I recently rediscovered this little gem from my college days. It was the last undergrad literature paper I wrote on my favourite literary work, Brideshead Revisited. So I thought I would share it. :)
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The story of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited follows the life of Charles Ryder, an artist seeking an everlasting love to which he can hold on that will never change and pass away. This search is made manifest through the three main passions in his life, namely, his art, his friendship with Sebastian, and his love for Julia. All of these fall short, and it is only after he looks back on these memories and sees that all of these loves have changed and passed away that he eventually finds that love which is unchanging and lasting, namely, the presence of God in the tabernacle.
As an artist, Charles seeks to capture the fleeting world and preserve it. He is commissioned to draw Brideshead, as a means of preserving a memory of it, while contractors prepare to tear down the house. He is particularly interested in architecture, for he sees in buildings something that remains firm and unchanging. He says, at one point in the novel: “I regarded men as something much less than the buildings they made and inhabited, as mere lodgers and short-term sub-lessees of small importance in the long, fruitful life of their homes.”[1] Even as the surrounding environment changes, the building still stands. The object of this love of Charles’ is the enduring aspect of the buildings that “grew silently with the centuries, catching and keeping the best of each generation” (226). He is attracted to the unchanging, permanent aspect of art and architecture. It appears to him as a solid foundation against which the changing world moves.
He eventually finds, however, that this can become dull and he loses inspiration, for there is no spiritual depth to this passion of his. This love is one-sided and Charles receives no return of love from this object of his love. The words of Saint Augustine, in his Confessions, could very well belong to Charles: “But material things, which have no soul, could not be true objects for my love. To love and to have my love returned was my heart’s desire.”[2] Charles will seek to fill this longing for another soul through his friendship with Sebastian.
Through this friendship, he yearns for the everlasting. He is fascinated by Sebastian’s eccentricity and often mysterious character. The depth he sees in Sebastian attracts Charles to him, for Charles has lived a dull life until this point and desires something more, something he can cherish and keep forever. He wants to love. He tells of this when he first visits Sebastian: “I was in search of love in those days, and I went full of curiosity” (31). As he grows in friendship with Sebastian, Charles lives the childhood he never had.
Youth, however, although necessary for growing into manhood, cannot last forever, but must pass away. Sebastian represents this youth, and for Charles, this friendship is but a step in his life. Charles says of this matter: “The languor of Youth—how unique and quintessential it is! … But languor…that belongs to Youth alone and dies with it” (79). Charles’ love for Sebastian, initially seeming to fill the emptiness in Charles, eventually proves to be not deep enough, as it is but a childish love. At one point in the novel, as Charles is talking with Julia about Sebastian, she asks: “You loved him, didn’t you?” and Charles responds: “Oh yes. He was the forerunner” (257). Sebastian, in a way, prepares Charles for his next love.
This next passion that dominates the life of Charles is his relationship with Julia. Here, Charles is drawn to her unique beauty, founded in her suffering and sadness. He speaks of his first impression of her after ten years in this way: “this haunting, magical sadness which spoke straight to the heart and struck silence; it was the completion of her beauty” (239). He is drawn to her sadness. He has lost all joy in life by this time and finds no fulfillment in anything, his life is dull. While she, on the other hand, has grown deeper and more beautiful due to the loss of joy in her life. Like Sebastian, there is a depth to her that Charles does not fully understand. It is this depth to which Charles is attracted.
As he grows closer to Julia, his love for her begins to deepen and he begins to understand the depths to which he is drawn. It is at the moment of Julia’s revival of faith at her father’s death that Charles realizes his true love for this woman. She tells him they cannot go on living together, and he finally understands. It is her faith that gives Julia such depth. Charles sees this, and yet must wait for it to settle into his own soul. He sees the last words of Julia and the death of their relationship as the death of all that was alive in him, for she was all he held onto. It is only after many years, when Charles returns to Brideshead that he will realize “that is not the last word” (351).
These three passions of Charles Ryder show his yearning for an everlasting deep love. Each love shows a progression in his quest for true love, for in each case, his love deepens. His initial love for art is merely a one-sided fascination that seeks to preserve a changing world. His next love, found in his friendship with Sebastian, fulfills his lacking childhood and sets the foundation for growth and maturity. The third love of Charles, namely his relationship with Julia, takes Charles to a deeper level of love by drawing him to an understanding of her depth and suffering. It is only after these all pass away that Charles, feeling completely empty, reflects on the progression of his loves and comes to a full grasp of the source of Love itself.
As one literary commentator fittingly expresses: “The human spirit must divest itself of its passions before it can enter the inner sanctum of being.”[3] Thus, it is only after Charles has been separated from all he has ever loved and looks back on it all that he can truly see the reality of love. This love is firm and unchanging, working through all his various loves as an underlying constant, and is finally realized by Charles in the tabernacle flame “burning anew among the old stones” (351).
[1]Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1945), 226. All citations of Brideshead Revisited will be from this edition and henceforth will be cited parenthetically in the text by page number.
[2]Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin (London: Penguin Books, 1961), 55.
[3]K.C. Joseph Kurismmootl, S.J., Heaven and Hell on Earth: An Appreciation of Five Novels of Graham Greene (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1982), 151.
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