Previous
Part 4, Chapter 1
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 begins going to see Isabel three or four times a week. Somerset enjoys that she talks to him as if he were one of her peers. Plus, his friends are usually busy until dinner, and he’s glad to have Isabel’s company in the afternoon. For her part, Isabel is usually alone in the afternoons and seems glad to have someone to chat with. Then, something unexpected happens.
Somerset and Isabel begin to form what seems to be a genuine friendship as they see each other multiple times each week, highlighting Somerset’s ability to form close relationships with a wide variety of people. That friendship will also later help Somerset get various perspectives, including Isabel’s, on some of the more contentious events that will occur later in the novel.
Themes
