Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Known as one of the most conflicting English novels of the war eras and represents the greater age concerning the downfall of the aristocracy. It’s full title being “Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder” leaves a lot to be imagined about what is so ‘profane’ about these memories and why the other memories are opposing these. Charles Ryder is the main character of a narrative that spans somewhere to 20 years and it tells the story of his relations with a strange aristocratic family named ‘The Flytes’.

He sees how they are dysfunctional and approaching an age which will not treat them kindly. Starting off at the end of the story, it looks back in nostalgia on to the main narrative. The memories come flowing back when, in the prologue, Charles Ryder is a soldier who takes his battalion to a country estate called Brideshead. He cannot stop the flashbacks that take over his mind. A beautiful and thrilling tale of romance and loss, this is one of the greatest English novels ever written.

The Plot

The main part of the narrative is divided up and framed by a prologue and an epilogue. The prologue sends us back into the past from the present days of the end of World War 2. We are dragged back into the subconscious of Charles Ryder who tells us a story titled: ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’. Set in Oxford University in 1922, Charles Ryder meets the eccentric Lord Sebastian Flyte whom though he is warned against becoming close to, is ultimately drawn to. Sebastian also has a teddy bear named Aloysius, which everyone thinks is rather adorable until you realise he is almost 20 years’ old and might not want to carry that thing around or talk to it the way he does. Sebastian then takes Charles to Brideshead in Wiltshire where he then meets Sebastian’s family. Charles returns to London but is called back to Brideshead at some speed where he spends the remainder of the summer holidays with Sebastian. He then finds out that after converting to Catholicism to marry his wife, the man of the house has not only abandoned his religion but had also abandoned his family for Venice.

The second part of the main narrative is called ‘Brideshead Deserted’ and focuses more on the downfall of Lord Sebastian Flyte. Sebastian has a drinking problem and though his family try to stop him drinking, it actually worsens the problem rather than solves it. Sebastian’s mother has an argument with Charles which makes him believe he is leaving Brideshead for the last time whilst Julia (the daughter) is getting married in a weird match to a Canadian businessman. Sebastian gets worse whilst drifting away mentally and becoming more deathly by the second. Fleeing to Morocco, he drinks until he has completely ruined every prospect of his health and most obviously, Charles goes in search of his friend. To sick to return to England but not in Morocco either, Lord Sebastian Flyte’s financial affairs are put into the care of Charles Ryder, who finds the lady of the house very sick. Charles paints some portraits of the doomed house before it is set for demolition.

In the third part of the main narrative is called ‘A Twitch Upon a Thread’ and consists of Charles reuniting with Julia in strange circumstances that involve Latin America and unhappy marriages. The other sister, Cordelia, predicts the death of her brother, the self-destructive Lord Sebastian Flyte and on the eve of World War 2 the head of the house returns to Brideshead for a moment of contemplation. A return to faith then changes absolutely everything Charles thought was about to be in this strangest of passionate endings.

The epilogue deals with Charles grief in around 1944 when he finds Brideshead has been taken for military use and the private chapel of the family once sealed shut has been opened. He makes a last contemplation upon the house, upon the family and upon the future.

Of course there are many other things that happen but this is a simple overview of the story which helps the reader come to understand these profane memories as pieces of his life which he cannot admit to his faith. Parts of his life he chooses to keep hidden therefore have always begged the question as to what Charles and Sebastian’s friendship really meant and whether it was in any way romantic.

Into the Book

There are many themes in ‘Brideshead Revisited’ and also many interesting motifs and symbols that we can analyse to help us make meaning of the book. One of the main symbols I want to focus on to begin with is that of Aloysius the teddy bear, belonging to Sebastian Flyte. Aloysius is both a source of the readers sorrow and contempt over the treatment and behaviours of Lord Sebastian Flyte as he is seen as both a child-like adult of an aristocratic heritage and yet, he is a victim of circumstance in the worst way imaginable - he is lonely.

His entire friendship with Charles Ryder can pretty much be summed up by the way he interacts with Aloysius as, like Charles, he depends on the teddy bear for glib comforts when he is feeling down. This tells us two things: first that Sebastian is pretty much alone in his life, not having many friends (one of his friends was also expelled from Oxford in the first year there) and this also explains the impulsiveness behind inviting Charles to Brideshead and getting him involved with such a volatile family (which Sebastian must have known) so quickly after meeting him. Secondly, Sebastian has not been allowed to grow up under the shadow of the things his father has done.

Fatherless and uninhabited, he has been allowed to develop with a lack of morality and discipline which leads to his downward spiral later in the novel. Aloysius is just an inanimate version of Charles, when Charles is present and very much involved with Sebastian the reader will notice that Aloysius is not really around that much anymore. Therefore, the symbolism for Sebastian being forced to grow several years in the space of a few is not just Aloysius, but Aloysius disappearing.

