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Essay- The Loved One Evelyn Waugh satirises death and life by centring his novel “The Loved One” around two funeral parlours, the Happier Hunting Ground and Whispering Glades. Through death, the characters lives are based. It is through the Happier Hunting Ground and Whispering Glades, both places of death, that we see how they live their lives. By openly satirising death, it satirises life by implication. We see the Hollywood industry, romance, English life, and the death of a pet satirised. When Dennis Barlow enters the Whispering Glades, the “Dreamer”, Wilbur Kenworthy uses euphemism and propaganda to attract people to the funeral parlour. The sculpture of a large open book made out of marble, reads: Behold I dreamed a dream and I saw a New Earth sacred to Happiness. There amid all that Nature and Art could offer to elevate the Soul of Man I say the Happy Resting Place of Countless Loved Ones. And I saw the Waiting Ones who still stood on the brink of that narrow stream that now separated them from those who had gone before. Young and old, they were happy too. Happy in Beauty, Happy in the certain knowledge that their Loved Ones were very near, in Beauty and Happiness such as the earth cannot give. I heard a voice say: ‘Do this.’ And behold I awoke and in the Light and Promise of my DREAM I made WHISPERING GLADES. ENTER STRANGER and BE HAPPY. (pg 34) This message at the gates of the funeral parlour is there to make you feel like they have opened this especially for the good of their customers, this is good propaganda but underneath this is a modest wooden sign that says “Prices on inquiry at Administrative Building. Drive straight on”. (pg 34). This reminds us that they are not there for you, but to make money for themselves.
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