Abstract

A study of Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies and A Handful of Dust examines how the post-World War I British society was marked by self-gratification. It illustrates how people sought pleasure in drinking, smoking, sexual promiscuity, and gambling, as well as other activities.

For all intents and purposes, this work is an attempt to show how people have transgressed traditional social norms in pursuit of pleasure. Domestic disintegration, religious hypocrisy, and sexual promiscuity all violated the norms of society.

According to New Historical and Psychoanalytical Literary Theories, Waugh’s Vile Bodies and A Handful of Dust portray the moral decadence that dominated British society after the First World War, as well as the citizens’ unquenchable desire for self-gratification, in this analysis.

“The trauma of the Great War” is cited as the cause of moral delinquency, disorder, and transgression of old social norms in Britain’s society.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Background of Study

Comprehension Waugh’s works in relation to the idea of Self-gratification and subversion of established standards requires a thorough understanding of the historical time in which he lived and wrote. Waugh is a twentieth-century writer who wrote after World War One, and his works often reflect his personal experiences as well as the tragic events that surround him, particularly those related to the war. Between the two World Wars, A Handful of Dust and Vile Bodies are satires on decadent London society, reflecting the hopelessness of the time.

Waugh’s satiric picture of British society in his early writings mocks progressive notions, portraying the behavior of the “Bright Young Things” praised in his social milieu as lives filled with futile endeavors and diversion from a meaningful life.

Waugh incorporates subtle irony into his social satire, and he personifies his fear for the future of his society. This has to do with the erosion of conventional values and moral substance, as well as the disregard for human depth. He criticizes modern society’s moral degeneration, which neglects to invest in moral responsibility.

The action advances from the 1920s to the 1930s, illustrating the future lifestyle of British society in particular and the Western World in general, as Waugh puts the two novels between the two wars. In Vile Bodies and A Handful of Dust, events such as a change in lifestyle and an anticipated conflict are discussed.

These are novels that can be read at any time of year since their cultural ambiance and subject themes reflect current events. Waugh wrote in a time when London was teeming with “a voraciously pleasure-seeking gang of Bohemian party givers and blue-blooded socialites” (D.J. Taylor), whose desire for pleasure came at a cost.

Waugh exposes the foibles and vices of inept politicians, venal aristocrats, shameless journalists, adulterers, and unsuccessful lovers in the 1930s, whose relationships are prone to fracturing. He tries to understand their religious ideas because he believes that if they believe in God, they will have positive reactions to society. As a result, having some background knowledge of this historical time can help you grasp this work better.

The First World War and the British Society

The First World War (1914-1918) left catastrophic effects in Britain and the rest of the world. Mankind had never witnessed the loss of lives and devastation in such great amounts. Alarming death and injuries incurred in the war-affected the psychology of the modern man.

Human beings became less than normal creatures with a traumatized sense of understanding certain aspects in society because of the loss which greatly affected their minds and morality amongst other virtues.

Life at this time became meaningless in British society and people lost confidence in the existence and power of God whom they believed could have intervened for them in this disastrous war.

The war swept away much of the old Victorian and Edwardian order and established many of the features that were associated with ‘modern’ 20th-century Britain. The scale and duration of the conflict with the Central Powers were such that, for the first time, the whole of British society was mobilized for what historians have termed ‘total war’.

Waugh participated in this war in one way or the other and tend to make allusion to this war as well as the Second World War in his novels under study and in many other works of his like Decline and Fall (1928), Black Mischief (1932) and Brideshead Revisited (1945).

The war greatly affected the literary domain. It marked the climax of the break in the literary field which separated traditional ways of writing literature. After the devastating war, literary forms changed drastically in terms of themes, style, forms, and ways of perceiving and presenting characters and reality.

The war marked a clear distinction from nineteenth-century values that finally gave way to the twentieth-century values, thus the lost virtues and newfound virtues. The disillusionment brought by this war brought changes in mankind’s perception and interpretation of life in almost every aspect, like literature, arts, science, business, religion, politics, and economics.

