Brideshead Revisited

Brideshead Revisited (1945) is a novel by English author Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966). When Charles Ryder's army unit is stationed at an abandoned rural estate, he recognizes it as the ancestral home of the prestigious Flyte family. Having spent a wonderful summer there 20 years ago, Charles reminisces about his experiences with the Flyte family and his development. As Waugh's most famous work, Brideshead Revisited is a profound mediation on faith and love.

Brideshead Revisited: Summary

Towards the end of WWII, Captain Charles Ryder is serving in the English army. His company has not seen much action and constantly moves around the English countryside for training, often posted to large country estates previously inhabited by the disappearing English aristocracy.

When the company arrives at a large estate in southern England, he recalls having been there 20 years ago. Known as Brideshead Castle, the family home was the ancestral home of the prestigious Flyte family. The novel flashes back to the 1920s as Charles recalls meeting Sebastian Flyte during their first year at Oxford University.

Fig. 1 - Charles first meets Sebastian at the prestigious Oxford University, an institution populated by children of rich and powerful families.

Sebastian is cultured and free-willed and introduces Charles to a more carefree approach to living. The pair drink heavily and develop a deep, loving friendship. When Sebastian invites Charles to the family home during the summer break, Charles learns that Sebastian's father, Lord Marchmain, had converted to Catholicism to marry Lady Marchmain. However, after serving in WWI, Lord Machmain renounced his faith and abandoned the family. He has lived in Italy with another woman ever since. Lady Marchmain is a devoutly Catholic woman who loves her children but attempts to exercise a great deal of control over them.

At Brideshead, Charles learns about the family's commitment to Catholicism. Lady Marchmain has a Catholic chapel built on the manor's grounds, and many of the family's discussions on morality and ethics revolve around Catholic dogma. Charles meets Sebastian's younger sister, Julia, who seems obsessed with getting married to someone with social connections and wealth. Sebastian and Charles return to Oxford the following semester, where Sebastian begins to drink heavily, much to his mother's embarrassment and concern.

Fig. 2 - Brideshead Castle is the atypical country estate occupied by families from English aristocracy.

During an Easter visit to Brideshead, a drunken Sebastian vomits in Charles' room. Lady Marchmain makes Charles promise to keep an eye on Sebastian at Oxford and help him curb his drinking. When Sebastian is discovered drunk on campus grounds, Lady Marchmain withdraws him from Oxford. Feeling lost without Sebastian, a disheartened Charles drops out and moves to France to study art.

As Charles returns to his studies, Sebastian sets off traveling through Europe. When Charles returns to England, Julia tells him Lady Marchmain is dying and wants to see him. Lady Marchmain apologizes to Charles and begs him to find Sebastian and bring him home. Charles finally tracks Sebastian down to a hospital in Tunisia. Sebastian has developed a close relationship with a man named Kurt, who Charles thinks is taking advance of his friend. Kurt appears to be unstable and is constantly using Sebastian for his money. Despite the unhealthy dynamic between the pair, Sebastian tells Charles that looking after Kurt gives him a sense of responsibility and fulfillment he never felt in his familial relationships.

Ten years pass, and Charles has become a successful painter of historical sites. He is unhappily married and still struggling to find some sense of fulfillment in his life. When returning home to England on a cruise ship, Charles runs into Julia Flyte and her husband. Julia also feels trapped in a loveless marriage and begins to confide in Charles throughout the cruise. The couple begins an affair and falls deeply in love.

Fig. 3 - After struggling to find happiness in life and relationships, both Charles and Julia find a sense of meaning in their affair.

Having finally found some sense of happiness, Charles and Julia plan to divorce their spouses so they can be together. Julia feels tormented by the idea that they are living in sin and hesitates to leave her husband. Lord Marchmain returns to Brideshead Castle and tells the family he is dying. As he lays on his death bed, his family calls a priest to perform the last rites. Since Lord Marchmain has renounced all religion, Charles strongly objects to the presence of a priest.

Unable to speak, Lord Marchmain signals that he wishes to repent and receive absolution from the priest. The scene moves both Charles and Julia, and Julia realizes she must reembrace her faith. She can no longer continue her affair with Charles nor commit the sin of divorce and must recommit herself to her marriage.

A heartbroken Charles joins the army at the outbreak of WWII in 1939, hoping that military service will provide him with some sense of meaning. As he walks around the now derelict Brideshead Castle, he laments the heavy damage inflicted by the soldiers. At the back of the house, he discovers that a military priest has reopened Lady Marchmain's chapel. As Charles enjoys a moment of reflection in the revamped chapel, a feeling of peace finally comes over him. He kneels at the altar to pray and emerges from the chapel with a renewed sense of purpose.

Brideshead Revisited: Characters

Here is a look at the most important characters in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

Charles Ryder

As the novel's protagonist and narrator, Charles starts as an isolated and unhappy figure. Charles is still reeling from his broken relationship with Julia and struggling to find his purpose in life. Even his military service, which he'd thought would provide him with a sense of meaning, has been dulled by the reality of war.

As he recounts his experiences through the previous twenty years, Charles admits that he has felt detached and isolated for some time. He finds modern life and the blind pursuit of money to be shallow and unfulfilling. He struggles to find happiness in his work and marriage as he reminisces about the carefree days he'd once spent at Brideshead Castle with the Flyte family. Charles' quest for a deeper meaning in life sends him across the world but eventually brings him back to Brideshead.

