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Part 1, Chapter 4
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
Somerset washes up before going to lunch with Elliott in Chicago. He’s surprised when he gets a call from the front desk saying that Elliott is downstairs waiting. When Somerset goes down, Elliott tells him he thought it would be better to fetch Somerset himself; he’s not sure how well Somerset knows Chicago. Together, they go to the house of Elliott’s sister, Louisa Bradley. At the house, Mrs. Bradley introduces Somerset to her daughter, Isabel, and Isabel’s fiancé, Laurence Darrell, who goes by Larry. Somerset thinks that Isabel is “sparkling and vivacious” and radiates happiness and a general sense of enjoyment in life. By comparison, her mother and Elliott seem rather paltry. Elliott and Isabel have arranged for a decorator, Gregory Brabazon, to come to Mrs. Bradley’s house, and they hope that he will help to redesign the interior.
This passage further establishes Elliott’s capacity for generosity. Elliott doesn’t have any real obligation—either social or moral—to fetch Somerset from his hotel, but he does so out of genuine concern that Somerset could get lost when trying to find the house. Elliott will show his penchant for generosity at other points throughout the novel, and the novel becomes expressly concerned, later, as to whether Elliott’s inklings toward generosity balance out his obsession with social status.
Themes
Somerset becomes interested in Larry, who hasn’t spoken more than a couple of words since he came into the house but still seems to be actively involved in the conversation somehow. Larry is “neither handsome nor plain” and seems perfectly at ease. When Mrs. Bradley asks Larry what he thinks of Mr. Brabazon’s decoration suggestions, Larry says, “I don’t think it matters one way or the other.” Larry was an aviator during the war; Isabel says that he ran away to Canada and convinced them he was 18 so they would let him fight in Europe. Elliott tells Somerset he thinks that Larry and Isabel are too young to marry; he’s 20, and she’s 19. Larry’s mother died in childbirth and his father died 12 years ago. Larry has a “tiny” income of $3,000 a year and isn’t currently looking for a job.
Larry immediately differentiates himself from Isabel and Elliott. While Elliott and Isabel have conspired to find an interior designer to redo Mrs. Bradley’s home, Larry couldn’t care less, pointing to the idea that while Elliott and Isabel are concerned with material goods, Larry wants something much different. The fact that Larry convinced the Canadian air corps to let him fight in World War I despite not being 18 also shows that Larry is willing to follow his own path to (literally) fight for what he believes in. Larry’s “tiny” income seems most likely to be an inheritance from his father that Larry now receives annually.
Themes
