The Drowned World portrays a planet that has been ravaged by climate change, but this climate change is not the result of human action. Rather than fossil fuels or pollution, the planet’s climate has been changed by “a series of violent and prolonged solar storms lasting several years” (33). Human civilization, as a result, has been destroyed by a random sequence of events millions of miles away. The entire collective endeavor of humanity as a species has been rendered moot by something that is entirely out of human control. The end of the world was a passive event inflicted on humanity by random chance, obliterating any human sense of agency over fate. Kerans was born in the time after civilization. He is a child of a changed world, someone who never knew society as it once was. This contrasts with Bodkin, who grew up in London and possesses treasured memories of the way the world used to be. Tellingly, they both suffer from the same sense of helplessness. This sense of helplessness is brought about by their lack of agency, as they both recognize—as does everyone else—that humanity is a physically weak species at the mercy of powerful, external forces. Each day spent in the sun, each hour spent in the sweltering heat, is a reminder of humanity’s lack of agency.

Nothing that anyone does seems likely to change the fact that humanity is headed for extinction, and all human endeavors therefore begin to feel pointless. The characters are caught in the same patterns of behavior, even though they feel that their actions have no meaning. Bodkin and Kerans, for example, have become certain that their scientific research is not being read. They inserted a joke comment about a strange creature in one report, only for it to pass by without comment. Whatever they discover in the swamps and lagoons, they are sure that their research will not lead to anything. Nevertheless, they continue. Likewise, Riggs leads a band of soldiers on a peace mission to patrol the drowned world. He helps survivors and scientists, functioning as the sole embodiment of institutional authority. Riggs may be the mouthpiece of the United Nations, but he, too, is certain that his mission is doomed to fail. He is an inspiration to his men, but he can do nothing to arrest the collapse of civilization. Beatrice categorically rejects modern existence, retreating into a dream world of performative nostalgia. She surrenders any sense of agency or control over her present by pretending to live in her grandfather’s era. The apocalypse has caused a loss of agency, leading to a pervasive sense of nihilism and alienation. The characters continue their lives but without any real conviction or purpose. They simply continue to exist, much as humanity itself is clinging on to survival despite the rising temperatures.

The novel presents a tension between apocalypse and agency, with Kerans striving to give his life a sense of meaning or purpose amid this collapse. Kerans gains no real purpose over the course of the narrative, but he does gain momentum. If the random solar fluctuations have nearly destroyed the planet and there is nothing he can do to outrun the sun, then he can at least face his future on his own terms. Like Hardman, Kerans becomes obsessed with the idea of the south. There, temperatures are higher, and conditions are even worse; Kerans and Hardman will surely die. However, they travel south, taking the same doomed journey in an attempt to assert agency over their own lives. Kerans does not want to run any longer. He wants to face the future on his own terms and in the manner that he decides. Rather than simply surviving, the journey south gives a direction to his life. The journey is vague and doomed, but Kerans is pleased to finally have something to do. He may not be able to save humanity, but he can gain agency over his own life, even if this hastens his death. He scrawls on the wall of a ruined temple, his final gesture of satisfied agency as he turns to face his own demise.

In the aftermath of the apocalypse, civilization is not what it once was. The characters of The Drowned World live among the ruins of the recent past, occupying physical symbols of what was once possible but now it is not. The great cities of the world are lost, reduced to iguana-infested swamps punctuated by the few buildings tall enough to rise above the water. Even among these ruins, however, the characters endeavor to preserve some semblance of civilization. Social performance has become a coping mechanism, as the characters continue many of the same behaviors as before but in a more pointed, deliberate manner. When Beatrice sips alcohol from her grandfather’s well-stocked bar, she is not only dulling her senses with drink. She is also replicating his lavish lifestyle; she is consciously replicating his actions in an attempt to maintain a degree of civilization in spite of everything around her. She peruses magazines that were published in an era she never knew and to which humanity cannot return. She refuses to leave her grandfather’s apartment because to do so would be to admit that civilization has been lost. Beatrice, like the other characters, is attempting to rebuild civilization on a small scale, replicating the aesthetics of civilization as the world becomes increasingly hostile and uncivilized. Beatrice’s performance of civilized society is, on its own, a social construct, an elaborate piece of theater that encompasses her whole life.

Beatrice is not alone in her desire to theatrically perpetuate social constructs. The characters all adhere to a system of middle-class etiquette dating back to the mid-20th century. Even though the year is 2145, the language and manners of mid-20th century Britain endure. They dress for each occasion, whether that involves dinner suits or Kerans donning “his khaki drill uniform [as] a minimal concession to Riggs’ preparations for departure” (60). Manners must be maintained at all times, even when the veneer of politeness masks a dislike or even hatred for someone else. Riggs and Kerans discuss “duty” (59), gesturing at some predetermined sense of responsibility and obligation that they both understand, even if they cannot describe it in exact detail. In effect, the social norms of mid-century Britain endure beyond the apocalypse, even as the characters are separated from London by 100 feet of flood water. Like Beatrice, the adherence to this social etiquette seems to be an almost conscious attempt to assure one another that society is still something to strive for. Civilization, they hope, is not the physical buildings and the sprawling cities but the small social gestures that they remember from the recent past. Continuing these social constructs, they hope, will preserve something of civilization.

Strangman exists as a deliberate rebuke to the mannerisms and values of the other characters. He is a chaotic, anarchic, amoral pirate who dedicates his life to looting and pillaging whatever is left of civilization. The great works of art that may once have been described as the pinnacle of human civilization are turned into sets for his amoral behavior, stripped of any intellectual or emotional value. Humanity’s great art is juxtaposed against the behavior of a man who completely rejects any kind of moral or social constraint. Strangman’s increasingly villainous behavior breaks down the last pillars of human civilization. He tries to kill Kerans and force himself on Beatrice after draining the lagoon and revealing the city of London as a festering sinkhole populated by his pirates. Strangman reveals the artifice of civilization, and Kerans hates it. Riggs reveals that Strangman may be given a medal for this, rather than face any punishment. This, for Kerans, is the ultimate demonstration that civilization, such as it exists, is a flimsy social construct. The United Nations, the last real institution and the arbiter of what amounts to civilization in a post-apocalyptic world, is ready to reward someone like Strangman. The cities may be drained, and the temperatures may fall, Kerans decides, but rewarding Strangman is a demonstration that whatever emerges afterward will not be civilized in any way. The vapid manners and ruined buildings will endure, but civilization itself will be shown to be nothing more than a word.