A Handful of Dust Themes

Communication breakdown lies at the heart of A Handful of Dust. English landed gentry Tony and Brenda’s marriage collapses because of a mutual failure to communicate: Brenda conceals her real feelings about Hetton, Tony’s ancestral estate (“[…] so appallingly ugly. Only I’d rather die than say that to Tony”), initially to protect Tony’s feelings, but her concealment breeds boredom and resentment that evolves into more malign deception in the form of her…

Religion, morality, and tradition are notably absent from the lives of the characters in A Handful of Dust. This conspicuous absence is precisely Waugh’s point in the novel, which seeks to portray the hollowness of a society where religion, morality, and tradition have lost their grip. Amoral and mendacious behavior dominates Brenda’s London social scene. Its status-obsessed members seem incapable of, and uninterested in, anything beyond ephemeral gossip and social climbing. Tony’s unoffending…

The last third of A Handful of Dust features a shocking twist, pivoting from London society to the furthest reaches of the known world in the Brazilian jungle. This unexpected move allows Waugh to sharpen his incisive critique of the “civilization” of his day. Waugh counterpoints Tony’s struggles in the Amazon with scenes of Brenda in London to highlight the barbarism of “civilized” life. Brenda stays in bed living off delivered sandwiches, while John…