland has gone to Paris with a woman, leaving his family penniless. ## Themes in this chapter ### Convention vs. Individuality Strickland's abrupt departure defies societal expectations of marriage and duty, shocking his social circle. ### Gender Roles and Marriage Mrs. Strickland's distress and the Colonel's outrage highlight the era's assumptions about marital obligations and female dependence. ## Character check-ins ### The Narrator Returns to London and learns of Strickland's desertion; visits Mrs. Strickland. ### Mrs. Strickland Found in distress, with swollen face from tears; tries to maintain composure during the narrator's visit. ### Miss Waterford Gossips to the narrator about Strickland's abandonment, hinting at a woman from a tea shop. ### Colonel MacAndrew Mrs. Strickland's brother-in-law; angrily reveals Strickland's desertion and advises divorce. ### Charles Strickland Absent; discussed as having run away to Paris with a woman, leaving his family. ## Key lines > The Stricklands were an average family in the middle class. A pleasant, hospitable woman, with a harmless craze for the small lions of literary society; a rather dull man, doing his duty in that state of life in which a merciful Providence had placed him; two nice-looking, healthy children. Nothing could be more ordinary. The Stricklands epitomized a typical middle-class family: a sociable wife with a penchant for minor literary celebrities, a dutiful but unremarkable husband, and two attractive, healthy children. _The narrator emphasizes their ordinariness, contrasting it with later events._ > He's bolted. He's gone off to Paris with a woman. He's left Amy without a penny. Strickland has fled to Paris with a woman, abandoning his wife penniless. _Colonel MacAndrew's blunt revelation of the scandal._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/chapters/viii - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/chapters