Plot

It is set in 1913 and the story begins when the narrator visits a friend on the Island of Capri

Capri

Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...

 in Italy. There, he is introduced to the character of Thomas Wilson, who came to the island for a holiday 16 years ago. Since then, Wilson had given up his job in London as a bank manager to live a life of simplicity and enjoyment in a small cottage in Capri. As he had saved just enough money to purchase an annuity

Annuity (European financial arrangements)

An annuity can be defined as a financial contract which provides an income stream in return for an initial payment with specific parameters. It is the opposite of a settlement funding...

 that would last exactly 25 years, he had also decided to commit suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 once his money runs out. The narrator of the story is stunned by such a bold decision and he decides to have a chat with Wilson. During their conversation over dinner, the narrator discovers that Wilson is so enchanted with life on Capri. What seems a dull life to the narrator is but pure pleasure to Wilson. The narrator then leaves Capri and nearly forgets of his encounter with Wilson until 13 years later, when he re-visits his friend on Capri.

It is during this visit that the narrator is told of how Wilson exhausted all his resources when he had reached 60 and then tried to continue his life on Capri by borrowing small sums of money. He, however, did not use this money to pay the rent but used it to sustain his carefree life. He continued living on the goodwill of the landlord who owned his cottage and did so for a year. By then, the landlord demanded that he pay the rent. In desperation, Wilson shut himself in his cottage and lit a charcoal on fire to fill the room with carbon monoxide in an attempt to kill himself. He survived the charcoal poisoning but became partially insane. The landlord was kind enough to let Wilson live in their shed and have him feed the animals. Wilson lived this miserable life for 6 years before he finally died, lying on the ground overlooking the beautiful Faraglioni which he so loved and had inticed him to the island so many years ago.

Analysis
The irony

Irony

Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...

 in this story is that Wilson traded a life of boring routine in London for an equally mundane life in Capri. However, this irony is only on the part of everyone else except Thomas Wilson, for he enjoyed his life on Capri thoroughly. What is definitely sad, is that he lived a wonderful 25 years of pleasure and ended the last 6 living like a wild animal. Somerset's stories are often rich with ironies, as well as other subtle lessons about human nature. Wilson's choice to leave his London life behind in exchange for a life of leisure on Capri is at once awesome as well as tragic

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

. It is awesome because it resonates with every young traveler who has gone abroad and marvelled at the comparison between some wonderful new place and the routine dullness of his familiar life at home but it is also tragic because he did not provide himself with enough funds to live well into his natural time of death. In this, Somerset reveals the downfall of making such hasty decisions such as the one Wilson made. If Wilson had carefully planned his retirement from his banking job, saving enough money in the process, the last 6 years of his miserable life might well have been avoided.

Film

In 1921 a film entitled The Lotus Eater was directed by Marshall Neilan

Marshall Neilan

Marshall Ambrose Neilan was an American motion picture actor, screenwriter, film director, and producer.-Early life:...

, starring John Barrymore

John Barrymore

John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...

 and Colleen Moore

Colleen Moore

Colleen Moore was an American film actress, and one of the most fashionable stars of the silent film era.-Early life:...

.