W histlejacket paints a bleak picture of the wasted lives of the leisure class. They are depicted as lost in a pointless, highly ritualized pursuit of sex and other amusements. In Hawkes's novel, horses serve as symbols of the characters' foolish cruelty and obsession with appearances.

Hawkes uses a famous horse of long ago, Whistlejacket, to symbolize rampant manhood; it was aggressive, hard to control, and possibly mad. Years after its death, men admire George Stubbs's painting of Whistlejacket, noting how the artist captured the horse's strong, muscular quality. A major character in the novel is Hal, who owns Marcabru, a horse he believes to be a direct descendant of Whistlejacket. It is uncontrollable by anyone but himself.

Hal is a sexual predator who lives with both a wife and a mistress, and frequently brings home other young female bed partners. Marcabru is an expression of...