Life Class Post #3

As Life Class continues I am finding that the main driving force behind actions is jealousy. As the book goes on the more minor characters, Elinor and Neville, become more developed as we learn more about them. Neville, Elinor, and Paul spend the majority of my reading together at Elinor’s house which is strange as they have a weird sort of love triangle. Paul is still the main character and we view him as simply ordinary but as we read we see him transform from friend wanting more, learning about art as he goes, to a man destined for war, winning the love he wants from the beautiful Elinor. Paul is moving from his character flaw of nothing to say to a man with ideas and thoughts and expressive feelings that he can now share. He has had his relationship with Teresa and now as he moves on he is hungrier for experience, then the war starts and he feels he must join. Neville is a man that is in love with Elinor, actually it is closer to in lust. He is obsessed with obtaining her, almost like she is a prize he yearns after. Neville is a jealous, immature artist that creates some of the most beautiful paintings, probably due to the honesty in which he views the world. Our last main character, Elinor, is the object of love for both Paul and Neville but refuses them both. She is a extremely independent woman but also a little childish. She is an artist with big ideas but, when her mom challenges her way of life, she goes out of her way to contradict her mother. Elinor seems to want to prove that she is self-sufficient and she is so desperate to show every one that she denies herself love and fulfilling relationships. The book is a great representation of WW1 times. Also seen is the honest difference between men and women as the women are much more restrained and as Elinor’s mother sits alone, waiting for her husband to come home and he never does, we understand also how man and women interacted in the time period.
Life Class develops several themes; one of them being sex makes life harder and wrecks relationships. This is shown in Neville’s relationship with Elinor. They are split apart by his lust when she says, “There’s nothing to say. I won’t marry you, I don’t want an affair. I’m happy as we are” to this he replies, “Perhaps it would be better if we didn’t see each other for a while” (137). The conflict of sex tears these two apart showing that sex is a bad thing. Another theme is that beauty comes in many forms. As all of these characters are artists, we see their different ideas of what real art and beauty is. “You are explaining it all away. Both of you. It’s to good for that” (110). This Elinor says after Neville calls a painting ugly and explains why and Paul speculates how it was created. This shows that beauty is different for everyone and people are not a constant.