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Part 2, 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
Somerset isn’t in Paris when Isabel and Mrs. Bradley come to visit Elliott. They arrive in Cherbourg and take a train to Paris. Elliot tells them that he’s secured a maid for them during their visit and proposes to buy them new wardrobes at Chanel. “I’m determined that you shall be a credit to me,” Elliott says. When their train arrives in Paris, Larry is waiting for them. Isabel runs to meet him, and he wraps his arms around her. She invites him to lunch at Elliott’s the next day.
While Elliott displays his generosity again by going to meet Mrs. Bradley and Isabel at the train station in Cherbourg, that hint of generosity is quickly accompanied, and perhaps counteracted, by his unremitting snobbery as he immediately criticizes his guests' clothing. Elliott’s offer to buy his guests a new, undoubtedly expensive wardrobe might seem like another act of generosity, but Elliott only offers to do so to ensure that his guests won’t tarnish his social standing, showing again his tendency toward self-interested social climbing and hinting that his generosity often has ulterior motives.
Themes
At lunch the next day, Isabel and Larry talk about couples they know who have gotten engaged, been married, or gotten divorced. Elliott wonders why they talk about people who no one knows and aren’t notable. Elliott knows the most recent gossip about the wife of a Prince who tried to poison herself after the Prince ran away to marry the daughter of a millionaire from South America. That’s something worth talking about, Elliott thinks. At dinner that night, Elliott tries to get one of his acquaintances to seduce Larry, but the acquaintance says that Larry told her he was engaged to Elliott’s niece. Besides, the woman says, Larry seemed too innocent to even know what she was proposing.
Somerset begins the novel by saying that he will tell the story of someone (Larry) who isn’t famous but is still remarkable. That introduction stands in stark contrast to Elliott’s thoughts in this chapter that the only people worth talking about are those who are well-known or famous in one way or another. That contrast establishes Somerset and Elliott as foils to one another. While Elliott cares about people based on their social status, Somerset seems to care about people for reasons intrinsic to them and can see what’s remarkable in people like Larry, who will never be famous or well-known.
Themes
