Comedy is used in Decline and Fall as a means through which Waugh can perpetuate the persistent circularity of the “overly secular world [which] is itself a vulgar parody of a more coherent past”. In the novel, the character of Mr Grimes is indicative of the “vulgar parody” which prevails by constantly and absurdly resurrecting from one place to another, never gaining any sense of enlightenment. Written from within the decline of the British aristocracy, Decline and Fall thus provides a hysterical mockery of it, as no actions have consequences, unlike in one of Waugh’s later novels, such as Brideshead Revisited, in which the recognition of Catholicism requires severe consequences. Similarly, in Lewis’ Apes of God, it is the mockery of the “extreme …show more content…
It must be said, however, that Skippy Dies isn’t as socially driven as Decline and Fall as its narrator shows deep empathy for the characters, as opposed to the detached nature of Decline and Fall, whose characters “may serve as an environmental backdrop - a condition necessary for thematic development on another …show more content…
Trevor Griffith’s Comedians, however, does utilise comedy in an incredibly socially, and politically, driven way. The dichotomy between the characters of Eddie Waters, who believes in having meaning behind one’s comedy, and the crude, meaningless comedy desired by the agent, Challenor, highlights the contemporary social conflict between Griffith’s belief in “human perfectibility” and commercialism. All four works can be seen as a scrutinising of their respective modern societies through comedy, however, for very different reasons, with very different methods and thus effects.
Both Decline and Fall and Skippy Dies share an absurd cyclicality throughout, however, with subtle differences in the implications of this repetition. Waugh illuminates a parodic modernity through the character of Mr. Grimes and the chestnuts Paul passes on his way to King’s Thursday, as the world of Decline and Fall is shown to be a pathetic replication of a more coherent past. In Skippy Dies, the characters are similarly stuck in perpetuum at Seaford, however, attain fragments of progression; if “one cannot grow up in the world of Decline and Fall nor escape from it”, then one can grow up in the world of Skippy Dies, but still cannot escape