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Part 1, Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Razor’s Edge, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Wisdom and the Meaning of Life
Social Norms and Conformity
Trauma and Self-Destruction
Snobbishness, Social Status, and Cosmopolitanism
Truth and the Problem of Evil
Summary
Analysis
Elliott didn’t pay much attention to Somerset when the two first met; back then, Somerset was just a struggling writer like any other struggling writer. But when Somerset achieved unexpected success with a play he’d written, Elliott began inviting him to parties, especially to entertain visiting Americans. These Americans were often friends of friends with introduction letters to meet Elliott. Elliott didn’t want to “inflict” these Americans on his friends of higher status in Paris, so would call on Somerset to come to parties and help entertain them. Over the years, Somerset and Elliott maintained a close acquaintanceship. Somerset doubts whether Elliott has any true friends.
Elliott has no use for Somerset until Somerset becomes successful. That change in how Elliott treats Somerset shows that he doesn’t cultivate relationships with people based on warmth, magnanimity, mutual care, or any other reasons one might form friendships; instead, Elliott forms relationships with people based on how they might help him attain or keep a higher status. In other words, Elliott approaches relationships transactionally and pursues friendships on the basis of what he might gain from them. Somerset remarks that this approach to relationships precludes Elliott from forming genuine friendships.
Themes
