Anti-climax But Not A Dead End

Why did Waugh end Officers and Gentlemen with an anti -climax? In regard to this, Steven Trout anal yzes the characteristic aspect of anti -climax common in Waugh ’s works.

Taken as a whole, the trilogy offers an impressive panorama, its

“theatre of operations ” ranging from London to Africa, from the Hebrides to Yugoslavia, but the trend in most scene is toward the miniature, the collapse of seemingl y gigantic events or profound historical moments into small -scale farce. (128)

About Waugh’s method of translating facts into farce and of comparing his protagonists to historical heroes, George McCartney also points out:

They [Waugh ’s protagonists] constitute an antithesis to the classical hero whose place in the world was established by his carefull y memorialized ancestry, his personal reputation, and his determinatio n to achieve his destiny. (94).

His remark shows that there are always antitheses to the heroes in the

whole of Waugh ’s works. If Trout and McCarthy are referred to, anti -climax is an inevitable result of Waugh ’s works, which describe modern people

who have been reduced from their ancestral heroes in capabilit y and credibilit y.

Likewise, in Officers and Gentlemen, the wartime hero is onl y a commercial being made by the media. One of Guy ’s friends, Ian

Kilbannock, the information officer in the Royal Air Force, says that the heroes in the Second World War should be found from the proletariat in contrast to those in the First World War such as Rupert Brooke (SHT 329).

At first sight, his view is rather positive, because it has a premonition that democracy i s developing in people ’s mind. However, in Waugh ’s

consciousness, it is a process of humanit y ’s decline. Ian says:

‘This is a People ’s War’ said Ian propheticall y, ‘and the People won’t have poetry and they won ’t have flowers. Flowers stink.

The upper classes are on the secret list. We want heroes of the people, to or for the people, by, with and from the people. ’ (SHT 329)

This idea shows that what was once thought of as noble and graceful such as poets and flowers, has become extinct in the modern wa r. That is

symbolicall y proven by the characters in Officers and Gentlemen, such as Ivor Claire.

The three soldiers likened to Cerberus are all fallen figures, who have degraded from the status of officers who should be genuine gentlemen.

Thus, what Waugh denounces in this novel is the deterioration of qualit y in humans, which is also true of the dogs which follow them. Officers and Gentlemen shows Waugh ’s resignation that the war in the twentieth century

is transformed into the wasteland where such pseudo heroes and filthy dogs are rampant. Archie K. Loss points out, “Thus Guy, who because of his age and personal inclination has trouble enough fulfilling any heroic purpose, is faced also with the fact that the heroes of the modern age are the products of puffery” (“History” 22). As Loss states, Officers and Gentlemen traces a path in which Guy, completel y depressed, comes to realize the counterfeit nature of the modern war.

If the story had ended here, however, Officers and Gentlemen would not have gone beyo nd Waugh’s former novels which describe the desolation of the modern world compared to the heroic era. It is true that Waugh had the idea to end Guy’s story with Officers and Gentlemen. This can be confirmed by Waugh ’s remark in his letter to Nancy Mitford on 16 November 1954: “It [Officers and Gentlemen] is short and funny

&completes the story I began in Men at Arms which threatened to drag out to the grave” (EWL 492). Six years later, however, Waugh published

Unconditional Surrender in 1961 as the last no vel of the trilogy. Civil Connoll y quotes Waugh ’s words in his review written right after publishing Unconditional Surrender:

Mr. Waugh writes: ‘In 1950 I [Waugh] wrote of “Officers and Gentlemen”, “I thought at first the story would run into three volumes. I find that two will do the trick. ” This was not quite candid. I knew that a third volume was needed. ’ (430)

Waugh’s words in the quotation above prove that he had the idea of writing three volumes from the beginning. Also, in an interview which appear ed in

Paris Review in April 1962, Waugh explained that the need for the third volume emerged after finishing the second one, saying “It [the trilogy]

changed a lot in the writing. . . . The third volume reall y arose from the fact that Ludvic needed explain ing” (“Evel yn Waugh, The Art of Fiction No.30”). Naturall y, however, it was not onl y because he needed to delve more deepl y into each character. He needed to give Guy a higher aim in his life.

After losing all hope for England at the end of Officers and Gentlemen, Guy begins to seek a higher aim than honor or glory in the arm y. On his quest, he comes back to his father, who is a pious Roman Catholic and gives to Guy a piece of important advice. It leads to Guy ’s efforts in Unconditional Surrender: Guy makes every effort to show charit y during wartime. In other words, the descriptions of the battlefields in Men at Arms and Officers and Gentlemen are indispensable in order to expel from Guy the remnants of feudal times, of knighthood, and of ancient heroic figures like Sir Roger. Guy, unable to play any of the roles of a warrior, a pagan hero, or a m ythical Crusader, chooses to live as a civilian Catholic in Unconditional Surrender. The symbolic dogs in Officers and Gentlemen should be considered as companions of a pilgrim Guy in the hell of the battlefield. Officers and Gentlemen ends with anti -climax but not a dead end. From this viewpoint, Men at Arms and Officers and Gentlemen can be read as an important checkpoint for both Guy and the author Waugh:

to see the present world, relieved of the past.