Nihilism
Although the guests say grace before a meal, and show respect with demeanor and choice of clothing when the Vicar arrives on the island, they appear to have given up all generally accepted morals in pursuit of their own pampered happiness. Ambrose Gorringe wants to keep his life exactly the way that it is, with butlered parties, beautiful artifacts and fulfilling theater, and in his morality this has more value than the lives of Simon Lessing and Cordelia Gray. He similarly expresses that he would rather find any of his guests drowned in the pool than his butler, not because of a deep bond with his manservant but because to be without Munster would be to deprive himself of delicious cooked meals and an easy existence. The majority of the relationships in the novel are not examples of people who are friends but rather people thrown together by a value system that puts a higher value on the pursuit of beauty and art than of an individual person, therefore creating individuals who will sacrifice anyone who might threaten their status quo.
