One of the poignant and bittersweet themes of the book is that Chipping so outlasts all of his peers that his brief marriage fades into myth and few people know him as anything other than a confirmed and lonely bachelor. Despite Chipping's mediocre credentials and his view that classic Greek and Latin (his academic subjects) are dead languages, he is an effective teacher who becomes highly regarded by students and the school's governors—he has become a well-worn institution. In his later years, he develops an arch sense of humour that pleases everyone. However, he also becomes somewhat of an anachronism, with an antiquated pronunciation (ironic, perhaps for a teacher of classical languages) and is pitied for his isolation. On his deathbed, he talks of the fulfillment he felt as a teacher of boys. In many ways, the novella can be read as a meditation on the meaning of an unspectacular life, quietly lived.