Symbolism In The Razor's Edge

“The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard” (Katha). Humans are interested in knowing that their existence has to mean. Others do not just want to know they are breathing; they want to feel it in every part of their being. The Razor’s Edge addresses a variety of ways one man approaches his salvation and his understanding of the factors that are divine in the presence of seeking his faith. This supplies the meaning on what each needing. Somerset discusses and points out the main purpose of The Razor’s Edge while recounting the story of one man searching for his divinity. Human yearnings and questions directly conflict with society's expectations in The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham. …show more content…

Elliot symbolizes the realism of the more established era and Isabel the realism of the new. Both characters likewise express the same of mind toward somebody occupied with a profound journey like Larry. They consider such distractions odd and an exercise in futility. Elliot says of Larry that he will never amount to very much and has no money to speak of and no position on page one hundred and three. When Isabel is Larry’s room in Paris, she thinks that his craving for starkness is ignoble and obscene. At the point when Larry demonstrates to her that he is learning Greek and considering Spinoza, all Isabel can state is that she does not think his reviews are exceptionally down to earth, actually, his scrutinizing is essentially "youthful liberality." They go on the discussion of money and Isabel on page one hundred and forty-three where she can hardly imagine how Larry is happy with his little yearly remittance. At long last, just before she severs her engagement to him, she says of his yearning for learning and the life of the soul, "All this is just trifling. It is not going to lead you anywhere...Be a man, Larry, and do a man's work. You're just wasting the precious years that others are doing so much with" (Maugham 60). Here, Isabel is making Larry aware that his “precious years” are going to be a complete waste if he continues with the position he is headed at. This undermines Isabel’s true character as well as …show more content…

Elliot's life rotates around eminence and the great supposition of others. Elliot has nothing else to maintain him when his social ubiquity decays, as it does in his later years. Isabel, likewise, harps essentially on her social position and she is embarrassed when Larry loses all his riches in the crash in 1929. The incongruity that her entire family is being supported on the measure of the money Larry had offered her ten years before he wished to marry her does not get away from her, yet despite everything she tells Maugham, the wedding would have been frenzy; she ought to have recently engaged in extramarital relations with him and afterwards she could have overlooked him. To give Isabel her due, she struggles at various focuses with Larry's deviation and appears to play with the likelihood of having comparable sentiments, yet at last, she declines to embrace Larry's decisions and rejects any profound leanings of her own. Justifiably, Isabel fears the ramifications of giving these sentiments legitimacy so she denies emotions of love in Larry and in herself. This for sure might be the genuine key to Isabel’s and Elliot’s character however once more, their life is depicted not as a despondent one but rather basically as one of restricted