The Pessimistic Vision of Evelyn Waugh a Study of Selected Novels
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Al-Neelain University Graduate College English Language Department The Wandering Modern World: The Pessimistic Vision of Evelyn Waugh A Study of Selected Novels A Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirement for a P.H. Degree in English Literature Prepared by: Jameel Ahmed Khalaf Supervisor: Prof. Eiman El-Nour February, 2019 1 Dedication To My Parents, Wife, and Children Who Were Very Patient and Helpful 2 Acknowledgements All praise and thanks are due first and foremost to Allah the Almighty, who has showered me with His favours of knowledge, health and patience, and enabled me to finish this project in the best way I can do. My deepest thanks to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research, and Ministry of Education who have facilitated and gave me the chance to get such higher studies. The same thanks are extended to the Iraqi Cultural Office in Al-Khartoom for their help and support through all the period of my study. There are no proper words to convey my deep gratitude and respect for the guidance, support, caring and encouragement of my research guide, Prof, Dr. Eiman Alnour, whose attention to detail, and patient gentleness made this thesis possible. I would like to extend my thanks to Al-Neelain University, the Post Graduate Section and the English Department for all the facilities and help they have provided me throughout my work. I would also like to offer special thanks and appreciation to the staff members of the central library of Baghdad University, Al- Mostansiriya University, and the Central Library of Iraq, and the librarians of the College of Education for their assistance in providing me with the important books. The same and more thanks are extended to the staff members of the central library of Al-Neelain University for their valuable help, patience and the library facilities during my stay over there. 3 Abstract This research aims at discussing beyond the insights of the critics views regarding the wandering modern world and the causes behind the pessimistic vision of the novelist, Evelyn Waugh, about the future of Modern life. After analyzing what other critics have seen in the different novels of Waugh, efforts have been made to research upon the modern generations. In fact, the research examines the effect of the two World Wars on humanity and literature that leads to the decline of values, faith, anxiety, loss, despair and death. The writer brings out the history and destiny of the common man and mocks at the behaviour of the English people, especially the upper and the middle class, their ways of life, decline of moral values, corruption, chaos, loss of faith and identity. He reflects the conflict between order and chaos, in which brutality and incivility or discourtesies are allowed to proceed uncontrolled by authority. 4 مستخلص البحث تناول هذا البحث أثر الحربين العااليييين لىاا اليجييا انججىيا بشال لااو ولىاا انءباا بشل خاص حيث في تىك الفيرة اصبح العالم مسرح ﻷحداث ومآسي شنيعة ومرلبة أءت الا تغياارات رذة ااة فااي سااى ا الفاارء انوةبااي بشاال لاااو وانججىياا بشاال خاااص. هااذا الفياارة رعىت كثيرمن اللياب اليعاصر ن ليب ا ح ل انحداث اليي ظهرت بعاد الحارب وخاصاة ماا بعد الحرب العاليية انولا واثاةها لىا الحياة انرييالية , انقيصاء ة والسياساة. اهيهاا ها القىااح حاا ل اليساايقب والوساااةة والياا و والياا ت . اللاتاا سااور ا ضااا ماان اجحاااام القاايم واليباء وضياغ ان يان واله ة. و ص ة لنا ا ضا الصراع بين النظاو من رهاة والف ضاا مان رهااة اخار فااي مجييا ساااءت فياا ال حشااية الياء اة واصاابحت خااة ساايارة الحل مااة. و رك البحث ا ضا لىا اﻷسباب وةا خيبة ام اللاتا فاي الحيااة الحد ثاة الياي فابات فيهاا ك اليقاليد العر قة واليباء السامية وانخﻻق الحييدة اضافة الا اليفلك العائىي واليجييعاي الذ قاء انجسان الحد ث لىدخ ل في ءوامة اللاّبة ومى الحياة. و عرض لنا اللات ا ضاا ,مان خﻻل ةوا اتا, الوياجة ال ورية واجيشاة البربر ة في مجيي دلي اجاا مجييا مثقا للان فاي الحقيقة ه مجيي وحشي لقيم خالي مان أ ةوابا ء نياة أو لائىياة. أصابح انجساان الغرباي يينا الياضي الذ حي ك معاجي الحياة انجساجية. وباليالي اصي بويبة ام اجعلست في ك ر اج الحياة الد نية وانرييالية وانقيصاء ة. وأخاذ فضا اليا ت بادن مان العاي فاي الحياااة الحد ثااة اليااي لاام جااد فيهااا ساا اليىاا والف ضااا فااي لااالم ماااء خااالي ماان الج اجاا الروحية والعامفية. 5 Table of Contents Titles Page No Dedication …………………………………………………………………….I Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………. II Abstract ………………………………………………………………………III Abstract (Arabic) …………………………………………………………….IV Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………V Chapter One Introduction P - 1 1.0 Overview…………………………………………………………...……. 2 1.1 Statement of the problem ……………………...………………………...2 1.2 The Objectives of The Study …………………………………………… 4 1.3 The Hypothesis …………………….………………………………….... 4 1.4 Questions of the study ………..………………………………………… 5 1.5 Methodology of the study ………………………………………………. 