The Beautiful and Damned: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

The chapter opens in the format of a scene from a play. The narrator sets the scene in the country house, which is in disarray. A man named Frederick E. Paramore, one of Anthony’s Harvard classmates, shows up looking for Anthony. Tana tells him that Anthony and Gloria are out with friends they are hosting. Paramore, a subscriber to National Geographic, is interested in what Tana has to say about Japan. The phone rings but goes unanswered. Maury shows up at the front door. Paramore greets him, but Maury does not remember him. When Anthony and Gloria show up with their entourage, Anthony pretends to remember Paramore, who says he just learned Anthony lived nearby.

Paramore says he does not drink alcohol, but by the end of the evening, even he is partaking of the revelry. Gloria complains to Anthony that he is paying too much attention to Rachael Barnes, née Jerryl. She drunkenly says that if his attention can wander, hers can too. Suddenly, Adam Patch and Shuttleworth show up. Shuttleworth says he phoned ahead and left a message. Adam Patch says only, “We’ll go back now, Shuttleworth,” and the pair leaves. The scene ends.

For some time, Anthony and Gloria have been increasingly capable of indifference and even hatred toward one another. At 26, Gloria is afraid of her advancing age. It seems increasingly unlikely that they will achieve the dream of happiness they have long thought will come with money. They are nervous about the looming “money problem” and are beginning to realize that they are dependent upon alcohol. The August morning after Adam Patch’s appearance at the house, they awake to find that their anxiety has crossed over into fear.

Anthony and Gloria discuss what to do. They wish Adam Patch had died a week ago, before witnessing the party. Anthony decides to go speak to his grandfather. In the midst of this conversation, Gloria says that if Anthony ever acts around a woman the way he acted around Rachael Barnes, she will leave him. Anthony ignores her. His visit to his grandfather is unsuccessful – Shuttleworth tells him that Adam is ill. Later, Gloria and Anthony write an apology letter to the old man, but it goes unanswered.

In September, Anthony and Gloria leave the country house. Gloria scolds Anthony for packing his stamp collection. He says he was looking at it the day they left the apartment last spring and decided not to store it. Gloria suggests that he sell it, to which he responds only, “I’m sorry.” Gloria exclaims that she hates the country house.

On the train back to the city, Anthony and Gloria continue to quarrel. Anthony asks Gloria not to be cross because they have only each other. They fall silent, and he reminisces about their experiences in the countryside as they pass through it. Gloria interrupts his thoughts by wondering aloud where Bloeckman has been over the summer.

Anthony is now twenty-nine, and he is beginning to feel as though he has wasted his youth. Shortly before leaving the country house, he read a bulletin detailing some of his Harvard classmates’ careers. Compared to them, he has done very little since graduation. He resolves that in the absence of great success, he will make himself as safe and comfortable as possible. To this end, he tries to renew the lease of his old apartment. It is far too expensive, and the neighbors’ complaints about noise the previous winter make the building owner wary to re-rent to Anthony.

Anthony reveals to Gloria that their income is down to $600 a month after all their spending over the last few years. They must move out of the Ritz, even if not to the old apartment. They find a more modest apartment and hire an Irishwoman to fill the place of Bounds or Tana. Anthony decides to appeal to his grandfather once more when he hears that the old man has fallen gravely ill.

Shuttleworth refuses to let Anthony see Adam Patch. Irritated, Anthony returns to New York, where he and Gloria spend a tense week. One night, he tells her of a time he yielded to his urge to kick a cat. When Gloria begins sobbing, he tries to tell her he made the story up. She does not believe him and goes on weeping until she falls asleep that night.

Adam Patch dies in November. Anthony and Gloria attend the funeral nervously. After a week of not hearing anything about the will, Anthony finally calls his grandfather’s lawyer. When he hangs up the phone, he says to Gloria, “He did it. God damn him!”

Anthony goes to see a lawyer, Mr. Haight. They discuss how it was only in August, after the party, that Adam Patch disinherited Anthony. Of the forty million dollars comprising the estate, most has been willed to Shuttleworth, and the remainder is to be divided among two distant cousins in Idaho and about twenty-five other beneficiaries. For a fee of fifteen thousand dollars, Mr. Haight signs on to contest the will on Anthony’s behalf.

As the lawsuit gets underway, Anthony and Gloria continue their partying habits. They keep meaning to work come Monday, but it never happens. Rumors begin to circulate about them. Even Muriel Kane tells them that they need to settle down and have a baby. Anthony and Gloria have as many marital problems as ever, but this confrontation temporarily unites them against a common enemy, Muriel.

Anthony begins to associate himself with the night elevator operator, who never seems to leave the apartment building and who has the air of someone above his station. One night he is killed by robbers. His replacement is a black man from Martinique. Anthony reacts to the story of the elevator operator as Gloria reacted to his story about the kitten.

Anthony finally tries in earnest to write. He criticizes Dick for the fallen quality of his writing, but when Anthony does finish a short story, the editor to whom he submits it thinks Anthony has written an “abominable” piece. Anthony writes six stories, and every last one is rejected.

In mid-January, Gloria’s father dies. She and Anthony travel to Kansas City for the funeral, but Gloria thinks this whole time not of her father but of her mother. She tells Anthony she is a Bilphist, which he finds ridiculous. Gloria is equally disgusted by Anthony’s failure to get any of his stories published. Out of inertia, they stop really trying to curb their expenses. They cycle between spending sprees and moroseness over how untenable their situation is. Gloria says that at least she will have seized the day in her youth. Meanwhile, Mr. Haight assures them that the lawsuit is likely to go to trial by summer.

Bloeckman pays Gloria a few more visits. Anthony is outraged by the idea of Gloria becoming an actress and making money. Gloria tells him he should make some of his own money in that case. They have one of their most intense fights over this subject, neither stating the fact that they both know Anthony is jealous of Bloeckman’s interest in Gloria.

In April, war is declared with Germany. Anthony takes on “a new glamour” as military service is glorified, and he, Dick, and Maury submit applications to go to officer training camps. However, Anthony fails a blood-pressure test, and the doctor refuses to recommend him for officer training.

In July, they lose the lawsuit. Mr. Haight immediately files an appeal. As Anthony and Gloria plan what they will do once they finally win, Anthony is drafted. No doctor fails to recommend him this time. He tells Gloria disinterestedly that he hopes he will die. They decide that she will stay in the apartment while he is at the southern camp. When he leaves, she barely makes it to the train station in time to see him across the crowd. They remain too far apart to see each other’s tears.