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Geroge Orwell Cassowary Colorizations, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
INTRODUCTION
George Orwell’s Keep the Aspidistra Flying, first published in 1936, is one of his most incisive and darkly humorous novels. Written before his most famous works—Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)—this novel takes on the themes of poverty, class struggle, the tyranny of money, love, disillusionment, and artistic failure.
At its core, the story follows Gordon Comstock, a failed poet in his early thirties, who makes a dramatic decision to turn his back on the “money-world” of bourgeois respectability. Yet in doing so, he spirals into destitution, alienation, and despair.
Orwell uses Gordon’s self-destructive rebellion to satirize both the worship of money and the hollow resistance to it.
The title itself is symbolic: the aspidistra, a common houseplant in middle-class English homes, represents domestic respectability, financial security, and conformity. Gordon despises it, but by the end, he finds himself submitting to it. The novel is a tragedy of rebellion defeated by reality, but it is also Orwell’s wry examination of class and capitalism in 1930s London.
SHORT SUMMARY
George Orwell’s 1936 novel, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, is a potent and cynical examination of poverty, social class, and the oppressive power of money. The narrative follows its protagonist's principled but self-destructive rebellion against what he perceives as a materialistic, class-based society. The novel serves as a powerful critique of capitalist values and a poignant study of creative frustration.
The story centers on Gordon Comstock, a talented but disillusioned poet who has deliberately chosen a life of poverty as a form of rebellion against what he calls the "money-world." He works in a small, soul-crushing bookshop in London and exists on the fringes of society, driven by his unwavering belief that money corrupts art and intellect. His rebellion is deeply rooted in his contempt for the middle-class aspirations symbolized by the aspidistra, a resilient but mundane houseplant that represents respectability and a stagnant, conventional life.
The central conflict of the novel arises from Gordon’s struggle to maintain his principles in the face of grinding destitution. His relationships, particularly with his long-suffering girlfriend, Rosemary, and his affluent friend, Ravelston, are constantly strained by his pride and his refusal to engage with the economic system he despises. He rejects their help and spurns their generosity, believing that to accept it would be to compromise his artistic integrity. Gordon's poverty becomes an all-consuming force, dictating every aspect of his life, from his social interactions to his ability to write.
The plot documents his gradual descent into an even deeper state of despair and self-loathing as his principles fail to provide him with either happiness or artistic success.
The novel culminates in a series of events that challenge Gordon's unwavering anti-money stance. Rosemary becomes pregnant with his child, a reality that forces him to confront the consequences of his uncompromising ideology. The imminent arrival of a child, a vulnerable life for which he is responsible, shatters his detached, rebellious existence. This new reality makes his principled stance against money seem selfish and ultimately unsustainable.
The novel concludes with Gordon surrendering to the very forces he has so passionately opposed. He reluctantly accepts a job in advertising, an industry he loathes, and marries Rosemary. The final, symbolic act of the novel is when he purchases a small aspidistra plant for his new, respectable home. This poignant gesture signifies his complete defeat and his reluctant assimilation into the money-world he once scorned.
The novel, therefore, is not a celebration of artistic defiance but a bleak and tragic portrait of a man who discovers that his moral convictions were ultimately no match for the practical realities of life and the responsibilities of love.
ANALYTICAL SUMMARY
Scene-by-Scene Breakdown with Thematic Analysis
Opening: Gordon’s World of Rebellion
The novel begins with Gordon Comstock, a young man of “bookish, gloomy aspect,” employed in a small second-hand bookshop in London. Orwell immediately establishes Gordon’s disdain for money and respectability.
“It is a dreadful thing to live on the raw edge of poverty, but it is even worse to have a safe little job and an aspidistra in the window.”
Here, the central conflict is laid bare: Gordon would rather embrace hardship than compromise with the materialist world. He works at McKechnie’s Bookshop for a pittance, rejecting his earlier career in advertising, which he views as morally bankrupt. His deliberate poverty is framed as a protest, but it is also tinged with vanity.
Themes introduced: anti-materialism, artistic struggle, class resentment.
Gordon’s Rejection of Advertising
Through flashbacks and Gordon’s bitter musings, Orwell reveals his past as a copywriter at a successful advertising agency. Despite his talent, Gordon quits, disgusted by what he calls the “Money God.”
“It’s all bunk. Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill-bucket.”
This choice is pivotal: Gordon’s self-sabotage is both an act of rebellion and self-punishment. The scene underscores Orwell’s critique of capitalist society but also Gordon’s immaturity and self-righteousness. His pride leads him to embrace poverty as a badge of honor.
Life at McKechnie’s Bookshop
The bookshop is dingy, badly managed, and symbolic of Gordon’s wasted potential. Customers are few, and his pay is barely enough to survive. Orwell paints the shop as a microcosm of decay—dust, poverty, and neglect—reflecting Gordon’s own moral and physical decline.
Here, Gordon’s pride begins to clash with reality: he cannot afford to eat properly, he drinks excessively, and he neglects his poetry. His refusal to engage with the “money-world” gradually undermines his supposed artistic purpose.
Relationships: Rosemary and Ravelston
Two central relationships anchor Gordon’s social life:
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Rosemary Waterlow, Gordon’s patient girlfriend, who works as a typist. She is affectionate but increasingly frustrated with Gordon’s refusal to move forward in life. She longs for stability, which he despises. Their relationship embodies the tension between love and ideology.
“The thing that keeps a decent girl from marrying is poverty. Love is all very well, but one must live.”
Rosemary represents both genuine affection and the pull of conventional respectability—the very world Gordon rejects but secretly yearns for.