6 1.6 The Significance of the Study ...………………………………………… 6 1.7 The Impact of The Two World Wars on Humanity and Literature ..…… 7 1.8 Evelyn Waugh's Life ……….…………………………………………… 20 1.9 Evelyn Waugh's literary Career …………………………………………. 24 1.10 Waugh's War Experience & Works …………………………………… 33 Chapter Two Literature Review and Theoretical Frame Work P-41 2.0 Modern Literature and Modernism ……………………………………… 42 2.1 The Previous Studies about the Topic ...…………………………………. 47 2.2 The Theoretical Study ...…………………………………………………. 54 6 Chapter Three The Author's Views of Modern Life & A Brief Summary of the Novels under Study P-62 3.0 Evelyn Waugh's Views of Modern Life ………………………………. 63 3.1 A Brief Summary of the Novels under Study ……………………….... 66 3.1.1 Decline and Fall (1928) ……………………………………………... 66 3.2 A Handful of Dust (1934) ……………………………………………... 70 3.3 Love Among the Ruins (1953) …………………………………………. 77 Chapter Four Analysis of The Novels P-80 4.0 The Century of The Common Man ..………………………………….. 81 4.1 A Gothic Man at the Hands of Savages ……………………………… 105 4.2 The Modern man's Image …………………………………………….. 133 4.3 The Image of Death …………………………………………………... 144 4.4 The Image of Love ………………………………………………….... 152 Chapter Five Conclusion P-157 5.0 Conclusion .…………………………………………………………… 158 5.1 Inferences and recommendations …………………………………….. 162 Bibliography P-171 7 Chapter one Introduction 8 Chapter One Introduction 1.0 overview Evelyn Waugh ( 1903 – 1966 ) was born in London into a comfortable middle class literary family. In his fiction, Waugh shows the diverse difference between the old and new values in his own society, and reveals in stark reality a society and culture rotting from inside. He sees modern life as one in which all values have cheapened and collapsed. That is why he is considered a prophet of the same spirit of disillusionment that can be seen not only in the fiction of his contemporary novelists but in most poetry of T.S. Eliot especially in his pioneer poem The West Land. His fame continued to grow between the two world wars. His novels were based on sharp satires of disorderliness, chance events, and the collapse of values and meaning in modern life. He saw the struggle as quite simply between truth, order and civilization, and their opposite, disorder and barbarism. By using the element of extravagant farce and caricature in his works, Waugh, can drive comedy from the cruelty of tragedy. To him the world is not a composite of visible facts; it is a "bodiless harlequinade" , where individual is still swamped in the mob and swept along by circumstance over which he has no control. 1.1 Statement of the problem Waugh's art in general, and his refusal to the bitter facts of the decline of values in his society in particular, is submitted to study and analysis. This thesis will attempt to focus on the purpose and motive 9 behind Waugh's pessimistic vision where he presents a world unable to be corrected, especially when the Catholic God and the Kingdom of heaven have been ignored and abandoned by the modern secular society embodied in the absence of moral standards in the modern world! Anyone can wonder, is not such a world, described by such talented, genius and prophetic writer, is perfectly and unfortunately the world we are living now? Even his warnings, about the cultureless modern world and the appearance of a new class of educated but rootless people, are clear and tangible not only in the period of postwar world but also in the time we live in nowadays! In fact, the writer saw not only his own time, but ours also; both of them were afraid and anxious about the future because he imagined the possibility of continuation of the evil of his own time to the next. Waugh understood how the moral relativism had brought the bad people and the totalitarians to power!!! Waugh portrays the modern world as anarchic and incoherent represented by what are called the Bright Young People who are wandering aimlessly in their destructive lifestyle. Waugh expresses his frustration and disgust with all the parties, sterility, futility, and shallowness of the modern English society. He shows his respect for the past and revealed his ill-feeling towards the modern world and he portrays modern life as hopelessly violent and absurd, while the vanished past is introduced as the most ordered and reasonable one. 10 1.2 The Objectives of The Study 1- The study aims at clarifying Waugh's realistic, satirical, and pessimistic vision of modern life which can be achieved through a precise analytical study of selected novels which often feature an empty-headed society. 2- The study concentrates on the spiritual truth which is considered as the highest one for a world in which people are spiritually dead though they are physically alive. For instance the socialites represented by the Bright Young People were wandering in a destructive lifestyle that suggests unending chaos in the aftermath of the Great War.