Evelyn Waugh
Some notes on The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
Adapted from ‘Systems of Order: The satirical novels of Evelyn Waugh’ by Naomi Elizabeth Milthorpe
• Evelyn Waugh was a satirist, and his satirical novels, including The Loved One, are canonical instances of twentieth century satiric writing.
• The Loved One, a brilliantly macabre satire was publication immediately following Brideshead Revisited, Waugh’s most romantic novel.
• narrative detachment is characteristic of Wavian satire.
• Some see the change in Waugh’s writing as degeneration rather than development. He became more conservative as he got older.
• Satire is an intentionalist mode, and a satirist is motivated by the philosophical, ideological, or moral crises of his time. What were Waugh’s contextual concerns?
• Satiric techniques are crucial in analyzing the text – including symbolism and the use of caricature and irony. But there are others. What are they?
• Waugh’s tendency to depict the unstable and the grotesque, and his apparent anarchic unwillingness to resolve the instability inherent in the world of his novels is key to his use of satire.
• Waugh satirizes modern American society’s lack of moral standards in his novel by presenting it through matter-of-fact understatement and other satiric devices. So, his depiction of barbarism and chaos implies, by its absence, the existence of the divine order that opposes them.
• Remember the purpose of satire is to reform society. Satire requires wit and morality. Frye argues that two things are essential to satire: ‘one is wit or humour founded on fantasy or a sense of the grotesque or absurd, the other is an object of attack.’ Petro states that satire is ‘the meeting point of criticism and humour’ in a work of literature. Therefore, no-one is to say the novella is just humorous or funny. What faults are being exposed?
• ‘Death is at the elbow’: Waugh had a lively interest in death, not as an opportunity
Adapted from ‘Systems of Order: The satirical novels of Evelyn Waugh’ by Naomi Elizabeth Milthorpe
• Evelyn Waugh was a satirist, and his satirical novels, including The Loved One, are canonical instances of twentieth century satiric writing.
• The Loved One, a brilliantly macabre satire was publication immediately following Brideshead Revisited, Waugh’s most romantic novel.
• narrative detachment is characteristic of Wavian satire.
• Some see the change in Waugh’s writing as degeneration rather than development. He became more conservative as he got older.
• Satire is an intentionalist mode, and a satirist is motivated by the philosophical, ideological, or moral crises of his time. What were Waugh’s contextual concerns?
• Satiric techniques are crucial in analyzing the text – including symbolism and the use of caricature and irony. But there are others. What are they?
• Waugh’s tendency to depict the unstable and the grotesque, and his apparent anarchic unwillingness to resolve the instability inherent in the world of his novels is key to his use of satire.
• Waugh satirizes modern American society’s lack of moral standards in his novel by presenting it through matter-of-fact understatement and other satiric devices. So, his depiction of barbarism and chaos implies, by its absence, the existence of the divine order that opposes them.
• Remember the purpose of satire is to reform society. Satire requires wit and morality. Frye argues that two things are essential to satire: ‘one is wit or humour founded on fantasy or a sense of the grotesque or absurd, the other is an object of attack.’ Petro states that satire is ‘the meeting point of criticism and humour’ in a work of literature. Therefore, no-one is to say the novella is just humorous or funny. What faults are being exposed?
• ‘Death is at the elbow’: Waugh had a lively interest in death, not as an opportunity