On The Absurdity Of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline And Fall

As one of the most famous novelists in the British literary world, Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966)inherits the satiric tradition from Jonathan Swift to George Bernard Shaw in his depiction of theconfusion, contradiction and absurdity of British society in the20thcentury. The domestic studieson Waugh’s novels mainly concentrate on his satiric art and narrative technique, often lacking asystematic framework. This thesis attempts to adopt a different approach by focusing upon thethematic and narrative absurdity of Waugh’s Decline and Fall.The thesis starts with a survey of the history of absurdity in English literature and a briefintroduction to its definition and features. Combining these features with details of Waugh’s lifeexperience, the thesis makes an analysis of absurdity in his novels. The thematic absurdity ofDecline and Fall is respectively approached from the aspects of personal and family life, and socialand religious life. The absurdity of personal life is mainly indicated with the futility of thecharacters’ survival struggle and their resigned acceptance of absurd reality. The absurdity offamily life is mostly reflected in the selfishness and disloyalty of family relationships, theabandonment of family duties and obligations, and the immorality of marriage ethics. Theabsurdity of social life is largely manifested in the corruption of education, the degeneration of law,the vulgarization of common taste and the hypocrisy of moral concept. The absurdity of religiouslife is primarily revealed in the formalistic daily pray, the vacuous inner faith and the desolatespiritual world.The narrative absurdity of Decline and Fall is principally found in the employment of parody,fragmented plot and circular structure. Through the parody of the classic Odyssey and Dickensianworks, Waugh satirizes the moral bankruptcy, spiritual hollowness and survival absurdity of hiscontemporary society. Fragmented plots are applied into the narration of emergent and importantincidents to disclose the strong sense of disorder and absurdity. The circular structure in the novelimplies futility and meaninglessness under the control of destiny.Waugh’s keen feeling of absurdity maintains a close relation with the times he lives in.Waugh’s dissatisfaction with the chaotic social situation resulted from his miserable life experience.The analysis of absurdity will help us better understand the modernity of Decline and Fall.