Genre
Modernist
Setting and Context
Pre-WWI Paris
Narrator and Point of View
From the perspectives of two characters – English Frederick Tarr, and German Otto Kreisler
Tone and Mood
A deeply satirical tone, with black humor.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonists: Frederick Tarr and Otto Kreisler
Major Conflict
Tarr and Kreisler are both interested in the same women.
Climax
Tarr and Kreisler both find themselves wrought with personal struggle as their lives go spiraling into tragedy and conflict.
Foreshadowing
Tarr and Kreisler's conflicting personalities foreshadows their later conflict in women.
Understatement
The entire novel can be seen as an understatement or satire of the underlying societal norms of the 1900s/1910s, such as disdain for the lower-class.
Allusions
The setting of the story alludes to historical pre-war attitudes in Europe.
Imagery
No significant instances
Paradox
No significant instances
Parallelism
Lewis has said that he has wondered if the German Kreisler, in his despairing artist form, paralleled Hitler's personality.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The character of Tarr can be seen as representing Lewis's own classist attitudes.
Personification
No significant instances
