The Razor's Edge (Themes)

Themes

Materialism Versus Spirituality

The main character, Larry, is an embodiment of the spiritual approach to life as it is found in the Hindu religion. He is contrasted with the characters who embody American materialism. From the beginning, Larry is more interested in pursuing intellectual and spiritual knowledge for its own sake than in becoming part of the great American industrial money making machine. He turns down a job with Henry Maturin's company, choosing instead to go to Paris, where he spends most of his time reading and studying. He wants to become enlightened; he has no interest in money. The Maturins, on the other hand, are the embodiment of American prosperity. They are hard-nosed businessmen who know how to make money. It would never occur to either to them that the real purpose of life might be something other than the acquisition of wealth. The difference between these two approaches is the difference between East and West. Larry explains this toward the end of the novel, in his long conversation with Maugham: "They [Indians] think that we with our countless inventions, with our factories and machines and all they produce, have sought happiness in material things, but that happiness rests not in them, but in spiritual things."

After studying with his Indian guru for two years, Larry realizes that spiritual knowledge consists of the realization that the essence of the individual, the Atman, is one with Brahman, the all-pervading eternal spirit, the nature of which is bliss and joy. This is not just a matter of intellectual understanding, but of direct experience. When a person has this knowledge and experience, he is no longer attached to the things of the world, leaving him free to live, as Larry puts it, "With calmness, forbearance, compassion, selflessness, and continence." The needs of the small ego no longer drive his actions.

When Maugham the narrator meets Larry after the latter's return from India, he talks to Isabel about this aura of detachment that Larry possesses. He says that even though Larry is easy to get on with, "one's conscious of a sort of detachment in him, as though he weren't giving all of himself, but withheld in some hidden part of his soul something." Isabel agrees, saying that sometimes, just when Larry seems to be just like everybody else,"you have the feeling that he's escaped you like a smoke ring that you try to catch in your hands."

The fact that Larry does not cling to possessions, or to people, or to his own emotions, is a marked contrast to Isabel. She is both materialistic and possessive. The reason she decides not to marry Larry is because he refuses to provide her with the material luxuries that she thinks is appropriate to her station in life. Isabel is a woman who likes to be in control. One of the reasons she loved Larry in the first place was because she felt that she could control him. Later she discovered this was not the case. But even when she marries Gray, she cannot let go of her obsessive attachment to Larry, which causes her to scheme against Sophie when Sophie and Larry become engaged to marry.

The other character who is contrasted with the world-negating Larry is the worldly Elliot Templeton. As an arch-snob, he is excessively concerned with social position. He loves the trappings of wealth, such as fine art and furniture in fine houses, and lavish parties in Paris where the rich and high-born rub shoulders with one another. Whereas Larry wants to discover the deepest truths about life, Elliot lives only for its superficialities. He is fascinated by trivia rather than truth. Larry searches for reality, but Elliot is satisfied with appearances, which for him are the reality.

The Problem of Evil

In chapter 6, when Maugham reports his conversation with Larry in a Parisian café, Larry tells him that it was the question of why evil exits in the world that propelled him on his long spiritual quest. This was after he had experienced the carnage of World War I, in which his friend had been killed saving Larry's life. Larry's Polish friend Kosti believes that "evil is as direct a manifestation of the divine as good," an idea that horrifies Larry. The Christian explanation he receives from the monks at the monastery in Alsace does not satisfy Larry either. When he asks why God created evil, the monks reply that it was so that man could conquer wickedness and resist temptation, accepting those things as trials sent by God to purify them and make them eventually worthy of His presence. Larry finds a partial answer to his question in the Hindu belief in reincarnation, which he describes as "at once an explanation and a justification of the evil of the world." According to this view, there is no such thing as injustice or innocent suffering; the evils that afflict humans are simply the consequences of sins committed in past lives.

But this does not answer the question of how the process begins in the first place. Larry mentions the philosophy of Ramakrishna, that good and evil are both components of "the sport of God," and neither can exist without the other. Larry says he rejects this idea, but what he proposes in its place is in fact very similar:

The Chinese craftsman who makes a vase in what they call eggshell porcelain can give it a lovely shape, ornament it with a beautiful design, stain it in a ravishing color, and give it a perfect glaze, but from its very nature he can't make it anything but fragile. If you drop it on the floor it will break into a dozen fragments. Isn't it possible in the same way that the values we cherish in the world can only exist in combination with evil?

Topics for Further Study

• Larry Darrell is changed by his experiences during World War I. Today, psychological trauma caused by war is called post-traumatic stress disorder. Research the history of this term. What are the causes and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and how is the disorder treated?
• When Larry stays for several months at a monastery, what does he find unsatisfactory about Christianity, and why does he eventually prefer Vedanta?
• What role does Suzanne Rouvier play in the novel? Is she an essential character, or would the novel be just as effective without her? How does she compare with Isabel and Sophie?
• Write a short story in which the central character is changed by some important, possibly traumatic, event. How does the incident change the way the character sees the world, or make him think deeply about his priorities in life? If such an event has happened to you, write the story based on your own experience.