in the story's title and in its first sentence. The man is fat, wears shabby clothes, has a "good-humored face," and sells lottery tickets in a bar in Guatemala City. He doesn't sell many tickets, but he often gets free drinks from the bar's customers.

One evening, an acquaintance of the narrator who knows the man with the scar tells his story. The narrator mentions the "terrific scar on his face." The acquaintance relates that the man is a former rebel general from Nicaragua. Government troops captured the man and four other rebels. In their cell, they gambled with matches while awaiting execution at dawn.

At daybreak, they were marched out and lined up against a wall. The general leading the execution appeared and asked if there were any last requests. The rebel general said that he wanted to say goodbye to his wife. He was taken aside while the others were shot, and then his wife appeared, rushed to him, and hugged him. He drew out a hidden knife and stabbed her in the neck, killing her. His explanation was that he loved her. The government general, out of respect, allowed the rebel general to live, but exiled him.

After the narrator's acquaintance has finished telling this story, the narrator asks again how the man got the scar. The acquaintance replies that he got it while opening a bottle of ginger ale, whereupon the narrator says that he doesn't like ginger ale.

The point of this story is in its dark ironical humor and its misleading emphasis on the man's scar. The scar is in the story's title and in its first sentence, and the narrator asks about it or comments on it at the beginning and again at the end of his acquaintance's violent story of the man's near-execution. However, the scar ultimately has nothing to do with the story. Instead, the man received it in a rather ridiculous circumstance, opening a soda bottle. The whole point of the story is the author's misdirection concerning the scar, leading up to the ludicrous irony of its conclusion.

Somerset Maugham’s short story “The Man With The Scar” relates the narrator’s tale of encountering a somewhat nondescript man, save for the prominent scar across one side of his face, who frequents the bar in which the narrator meets with his friend. For anyone who routinely encounters the homeless on the streets of one’s city or town or inside public buildings, Maugham’s story quickly has the feel of such an encounter.

The “man with the scar” could be any of those nameless homeless people, working his way through crowds trying to raise money, in this case by selling lottery tickets. The large, overweight, poorly attired man is affable enough and gladly accepts offers of drinks from willing patrons of the establishment. Note in the following passage the narrator’s description of the manner in which the man maneuvers through the bar:

He threaded his way among the tables with a sort of rolling walk as though he were accustomed to traverse long distances on foot, paused at each table, with a little smile mentioned the numbers he had for sale and then, when no notice was taken of him, with the same smile passed on.

“The Man With The Scar” is about more than just one more down-on-his-luck individual nonchalantly making his way through another day. The narrators friend provides additional information about the man with the scar that provides the story much of its resonance:

He’s an exile from Nicaragua. He’s a ruffian of course and a bandit, but not a bad fellow. I give him a few pesos now and then. He was a revolutionary general and if his ammunition hadn’t given out, he’d have upset the government and be minister of war now instead of selling lottery tickets in Guatemala.

The vagaries of history have conspired to determine the man with the scar’s fate. But for a shortage of ammunition, the man could have been sitting in opulent surroundings, minions at his beck-and-call. The revolution he helped lead, however, failed and he was condemned to die. His life is spared by a development that no one could anticipate and that provides a further glimpse into his soul, and into that of the government that he fought to overthrow and that subsequently imprisoned him.

The former general asks for a brief respite from execution so that he can say good-bye to his wife or girlfriend or mistress. As the young beautiful woman dressed in mourner’s clothing and the former general passionately embrace, the condemned prisoner suddenly reveals a knife that he uses to kill the woman. When asked by his captor (a general with the government’s military) why the captive general killed this young, beautiful woman whom he obviously treasured, the prisoner replied, “I loved her.”

No motive for the woman’s murder is provided save for the former general’s declaration of love for his victim. The reader than, is left to speculate. One possible explanation is that the former general, about to perish in front of the firing squad, could not stand the thought of his wife or girlfriend in the hands of another man, possibly one who serves at the pleasure of the government the former general fought to destroy.

The former general “crosses” himself after he kills the woman. He is religious. Perhaps he hoped to meet the woman in the afterlife and spend eternity with his lover. Or, maybe, the former general could not stand the thought of the woman he loved spending the rest of her days in mourning. In any event, the act serves to save the former general’s life—a life spent in exile in Guatemala bumming drinks off others while surviving by selling lottery tickets.

It is possible that the lottery tickets, as well as the games of poker the prisoners played to pass the time while awaiting their execution, serve as a metaphor for the chances we all take in life. The outcome of the aborted revolution left a general who otherwise could have been on top of the world desperate and despondent, just as the winning lottery ticket could propel one’s life up the socioeconomic ladder. Poker is a game of skill while lotteries are games of chance. Did the former general kill the woman because he gambled that his life would be spared by his adversary? The reader is left to ponder these possibilities.

The unnamed narrator notices a man with a distinctive scar on his face who regularly comes into the bar of the Palace Hotel in Guatemala City to sell lottery tickets. One day, the narrator is drinking in the bar with an acquaintance who knows the man and addresses him as "general." He then tells the narrator the man's story.

The man was a revolutionary general in Nicaragua. He was captured by the government forces and sentenced to execution by firing squad. Before being shot, he was given permission to say farewell to his wife, a beautiful young girl, who runs to embrace him. As she does so, he quickly stabs her in the neck with a knife he has managed to conceal. The girl dies almost immediately.

When the government general asks the man why he killed his wife, he replies that it was because he loved her. The government general accepts this explanation, calls him a brave man, and lets him go. The narrator ponders this story for a moment then asks where the man got the scar. His acquaintance tells him it was from a bottle of ginger ale that burst when he was opening it. The narrator ends the story by observing that he has never liked ginger ale.

This very short story is a classic example of bathos. There is a wryly comic contrast between the dramatic events of the man's life as a leader of the revolution who murders his wife and narrowly escapes a firing squad and the mundane event which gives him the scar that makes him conspicuous. The narrator thinks he will hear a romantic explanation for the scar, particularly after the "rather high-flown language" in which the man's capture and his wife's death are narrated. The story reflects the randomness of life: murder goes unpunished and is even rewarded while an absurd accident with an exploding bottle leaves the man disfigured for life.