Decline and Fall | Themes

Decline and Fall Themes

The question of how one can lead an ethical life in an unethical world is at the core of Decline and Pall, and Paul Pennyfeather is the only one of the novel's dramatis personae to do the right thing when confronted with a difficult moral decision. He has to choose between either shielding the guilty woman he loves or condemning her to a prison sentence for which she is much less well prepared than he, and he opts for the former in a spirit of renunciation not unlike that of a religious martyr. Although Pennyfeather realizes that the person he is protecting is unworthy of his sacrifice, making it gives him such a sense of rightness and satisfaction that he is left with no doubt as to the correctness of his action: Having remained innocent of the self-delusions practiced by his contemporaries, he is still capable of behaving in a...
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