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Part 4, Chapter 6
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
After leaving the Maturins’ apartment, Somerset goes to see Suzanne Rouvier. He explains that Suzanne is someone who has moved from relationship to relationship with various painters, often serving as a muse and model. At one point, Suzanne decided to have a child. The man she was with was against it, but Suzanne said she would take all responsibility for the child. When her child, a girl, was born, the man returned home to care for his dying father. After his father died, he wrote to Suzanne saying he would have to stay with his mother to help take care of his father’s affairs. He sent along 10,000 francs. Suzanne then decided to leave her daughter, along with the 10,000 francs, in her mother’s care. Now, a married manufacturer pays Suzanne 2,000 francs a month to “enjoy her company” when he is in Paris once every 14 days.
Somerset’s friendship with Suzanne shows his propensity to form relationships and friendships with people across socioeconomic lines. That tendency is juxtaposed with Elliott’s insistence that only people who will advance his social status are worthy of his time. The novel sets up a comparison, then, between Elliott’s approach to relationships, showing how it is similar both to Suzanne’s conception of transactional relationships and Isabel’s decision to marry Gray based more on what he could give her than who he was as a person.
Themes
