Razor's Edge

Lisette Garcia

6th Period

The Razor’s Edge

        Social status is very important throughout the novel, The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham. Every character’s decisions tied back to how Elliott Templeton’s social standing is viewed. Elliott has been characterized as a “snob”, he only does the best things with the best people; therefore, making his social standing higher than most commoners. In Elliott’s view, Larry could be considered a commoner, and Elliott’s family needs to be right there on top with him; however, if Isabel marries Larry, that would bring Isabel’s image down, and Elliott can’t have that. Elliot comes to a peace when Isabel says she is no longer engaged to Larry.

        Larry has decided to spend his life “loafing” trying to find himself. This means that he won’t give Isabel a good life of fortune. Elliott’s life consists of being seen as a man of the upper class. His family needs to be just as well known of the upper class as he is. If Isabel chose to stay with Larry and go around the world doing nothing productive and living in poverty, Elliott’s upper class friends would find out and see him lower. Elliott doesn’t care about Isabel’s well being but how she’ll make him look. Elliott sees that Isabel is not upset with the fact that they broke off their engagement. He sees this as an opportunity to show her how happy he is with  that decision. He right away makes it all about himself with the repeated use of the word “I”. He says “I think”, “I was prepared” and “I never thought”. Not once does he ask Isabel how she feels. He makes it about himself because it only benefits him in his eyes. He does’t care about Isabel, the only way to bring himself into peace is seeing that his family will not drag him under the upper class.

        Elliott appears to be a fake person too when he admits that he never saw them as a good couple. Elliott says, “I was prepared to make the best of it, but I never thought it a good match.” (79).  He basically says that he was going to fake approving of them . Again this shows that he doesn’t care for Isabel enough to tell her the truth of how he feels about her relationship with Larry. Coming into peace with himself includes not being an honest person unless it’ll benefit him.

        As mentioned earlier, Elliott is a “snob”. He clearly shows it and characterizes himself as well as Isabel in the higher class when he talks to her after her and Larry broke off the engagement. He begins saying, “up to your mark”. Elliott doesn’t even know the reason why Isabel and Larry broke up yet he right away assumes that it’s because Larry would bring Isabel down to poverty. He admits to Isabel that Larry wouldn’t fit in the upper class and if she stayed with him, she wouldn’t be either. Elliott then says, “he’ll never amount to anything”(79). Elliott is using absolute words repeatedly. He says “never” and “anything”, basically saying he’ll be a “nobody”. This is very exaggerated and shows that Elliott is being childish. There’s nothing better to say in his defense of keeping Isabel in the upper class with him so he begins to speak like a child to try to convince Isabel that Larry wasn’t good enough for her. Isabel realizing that Larry isn’t good enough for her will allow Elliott to come to peace knowing that Isabel has realized Larry will bring her under the upper class.