What is the significance of the title, The Dying Animal?

The title, taken from the Yeats poem “Sailing to Byzantium,” serves as a symbolic catch-all for most of the characters in the novel. They are “sick with desire,” to use Yeats’ phrase, and aging quickly, unable to reconcile their sexual urges with the reality of their lives. Instead of accepting the ebbing of their desires, or at least their limitations, they cheat on their wives, have unrealistic affairs with people half their age, or remain in uncommitted and ultimately unfulfilling casual relationships. For instance, George, an aging poet, has affairs with younger women, and eventually dies; David, in his sixties, has an atypical relationship with Consuela, a former student; Kenny cheats on his wife, but in the only way he knows how—seriously; Carolyn, twice divorced and middle-aged, continues to sleep with David; and Elena puts up with an endless series of expensive, bad dates with men she has no interest in. Even Consuela, the paragon of youth and beauty, faces death directly at the end of the novel. Therefore, each of these characters could aptly be described as “dying animals.”