Book Review of Decline and Fall

Abstract

This essay examines three key themes presented in the novel Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh. We explore these themes through the main character, Paul, who is just trying to get his life back on track after getting thrown out of the college he was attending. When he becomes a schoolmaster, he witnesses the hypocrisy of English society when the schoolmaster claims to have such a good school when it’s not, and when he gets thrown into prison at the end of the book, he comes to enjoy it as a relaxing reprieve from the constant pressure of the upper class society in everyday life, having experience the pain of having to constantly change your identity to fit in and be accepted, even if only by a margin. The novel is a captivating example of a well-written satire with a comical plot to keep readers entertained. Overall, this book review focuses on the illusion of civilization, game of identity and inadequate control over personal fate in the book Decline and Fall. 

Review

Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh is a satirical novel about English society that follows a young man named Paul Pennyfeather. After getting expelled from Oxford’s Scone College for a cruel trick of pantsing done by a drunk member of the Bollinger Club, Paul is left with no job prospects, an unforgiving family and nowhere to go. As a final resort, Paul goes to teach at Llannaba School, where the teachers don’t teach and the students don’t learn. There, he meets Margot, who eventually lands him in prison for prostitution. Throughout the book, Waugh effectively shows through Paul’s journey how the decline and ridiculousness of the society that eventually leads to the loss of character, freedom and stability in everybody’s lives. The story explores themes of the illusion of upper class, the game of identity and the absurdity of personal fate.

The illusion of civilization and the hypocrisy of the upper class is greatly defined in the novel through both the title and many other institutions that are introduced throughout the novel. The novel’s title, “Decline and Fall” is a contraction to Edward Gibbon’s book titled “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, suggesting a link with moral, social, and economic corruption. As seen throughout the rest of the story, all the institutions that Paul attends are rotten and corrupted. Oxford has no justice to poorer students, Llannaba only cares for money, and the prison is full of perpetual violence in a place where they are supposed to keep inmates behaving and turn them into good citizens. “....society at large is in decline, the author implies, and those enmeshed in it must cope as best they can in a world that will not reward the good and punish the bad.” (Mambrol). Paul tries his best to make the best out of the situation, but the society itself will simply not allow a turn for the good. It really isn’t that much of Paul’s fault, yet he still takes the brunt of the result. “We schoolmasters must temper discretion with deceit. There, I fancy I have said something for you to think about. Good night.” (Waugh, Ch 1 Pt 1). The irony is that those who claim to be making the society better, such as doctors, teachers, lawyers, are actually contributing to the decline of the society, using their occupation as a way to justify their wrongful use of power and manipulation of others in the process.

Waugh also explores the game of identity in accordance with Paul’s continual adaptation to the absurd expectations of the different places he visits. First, Paul is a student, then a teacher, then a prisoner, and then back to being a student with a different name. He can’t always just stay one thing, because society around him expects him to be like everyone else, which is impossible to go against. This game can also be portrayed through Margot, who marries herself into high aristocracy all the while running an illegal prostitution ring. Doctor Fagan is supposed to be enlightened, yet his school is trash. Grimes uses his job as a teacher to cover up his failures and his immoral behavior, thinking that no one will catch him. The fluidity of the identities that the characters switch seamlessly between is a sign of how the characters, though they only want to be themselves, still have to be a chameleon in order to maybe just survive. “'But I don't know a word of German, I've had no experience, I've got no testimonials, and I can't play cricket.'” (Waugh, Ch 1 Pt 1). Even though Paul has no experience in any of the prerequisites needed to become a schoolmaster at Llannaba Castle, he still had to suck it up and become somebody that knew them, because there was no other place to go if he didn’t become a school master at Llannaba. The characters’ identities in this novel are not based on personal merit or morality, but rather what the upper class wants to see, as they are the ones that actually have power.

Lastly, Waugh also talks about the absurdity and powerlessness of individual fate. Mainly shown through Paul, Waugh writes about the fact that even though we may try really hard, those without power and not in the tight inner circle of social elites really have not say in what happens to them because they are simply living on the margin of acceptable society, trying to just have enough to put food on the table. Paul makes moral decisions when possible and tries to make his situation better, but he also faces failure as he has to keep up with the societal changes that are often shifting in dynamics around him. “This loss of innocence mirrors the broader societal changes occurring during the interwar period.” (BookBrief). Paul struggles with maintaining his own life, which is constantly getting battered by external forces that he can’t control. The ironic ending of the story, which is when Paul goes to prison, highlights the corruption of society efficiently through Paul’s enjoyment of the prison over normal life. “It was so exhilarating, he found, never to have to make any decision on any subject, to be wholly relieved from the smallest consideration of time, meals or clothes, to have no anxiety ever about what kind of impression he was making; in fact, to be free” (Waugh, Ch 1 Pt 3). Paul, fed up with having his life turned upside down when he’s just trying to keep it upright, ends up enjoying the conformity, the orderly manner of the prison. He knows what he is supposed to do, and he has something to follow each day. His integrity turns out to be futile, broken by the moral corruption of the English society he lives in. 

Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall is a perfect example of literature that explores the social, economic and moral decline of a society. Paul’s experiences from being a theology student to a schoolmaster to the lover of a wealthy woman to being imprisoned is evidently descending in quality, worsening with each stage. Throughout the book, Evelyn Waugh uses Paul’s journey as a way to satirize English society, highlighting the hypocrisy of the upper class and the illusion of civilized institutions, the game of identity presented by all the other characters in the novel and the absurdity and powerlessness of personal fate. The hypocritic aristocracy used the institutions as a way to cover up their mishaps and injustice, characters in the novel including Paul always had to change their identity in accordance with what the upper class wanted to see, and Paul simply had to go along with whatever was thrown at him, like doing an obstacle course blindfolded. He didn’t know what was coming next, and could only brace himself. Overall, Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh is an excellent satire novel that explores both the decline of character and society in the novel.

References: 

1. Mambrol, Nasrullah. Analysis of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall. Analysis of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall – Literary Theory and Criticism

2. Waugh, Evelyn. Decline and Fall. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh, from Project Gutenberg Canada

BookBrief. “Decline and Fall” Summary. Decline and Fall Summary - BookBrief