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The Narrator
Dirk Stroeve is a small, fat Dutch painter with a round and comical face who wears a large pair of gold-rimmed glasses. Though Stroeve has exquisite taste in art and true appreciation for beauty, his own paintings are tastelessly clichéd. He met and befriended the narrator in Rome. Sometime later, he met, “rescued,” and married an English governess, Blanche, who had been impregnated by her aristocratic Italian employer’s heir and subsequently thrown out in the street. Stroeve adores Blanche and showers her with affection. After the couple moves to Paris, they meet Charles Strickland, whom Stroeve immediately recognizes and embraces as an artistic genius though Strickland is rude and cruel to him. When the narrator moves to Paris, Stroeve reconnects him with Strickland. One Christmas, Stroeve discovers that Strickland is very sick, and he generously insists on moving Strickland into his and Blanche’s apartment so that they can take care of him. While Strickland is convalescing, he begins an affair with Blanche—and when he leaves, Blanche insists on going with him, utterly breaking Stroeve’s heart. Though Stroeve would have been willing to take Blanche back, Blanche dies by suicide after Strickland leaves her. Utterly devastated, Stroeve decides to leave Paris and go home to Holland. With characteristic generosity and lack of pride, he invites Strickland to come with him on the assumption that Strickland is grieving Blanche too—but Strickland, with characteristic callousness, refuses.
Dirk Stroeve Quotes in The Moon and Sixpence
The The Moon and Sixpence quotes below are all either spoken by Dirk Stroeve or refer to Dirk Stroeve. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapters 1–16
Quotes
Her black dress, simple to austerity, suggested her bereaved condition, and I was innocently astonished that notwithstanding a real emotion she was able to dress the part she had to play according to her notions of seemliness.
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Chapters 17–42
Quotes
It was all false, insincere, shoddy; and yet no one was more honest, sincere, and frank than Dirk Stroeve. Who could resolve the contradiction?
“Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist.”
“Sometimes I’ve thought of an island lost in a boundless sea, where I could live in some hidden valley, among strange trees, in silence. There I think I could find what I want.”
He did not express himself quite like this. He used gestures instead of adjectives, and he halted. I have put into my own words what I think he wanted to say.
Their life in its own way was an idyll, and it managed to achieve a singular beauty.
[T]here was in his face an outrageous sensuality; but, though it sounds nonsense, it seemed as though his sensuality were curiously spiritual.
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Blanche Stroeve was in the cruel grip of appetite. Perhaps she hated Strickland still, but she hungered for him, and everything that had made up her life till then became of no account. She ceased to be a woman, complex, kind, and petulant, considerate and thoughtless; she was a Maenad.
“Women are constantly trying to commit suicide for love, but generally they take care not to succeed. It’s generally a gesture to arouse pity or terror in their lover.”
Strickland had burst the bonds that hitherto had held him. […] It was not only the bold simplification of the drawing which showed so rich and so singular a personality; it was not only the painting, though the flesh was painted with a passionate sensuality which had in it something miraculous; it was not only the solidity, so that you felt extraordinarily the weight of the body; there was also a spirituality, troubling and new[.]
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Explanation and Analysis:
It may be that in rogues the writer gratifies instincts deep-rooted in him, which the manners and customs of a civilized world have forced back to the mysterious recesses of the subconscious. In giving to the character of his invention flesh and bones he is giving life to that part of himself which finds no other means of expression. His satisfaction is a sense of liberation.
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Dirk Stroeve Quotes in The Moon and Sixpence
The The Moon and Sixpence quotes below are all either spoken by Dirk Stroeve or refer to Dirk Stroeve. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapters 1–16
Quotes
Her black dress, simple to austerity, suggested her bereaved condition, and I was innocently astonished that notwithstanding a real emotion she was able to dress the part she had to play according to her notions of seemliness.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapters 17–42
Quotes
It was all false, insincere, shoddy; and yet no one was more honest, sincere, and frank than Dirk Stroeve. Who could resolve the contradiction?
“Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist.”
“Sometimes I’ve thought of an island lost in a boundless sea, where I could live in some hidden valley, among strange trees, in silence. There I think I could find what I want.”
He did not express himself quite like this. He used gestures instead of adjectives, and he halted. I have put into my own words what I think he wanted to say.
Their life in its own way was an idyll, and it managed to achieve a singular beauty.
[T]here was in his face an outrageous sensuality; but, though it sounds nonsense, it seemed as though his sensuality were curiously spiritual.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Blanche Stroeve was in the cruel grip of appetite. Perhaps she hated Strickland still, but she hungered for him, and everything that had made up her life till then became of no account. She ceased to be a woman, complex, kind, and petulant, considerate and thoughtless; she was a Maenad.
“Women are constantly trying to commit suicide for love, but generally they take care not to succeed. It’s generally a gesture to arouse pity or terror in their lover.”
Strickland had burst the bonds that hitherto had held him. […] It was not only the bold simplification of the drawing which showed so rich and so singular a personality; it was not only the painting, though the flesh was painted with a passionate sensuality which had in it something miraculous; it was not only the solidity, so that you felt extraordinarily the weight of the body; there was also a spirituality, troubling and new[.]
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
It may be that in rogues the writer gratifies instincts deep-rooted in him, which the manners and customs of a civilized world have forced back to the mysterious recesses of the subconscious. In giving to the character of his invention flesh and bones he is giving life to that part of himself which finds no other means of expression. His satisfaction is a sense of liberation.
