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Motif
Explanation and Analysis—Greed:
The recurring motif of greed develops the themes of wealth and waste in The Beautiful and Damned. In Chapter 9, the narrator describes the long-awaited end to the trial around Anthony's grandfather's will:
Three weeks later the trial came to an end. The seemingly endless spool of legal red tape having unrolled over a period of four and a half years, suddenly snapped off. Anthony and Gloria and, on the other side, Edward Shuttleworth and a platoon of beneficiaries testified and lied and ill-behaved generally in varying degrees of greed and desperation.
Rather than focusing on the tragedy of the old man's death, his potential beneficiaries fight over his fortune. Everyone involved in the trial is "ill-behaved" and motivated by greed and desperation. For instance, Anthony relies on his lawyer to make personal attacks on Shuttleworth rather than focusing on strictly legal proceedings. And in Chapter 6, both he and Gloria wish that Adam Patch had died before witnessing the party. They seem enervated by greed and incapable of basic human empathy.
Furthermore, the novel's entire plot arc depends on their greed. Both Anthony and Gloria are born into a high social class that permits them to pursue fruitless activities. However, when Anthony is disinherited, the couple loses their financial security. Their expectation of unlimited funds and entitlement to other people's money discourages them from developing their own careers. They fall further into destitution, become desperate, and engage in a lawsuit (which degrades their public reputation) in order to regain Anthony's inheritance. The motif of greed highlights the recurring themes of wealth and waste while supporting the plot arc of Gloria and Anthony's moral degeneration.
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