Comparative study of two brothers in “Ant and the Grasshopper”

Question:  How are the characters of George Ramsay and Tom Ramsay contrasted with each other? Or, Make a comparative study of the characters of two brothers in ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’.

 Answer: Somerset Maugham’s short story presents the twist of the fable of Aesop with the same title. In this short story “The ant and the Grasshopper” the author presents before us two important characters as George and Tom. They are the representation of ant and the grasshopper of Aesop’s fables.

W. Somerset Maugham’s short story is about two people, with characteristics similar to those of a grasshopper and an ant. It tells of two men, one of whom takes life easy, enjoying all the good it offers. This man, referred to as the grasshopper, never saves anything for a rainy day or even considers the future. He gambles with whatever he has and delights in luxury. The second man, the busy ant-like character, concerns himself with the difficulties of life, works hard, takes no pleasure, worries about the world and his family and in turn gains very little happiness from life.

George, the elder brother, was a man of sincerity and hard-work. He led an honest life. He believed in the philosophy of action and always tried to build up his career by honest labour. He spent money extravagantly and when his elder brother George ceased to give him money, he began to blackmail him. As George was a re­spectable lawyer and cared much for family prestige, he could not bear to see his younger brother serving in a bar or driving a taxi. So he sanctioned for him a couple of hundred pounds to stop his mean job.

The other brother, Tom does not  care about discipline or order of life. He believes in his own style of life. He suddenly left his family and began to enjoy his life luxuriously in different capi­tals of Europe. On one occasion he was about to go to prison for cheating a man named Cronshaw. George, the liberal-minded brother and a man of good heart, came forward to rescue his dishonest brother. Thus George was always befooled and exploited by his brother Tom, because he was very much concerned about their family prestige.

In the short story Maugham juxtaposed two brothers, the unscrupulous and carefree Tom and the hardworking, respectable George, who expects that Tom would end in the gutter. However, Tom marries a rich old woman; she dies and leaves him a fortune.

In most cases, the consequences of one’s bad actions are followed by punishment and the good deeds by reward. But it is not always the outcome. Maugham takes a different turn from the thoughts of Aesop. Thus his treatment of two brothers can be seen as the presentation of nature of people of the present world.