“If it could only be like this always – always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe and Aloysius in a good temper…”

- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Another piece of this book I think is apt for discussion is the fear of the future. There is ample fear of the future through the dislike of the present, or even a discontent with the present not being enough and I believe that though it is not picked up as often - it is still a key theme to understanding the book. Especially regarding the passage of time and the way the frame narrative is used to contain those ‘sacred and profane’ memories, the misunderstood past, the discontented present and the fearsome future are three stages in the development of the story which begin with the prologue as taking Charles back to a memory that is almost traumatising. As we go through the text, we see events such as Charles meeting Sebastian at Oxford - an event which is met with some suspense seeing as Charles clearly remembers being warned off becoming friends with the tragic young man.

Another memory Charles seems to have some reserves about is his part in Sebastian’s downfall and his drinking habit which leads him to becoming disconnected with the wild family of Flytes. The remarks about the present being a discontented mess litter the sections of the main narrative and contribute to the idea of secrecy that pervades the book. A momentary public happiness therefore, cannot tell us the private thoughts of the individual - leading us to read about these ideas in a ‘sacred and profane’ manner, delving into things we technically should not know.

The present is always a confusing time in the novel, being the result of a miseducation or an overly intelligent outlook, or even an overly philosophical viewpoint. It is explored through the differences in generations in the novel. The older generation being more rigid and easier to understand, the younger generation being more perplexing and difficult to understand. Therefore, the fear of the future is entirely dependent on how these perplexing figures grow up. Sebastian grows into a tragic figure, Julia is entirely discontented with her position and Charles is left pretty much in limbo between the two of them. It is perplexing to say the least.

“But these young people have such an intelligent, knowledgeable surface, and then the crust suddenly breaks and you look down into depths of confusion you didn't know existed…”

- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The final theme I will discuss is perhaps a more obvious one which pulses through the book and adds meaning to the constant philosophising of Charles Ryder - religion. The way in which God is understood by the characters is also the way in which they respond to their own situations. The only time at which Sebastian realises that religion is a better way to go is when he is already halfway to death and in a horrid condition. The question of whether he wants to repent or is fearful that it might almost be too late to do so arises many times in the critical analyses of this book.

However, it is how Charles understands religion and God that gives the reader something to chew on for the majority of the book. Obviously, calling some of his memories ‘profane’ produces that semantic link to the field of religion but, throughout the novel, Charles attributes ideas of the heavenly and euphoric to things that are about to fall apart from the image of Brideshead to Sebastian Flyte himself. Ironically, he describes part of Brideshead as a “life-giving spring” which, early on in the text may seem like a correct interpretation based on appearances.

Be that as it may, as the text evolves, he realises how wrong he is. The attribution of something that gives life to a house filled with volatile and sick people is quickly seen as Charles starts to spend more of his summer at Brideshead. This “life-giving spring” turns into “the fierce little human tragedy” by the end of the book, an image that completely juxtaposes his “conversion to the Baroque” when he first steps within the walls of Brideshead.

Therefore, what we can see of Charles Ryder’s view on religion is that most of the time, it is blinded by context. When he sees that the situation is stable and good, his religious fervour turns to euphoric imagery, blinding him from what is bubbling beneath the surface. When the situation is bad, his temperament turns to depressive episodes of contemplation in which he is blinded from the good. Sometimes this is seen as a fault in his character whereas, this is the one thing that makes him closest to a real human being. We only contemplate quietly when we are in dire situations - not when things are good.

“Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there's no room for the present at all.”

- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Why It’s a Masterpiece

This book is a masterpiece for a number of reasons. The first and foremost reason is the storyline being so destructive and yet so simplistic. It is a great delusion of grandeur by the author who puts on a tragedy in modern English form. It slowly disintegrates before the reader’s eyes and we are left with all the wondering and dreaming of what Charles Ryder is really thinking when he comes to the epilogue of his memory in the final days of World War 2. Another reason why it is a masterpiece is because of the characterisation. The oppositions in character between the tragic Sebastian Flyte and the easily led and charmed Charles Ryder. The opposition in character between the philosophical Charles Ryder and the impulsive Sebastian Flyte.

There is always something about the characters that are meant to push them from each other but end up attracting them to each other and as we know, this clash of personality and this uneven balance of relationship only leads to absolute disaster. The third is the fact that it pretty much sums up the era of history in which it is set. The death of the aristocracy in the beginnings of the 20th century is seen as a turning point towards a more equal future, but more than often we forget that not all of them were these ivory tower monsters, some of them were children who never grew up and weren’t allowed to, some of them were deeply troubled by the mental trauma thrust upon them from childhood, some of them were victims of circumstance that were about to become victims of modern context.

However, the irony of religion whilst indulging should not be lost on the reader and if this book is making you angry about them then it’s done its job. This is a book which shows everyone - rich and poor - their own shame and misunderstanding. We are worlds away from each other and it has solved nothing.

Conclusion

A heartbreaking tragedy wrapped in anger, over-zealous friendship and destructive personalities, I believe that ‘Brideshead Revisited’ is one of those underrated classics that you should put on your list of books to read. A complex read of family turning towards disaster whilst all the narrator can do is watch and try to help as best he can, he doesn’t realise that he is coming under their sociopathic spell one step into the building at a time.

Next Week: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery