Decline and Fall

Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh

This is an enjoyable book to read and very hilarious as a whole. A social satire which explores the British social circles through the story of Paul Pennyfeather, a descent third year student at Scone College in Oxford preparing for priesthood.

An unfortunate incident with members of the Bollinger Club saw Paul unfairly expelled on the grounds of indecent behaviour. Paul also subsequently lost his allowance and inheritance to his greedy guardian who capitalized on the unfortunate turn Paul’s life had taken. He got a job, despite not meeting any of the job requirements and after a bogus interview with the proprietor of a school - Dr Fagan, as a schoolmaster at the poorly rated Llanabba Castle in North Wales where he met a number of colourful characters.

From this point, Paul’s life will make a complete vicissitudinous cycle with almost the same characters reappearing at different stages of this cycle. One of the characters, a mirage of good fortune, instrumental to Paul’s most damaging decline was Margot Beste-Chetwynde. Mother to one of the pupils in the school where Paul was schoolmaster, Margot became the object of Paul’s affection and would come to marry her.

Except, there was a hitch just before this could happen. Another wave of unfortunate events, orchestrated chiefly by Margot, lead to Paul’s arrest and then incarceration on a seven year jail sentence. After a while in jail, the culpable socialite who got him in the soup in the first place, worked some magic and got Paul out. She had married some important government official as bargain for Paul’s release and Paul’s death had to be faked to allow him a transition back into society.

In the period immediately preceding the rapid development of affairs between Paul and Margot, He had met a number of her friends. Notably among them, the architect Margot had hired to design her controversial new home – Professor Otto Silenus. A fleeting character cut out as; miserable, opinionated, obstinate, dissatisfied and peculiar young man who had had little accomplishments, suffered from insomnia and had a penchant for the mechanical. Indeed, sometimes it was difficult to tell whether he was human;

He had not moved from where the journalist had left him; his fawn-like eyes were fixed and inexpressive, and the hand which he had held the biscuit still rose and fell to and from his mouth with regular motion, while his empty jaws champed rhythmically; otherwise he was wholly immobile.

This obsession with machines became a popular phenomenon after the First World War when machines became tangible. It had opened everyone’s eyes to what was possible with the advent of machines or mechanical intervention and it is hardly surprising that a lot of architecture of that period derived from machines. Le Corbusier springs to mind under this awning as he is quite famous for his ardent interpretation of a house as a machine for living in.    

A particularly pessimistic analogy of life as a revolving wheel (another indication of his mechanical obsession) was made by Silenus when he re-emerges in Paul’s later life, which gives a clear idea of how he sees existence. Life as he sees it might mean either simply existence, with its inevitable characteristics of growth, organic change and death. Or, a constant struggle to stay on and get to the centre of the revolving wheel. Delusional Silenus, who thinks he is very near the hub of this proverbial wheel, is convinced the centre is just as static as never getting on.

I think this is a rather dull view of life and that if one must go through life, one must engage and endeavour to enjoy it reasonably, one must be of the mind that we measure life by loss, not by gain. Not by the wine drunk but poured forth (Hudson Taylor). But I equally believe that great things must be done greatly, with a great purpose, a great mind, a great courage, a great energy and a great persistent patience (Elizabeth B. Browning).

It seemed fate, a much-maligned lady, brought Paul back to the exact same point he was when we first met him at Scone where he hopes to complete his preparation for priesthood. Altogether, I think there is something innately too agreeable and resignedly defeatist in this Pennyfeather fellow that does not quite appeal to me. If it were a case of him being totally virtuous and abiding by a set of absolute moral values, I might afford him my sympathy or respect but he demonstrates this only in his desire for Margot (a seemingly profitable venture). Often, this character whom I find too docile, allows his rational mind to be clouded by popular belief in a characteristically taciturn manner and with no strong enough opinions of his own.