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Telephones represent the chaotic state of communication in modern life. Telephones are everywhere in the first two-thirds of A Handful of Dust, frequently initiating major turns in the plot. The frenetic hive of gossip that modern London has become depends on the telephone for its existence. Waugh was especially sensitive to the social effects of the telephone since it was still a recent technology, the use of which was rapidly spreading. In Waugh’s view, telephones’ ability to simulate closeness and expedite communication actually imposes a kind of distance and alienation between people, which obstructs true, meaningful communication. The communicative rupture between Tony Last and his wife Brenda Last becomes undeniable when he travels all the way to London to visit her, but he can only reach her by telephone. The pressure of unprecedented technologies on modern life, symbolized in the telephone, makes communication and its contents shallow and cheap. Significantly, telephones completely disappear from the last third of the novel, when Tony travels to the Amazon rainforest. The metaphorical breakdown of communication represented in the telephone becomes dramatically literal for Tony in the end, trapped and blocked from any contact with the outside world.
Telephones Quotes in A Handful of Dust
The A Handful of Dust quotes below all refer to the symbol of Telephones. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2: English Gothic—I
Quotes
But with the exception of her sister's, opinion was greatly in favour of Brenda's adventure. The morning telephone buzzed with news of her; even people with whom she had the barest acquaintance were delighted to relate that they had seen her and Beaver the evening before at a restaurant or cinema. It had been an autumn of very sparse and meagre romance; only the most obvious people had parted or come together, and Brenda was filling a want long felt by those whose simple, vicarious pleasure it was to discuss the subject in bed over the telephone […] The choice of Beaver raised the whole escapade into a realm of poetry for Polly and Daisy and Angela and all the gang of gossips.
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Chapter 3: Hard Cheese on Tony
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“But you can telephone her from here, can't you, daddy? Why did you go all the way to London to telephone her?... Why, daddy?”
“It would take too long to explain.”
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Telephones Symbol Timeline in A Handful of Dust
The timeline below shows where the symbol Telephones appears in A Handful of Dust. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Du Côté de Chez Beaver
...Beaver encourages John’s social climbing and freeloading efforts. John usually sits at home by the telephone, waiting for an invite to a free meal. These invitations are often last-minute, as his...
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While waiting by the phone in the hopes of receiving a lunch invite, John Beaver is delighted to finally get...
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Chapter 2: English Gothic—I
...cold to Brenda when they split for the night, and he remains so when she telephones him romantically once they’re home.
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...One night at her new apartment, Brenda enthuses about the flat to Tony over the telephone while Beaver lies beside her in bed.
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Chapter 4: English Gothic—II
...arms, but Tony insists that he doesn’t want her back. He has only one brief phone call with Brenda, who denies Allan’s downplaying of her affair and reaffirms her refusal to...
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Tony, in disbelief, calls Brenda, who confirms Reggie’s words: she hadn’t originally thought to renege on their verbal agreement,...
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