Brenda in 'A Handful of Dust'. In this excerpt, which takes place after Tony has left for the Amazon, Waugh continues to allow his reader to come to their own conclusions about the characteristics and behaviour of Brenda by examining what she does and wh

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Explore the presentation and behaviour of Lady Brenda Last here and elsewhere in the novel.

In your answer you should consider:

form, style, vocabulary and narrative viewpoint;

the ways in which attitudes and values are conveyed to the reader.

In this excerpt, which takes place after Tony has left for the Amazon, Waugh continues to allow his reader to come to their own conclusions about the characteristics and behaviour of Brenda by examining what she does and what she says rather than through the narrator or author’s own viewpoint.  Nevertheless, the inclusion of irony, (of plot, character and dramatic) here as elsewhere in the novel leads his readers to form an opinion of Brenda, the adulterous wife who happens to sleep in a bedroom named Guinevere,  which may very well have been what the author intended.  As Brenda dances with Jock, discussing her Mr. Beaver and her absent husband, we are left in no doubt that this is a woman who is used to and enjoys the good life, likes to be in control of both herself and others and who is selfish and self-serving in the extreme.

Indeed, it is ironic that Brenda is discussing her life with Jock as we learnt from Mrs. Beaver at the start of the novel that “everyone thought that she would marry Jock Grant Menzies” and Jock himself seems to have always had a high opinion of the “grand girl” and “devoted wife” (irony).  It appears that his opinion does not alter despite his knowledge of Brenda’s adultery and rather unfeeling reaction to the news he himself delivered on the death of her son as we learn at the end of the novel that Brenda goes on to marry him.  Perhaps this also helps to emphasise that the immorality of Brenda’s affair is not viewed with any great dismay by the society circles in which Brenda and Jock move in. Her sister and the rest of the London set, like Jock, have already showed an acceptance of the affair, inviting the adulterous couple to their soirees and homes. However, we learn that Brenda’s attendance at such sparkling occasions with guests such as Lady Anchorage, is likely to be coming to an end due to her impending divorced status and lack of finance and this change of attitude may have already begun as she comments on the difficulty she had in getting Beaver invited to the party that night. Could this be the reason for her eventual marriage to Jock?  After all “it didn’t take her long to get hitched up again”.

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This would come as no surprise as Brenda throughout the novel seems more concerned about her personal pleasure than the hurt she is causing others.  It may be that the affair with the unattractive and unpopular Mr. Beaver was her means of escape from the tedious domesticity of her life with Tony.  Throughout the affair she doesn’t give much thought to her husband or son as she sets about making a new life for herself, getting Tony to agree to the flat in London by using the excuse of the fake economics course and leaving her family for long ...

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