Britain was never to be the same again given that the war changed its society completely. Taking up the concept of war as ‘discontinuity’, in “War and Social Institution” Willard Waller explains how the new situations of war created a need for new mores and new folkways, certainly relevant to what took place in Britain during and after the war in the world of sexual standards, fashion.

Author Marwick in “The impact of the First World War on British Society” explains that the post-war British society was also characterized by a high rate of divorce and unfaithfulness often amongst couples contrary to the Victorian period.

Marriage became regarded as an old fashion with divorces very common since Victorian norms were no longer there to guide. Dressing codes witnessed changes especially in women as young girls wore tight-fitting skirts. They used excessive makeup and dressed provocatively often displacing their legs.

This made them be termed ‘flappers’ understood as a fashionable young woman intent on enjoying herself and flouting conventional standard behaviours. This word was also used to refer to a young woman who drank, smoked, and wore trousers and had low hair cut like that of men.

Waugh for instance greatly captures these types of women in Vile Bodies and A Handful of Dust, for it was typical of the British society by that time. He does this in the way in which he presents Agatha and most of her friends to depict these post-war flappers in British society.

Literature produced after the First World War was never to be like that produced before the war. World War One with its disastrous and devastating effects wiped out the great generation of young men in Britain, leaving a stunned and alienated group of survivors which Evelyn Waugh calls “The Bright Young Things”.

It was a group of attention-seeking, flamboyant, decadent, rebellious, irresponsible, outrageous young people. On her part, Gertrude Stein labeled them as “The Lost Generation”. This is a generation that was too young to fight in the in First World War. The wild behaviour was a direct consequence of the war; the slaughter of so many young men had taught them to see the purposelessness of life.

This behavior was also a response to the political, social, and economic problems that followed the war. The old world was changing; many aristocratic families were now suffering financially due to the crippling death duties and the resultant break of estates after the war.

The choking behavior stemmed from modern young girls who chased around London, running and shouting and generally making a spectacle of themselves. This in turn led to young men becoming involved and the “Bright Young Things” took to treasure hunting in fast cars, roaring around the countryside.

These scavenger hunts evolved further, into weekend house parties, stunt parties, and theatrical fancy dress parties. “Bring a Bottle” parties were invented by the Bright Young Things. The party set was obsessed with Jazz which they saw as modern. They drank to excess, took drugs such as hashish, cocaine, and heroin, and indulged in licentious behaviour.

They frequented the cocktail bars, jazz clubs, and nightclubs of London where they danced and drank till dawn. Post world war period in Britain is that which brought changes in man’s conception and interpretation of life in almost every aspect of human experience, especially in arts, literature, and religion. This period does not only portray the meaninglessness of life in the British society with little or no hope as shown by writers such as Waugh but also marks a radical break from past traditions to modernism in literature which reached its climax after the war.

Research Problem

Reading through Waugh’s Vile Bodies and A Handful of Dust, one is repeatedly struck by the extreme love for pleasure, moral degradation and transgression of social norms exhibited by Waugh’s characters in the British society after the First World War.

People of both sexes of all ages, professions, and social standing cede to pleasure and the desire for which is insatiable. They trample on social norms that were cherished in the previous eras like the Victorian Age. The First World War shook the foundation and beliefs of institutions like homes, the church, and marriage.

Motivation

This work is motivated by the desire to understand the impacts the First World War had on British citizens even when the war was over. The motivation to work on Waugh’s Vile Bodies and A Handful of Dust is because they were written after the war and hence capture the British society of this period. They demonstrate how the war turned British citizens into seekers of extreme pleasure in the course of which they trampled upon social norms.

Aim of Study

The study focuses on the multi-ferrous consequences of the WW1 on British society and investigates how these affect the sacrosanctity of the Victorian values as presented in

Waugh’s Vile Bodies and A Handful of Dust.

Research Questions

This work is guided by the following research questions;

1. Why and how do people in post-war British society seek pleasure?
2. In what ways are the deeds of post-war British citizens seen as going against the traditional societal norms?
3. How can the works under study be integrated into an English Language lesson?