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Part 4, Chapter 9
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
Over the next few weeks, Somerset, Isabel, Gray, and Larry take day trips to places that aren’t too far away, like Chantilly and Versailles. On the drive back to Paris after one excursion, Somerset notices Isabel looking with lust at Larry’s exposed wrist. As Somerset watches her, Isabel seems to recoil before asking for a cigarette in a voice that Somerset barely recognizes. On Somerset’s last night in Paris at the end of June, he asks the three of them to have dinner with him. On that night, they all meet Sophie Macdonald.
Isabel displays a kind of passion towards Larry that she hasn’t shown toward Gray at any point in the novel, showing how deep and passionate her feelings for Larry still are. The narrative depicts this moment of Isabel’s secret passion soon before the group meets Sophie Macdonald, who will become a kind of romantic threat to Isabel concerning her feelings for Larry, even though Isabel is married and has a family with Gray.
Themes