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Philip Ravelston, Gordon’s wealthy friend and editor of a left-wing magazine. Ravelston is sympathetic to Gordon’s plight and helps him financially at times, but he can never fully understand poverty because of his privileged background.
Ravelston is a satirical portrait of bourgeois socialists: well-meaning but cushioned from the struggles they write about. His presence highlights the class divide and the hypocrisy of intellectual socialism in 1930s London.
Gordon’s Artistic Failure
Though he once published a volume of poetry, Mice, Gordon’s literary career has stalled. He cannot focus, partly because of hunger, partly because of bitterness. His poems receive no attention.
This section is crucial: Orwell shows that Gordon’s rebellion against money has not liberated his art—it has crushed it. Poverty, far from being romantic, is stifling and degrading.
“It is fatal to look hungry. It makes people want to kick you.”
Here lies one of Orwell’s central insights: the romantic image of the starving artist collapses under the brutal reality of actual starvation.
The Pub and Decline into Alcoholism
Much of Gordon’s time is spent in pubs, where he drinks away what little money he has. Alcohol becomes both escape and self-destruction. Orwell vividly describes Gordon’s aimless drifting through smoky taverns, highlighting his alienation and despair.
Themes: addiction, escapism, the destructive cycle of poverty.
The Escalating Poverty
Gordon’s financial situation worsens. He struggles to pay rent, pawn his possessions, and even buy food. Orwell does not romanticize his poverty; he portrays it as humiliating and corrosive. Gordon’s shoes fall apart, he avoids creditors, and he feels degraded by every social interaction.
This section underscores Orwell’s theme that poverty robs people of dignity and autonomy. Gordon’s rebellion begins to look less like courage and more like failure.
The Turning Point: The Night with Rosemary
In one of the novel’s most significant scenes, Gordon and Rosemary finally sleep together after a long period of frustration. Their physical union is passionate, but it comes with consequences: Rosemary becomes pregnant.
This development forces Gordon to confront reality. His rebellion against money and respectability can no longer continue in the face of responsibility.
“The aspidistra is the tree of life. Break it, and life falls to pieces.”
The pregnancy symbolizes the inevitability of Gordon’s submission to the very middle-class world he despises.
Desperation and the Hospital Episode
Shortly after the pregnancy revelation, Gordon collapses into near destitution. He ends up in a hospital after a drunken episode, physically broken and mentally defeated. Orwell presents this as Gordon’s absolute nadir.
The hospital scene illustrates the consequences of his choices: rebellion without responsibility leads only to degradation. Orwell also critiques society’s lack of sympathy for the poor—Gordon is treated as just another failure.
Resolution: Submission to the Aspidistra
In the final chapters, Gordon reconciles with Rosemary and decides to marry her. He takes a stable job in advertising once again, abandoning his pretensions of pure artistic rebellion.
The novel closes with an image of conformity: Gordon accepts the aspidistra in the window. On one level, this ending is deeply ironic—his rebellion has failed. On another, Orwell suggests that Gordon has finally embraced reality over self-delusion.
“It’s a dreadful thing to be poor, but it’s worse to have money without security.”
The ending encapsulates the tragic compromise of modern life: to live, one must submit to the economic system, even at the cost of one’s ideals.
Thematic Analysis
1. The Tyranny of Money
The most pervasive theme in the novel is the power of money. Gordon despises it, yet his every thought and action revolves around it. Orwell shows that rejecting money entirely is impossible—it governs dignity, love, and survival.
The aspidistra plant, symbol of bourgeois respectability, becomes the novel’s central metaphor: ugly, common, but indestructible, just like the social order. Gordon’s final capitulation demonstrates the futility of escaping this reality.
2. Poverty and Dehumanization
Orwell draws heavily from his own experiences of poverty in the 1930s. He depicts poverty not as noble but as humiliating, grinding, and isolating. Gordon’s every interaction—whether buying a pint or wooing Rosemary—is poisoned by his lack of money.
This aligns with Orwell’s nonfiction work, particularly Down and Out in Paris and London (1933). Poverty strips people of dignity, and Gordon’s rebellion becomes meaningless when reduced to sheer survival.
3. Love vs. Ideology
Gordon’s relationship with Rosemary is a central conflict: his pride prevents him from embracing stability, while her patience and love push him toward it. Her pregnancy becomes the catalyst that forces him to abandon rebellion.
This tension highlights Orwell’s larger point: human connection and survival ultimately outweigh abstract ideology.
4. Artistic Failure and Illusion
Gordon’s dream of being a poet collapses under the weight of hunger and despair. Orwell critiques the romantic notion of the starving artist. True creativity, he suggests, cannot flourish without at least minimal stability.
5. Class and Hypocrisy
Through Ravelston, Orwell satirizes the privileged socialist intellectuals of his time. While sympathetic, they cannot truly understand poverty. This theme reflects Orwell’s broader concern with class divisions in Britain, a recurring subject in his work.
Conclusion: The Irony of Defeat
Keep the Aspidistra Flying is at once a dark comedy and a tragedy. Gordon’s rebellion against money, class, and respectability ends not in triumph but in reluctant conformity. The aspidistra—once despised—becomes his fate.
Yet Orwell does not mock Gordon entirely. Instead, he exposes the impossibility of escaping the economic system, especially in a society where money dictates survival, dignity, and love.
The novel is both a warning and a lament: idealism without pragmatism collapses into misery, but submission to conformity kills the spirit. In Gordon’s defeat, Orwell captures the universal tension between dreams and reality, rebellion and responsibility.
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