Sebastian Flyte

Charles meets Sebastian during the pair's first year at Oxford University. He is beautiful and charismatic but also highly self-destructive. Despite his strict Catholic upbringing and pious mother, Sebastian has little interest in religion and hates its controlling influence on his life. Sebastian is hesitant to take Charles home to meet his family as he fears they may steal Charles from him. As Sebastian struggles to mature, he slips further into alcoholism as a coping mechanism. Some have interpreted Sebastian's problems as a failure to come to terms with his sexuality. Though he continues to drink, he later reconciles with Catholicism and finds some peace by helping others.

Lady Marchmain

The matriarch of the Flyte family, Lady Marchmain, is a devoutly Catholic woman who tries to instill the importance of faith in her children. Her husband, Lord Marchmain, had converted to Catholicism to marry her but left her for an Italian mistress after serving in WWI. Despite the couple's estrangement, Lady Marchmain refuses to get a divorce as it is against the teachings of the Catholic Church. She is exceptionally caring but slightly overprotective of her children, which causes them to feel limited. Sebastian rebels against his mother by indulging in alcohol.

Julia Flyte

Julia is Sebastian's oldest sister and the love interest of Charles. When Charles first visits Brideshead as a student, he pays little attention to Julia, who is preoccupied with getting married. She fears that her Catholicism will scare off potential wealthy Protestant suitors, so she renounces her faith. Her husband is a previously divorced man and, therefore, unable to convert to Catholicism. Waugh depicts Julia as obsessed with status and wealth, but neither brings her satisfaction. When Julia's affair with Charles leads to guilt and shame, she can only find peace and fulfillment by reembracing her faith.

Brideshead Revisited: Themes

Evelyn Waugh uses Brideshead Revisited to explore religious themes and the idea of redemption.

Catholicism and redemption

In 1930, Evelyn Waugh joined a group of several prominent English writers who converted to Catholicism. The move proved somewhat scandalous as England was a traditionally Protestant nation. Brideshead Revisited is Waugh's portrayal of his conversion and Catholicism's more significant ethical questions.

Charles learns about Catholicism through the members of the Flyte, some of whom embrace the religion while others reject it. Most characters are shown to suffer and use different means to cope with their suffering. Sebastian drinks heavily to cope with his burden while his father, Lord Marchmain, commits adultery and abandons his family. While Charles is not Catholic, he, too, constantly struggles to find meaning in life. Waugh portrays their efforts to distract from suffering as pointless and views the only way out of this as accepting God's grace.

Waugh shows that accepting God's grace is the only way to achieve redemption. Lord Marchmain can find peace before he dies by reuniting with his lapsed Catholic faith. Julia, too, can be redeemed by rejecting her sinful affair with Charles and focusing on her marriage. Sebastian finds redemption by being of service to others.

The novel's ending implies that Charles converts to Catholicism and finds redemption. Having struggled to find peace and meaning through his marriage, career, and even military service, Charles finds himself in what remains of Brideshead Castle. The soldiers have ruined most of the home's lavish rooms, but an army priest has restored Lady Marchmain's chapel. Charles feels inspired by this hopeful sight and prays at the altar. Leaving the chapel, he feels a sense of connection to those who have come before him and the idea of faith.

Brideshead Revisited: Analysis

Evelyn Waugh began his career as a satirist and humorist who poked fun at the powerful institutions of British society. His most famous satires, Vile Bodies (1930) and Scoop (1938), employ a more broad form of humor to satirize powerful targets. In Brideshead Revisited, he uses a more subtle form of satire to explore the British class system. Since Charles comes from a middle-class background, he initially feels intimidated by the grand aristocratic estate of the Flyte family. For centuries, noble families like the Flyte's wielded great power in Britain. The class system depended on the idea that power was hereditary and the established gentry was superior to other social classes. However, in the case of the Flytes, this privilege has left the children unprepared for the real world. Their sheltered lives and overbearing mother have left them ill-equipped to make it outside Brideshead Castle. On the other hand, Charles, a character with less privilege, makes his way in the world and forges a successful career.

Between WWI and WWII, the aristocracy in Britain significantly declined. Waugh reflects this decline in the physical decay of Brideshead Castle and the disintegration of the Flyte family. As Charles warmly remembers his glorious summers at the castle, he knows too that there is danger in nostalgia and romanticizing the past.

Fig. 5 - Brideshead Castle contains many physical references to Catholicism, such as the dome similar to the Vatican.

Waugh employs a first-person narrative viewpoint to evoke Charles' feelings as an outsider to the Flyte family. Most of the novel unfolds through Charles' memories of events from 20 years ago. While he admits that memory can be untrustworthy, he can also look back with a more mature mindset.

Brideshead Castle symbolizes the history and culture of the Catholic Church. The castle has a grand dome that mirrors the St. Peter's Basilica on top of the Vatican. The Catholic Church sometimes refers to itself as the "Bride of Christ," hence the castle's name. The grand building has a long history and features rooms with styles from different historical periods. Despite this rebuilding, it has always remained on the same steady foundation, which reflects the Catholic Church's changes while remaining connected to fundamental beliefs.

Brideshead Revisited: Quotes

Here is a look at some important quotes from Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

When Julia realizes she must break off her affair with Charles, she reasons that her happiness must come second to her relationship with God. Having spent much of her life trying to hide her faith and integrate, Julia is inspired to embrace her Catholicism after Lord Marchmain's deathbed redemption.