The Title
Vile Bodies is a symbolic title. The symbolism is tied to the concept of decay and rot which the tone of the text presents as being descriptive of the world these characters inhabit. The vile bodies might be said to refer less to individuals than the body politic of the world—Europe, in particular—who seemed to have learning nothing the global conflict which almost brought the whole thing to the point of extinction barely ten years earlier.
Partying
Partying is the symbolic activity of how these vile bodies have reacted to coming so close to losing their civilization. The world had reacted to almost allowing itself to be brought to its knees not by standing up straighter and taller and more proudly, but embracing exhibition and voyeurism and disgrace and indulging in its shame rather than seeking penance and redemption.
“(…parties at Oxford where one drank brown sherry and smoked Turkish cigarettes, dull dances in London and comic dances in Scotland and disgusting dances in Paris--all that succession and repetition of massed humanity…Those vile bodies…)”
Doubting Hall
One the more obvious bits of symbolism in the novel is the name of the estate which the Blount family calls home. Rather than Blount House or something appropriate like that, it is officially known as Doubting Hall. But a taxi driver whose English is not exactly of the British aristocratic class makes the symbolism abundantly clear in his heavily accented pronunciation: “Doubting ‘All.”
The Once and Future Prime Minister
As the novel commences, there is a new Prime Minister and his immediate predecessor is introduced as “The Right Honourable Walter Outrage, M.P., last week’s Prime Minister.” So, of course, when he regains the position, one way of phrasing such a circumstance would be a headline such as “Outrage Returns to Power.” He’s not a very good Prime Minister at all, it should be noted, for the sake if clarifying the symbolism at work here.
The Next War
This book was written between the two world wars which defined the first half of the 20th century. The key scene in the novel is a conversation between Outrage and Father Rothschild in which they work to explain the behavior the post-war generation of young adults. Father Rothschild says “Well, it’s like this war that’s coming” and, indeed, the novel ends with the sudden declaration of war that is like an eerily prescient foreshadowing of World War II. That war—the next war—symbolizes the hope that this time around lessons will be learned and civilization will work to improve itself rather than sink into decadent self-absorption.
