Brideshead Revisited Part 3, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

For 10 years after his dinner with Cordelia, Charles appears to live an eventful life. However, on the inside, he feels that nothing really changes, and he never feels alive in the way that he did with Sebastian. Charles becomes an architectural painter and develops a reputation for painting English country houses. He thinks these buildings are underappreciated and that they improve with age. Many of them are on the “brink of extinction.” Although many painters are out of work, because of the recession, Charles is given work because he paints houses which are symbols of a wealthier time.

Charles feel emotionally dead, and although externally his life is exciting, he never feels this internally. Sebastian is associated with youth, life, and love, and with his departure, these things have also vanished from Charles’s life. Charles begins to feel that he, himself, is an omen of death to country houses. He watches over and documents the death of a way of life: the decline of the upper classes in Britain. His art is popular because there is a widespread nostalgia for things which have passed.

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After several years of critical success, Charles begins to feel that his work, which began when he painted Brideshead, has lost something. He travels to South America and paints ruins in the jungle, then returns to New York with his new collection of work. His wife, Celia, meets him at the dock. They have dinner in a hotel together and Celia tells Charles about his son, “Johnjohn,” and his baby daughter, Caroline, whom Charles has never met. He does not show much interest in the children. When they return to the hotel room, Celia asks if she should “put her face to bed” and is relieved when Charles says no.

Charles is hungry for new experiences because he cannot feel anything. He looks for something that will inspire him and bring him back to life. Like many painters in this period, Charles looks for this in locations which are far away from “civilized society.” Charles is an absent father to his children, just as his father is emotionally distant with him. This also suggests that God, who is an authoritative father figure, is absent in Charles’s life.

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That night, they lie awake together and Celia says that Charles has not changed. She is pleased about this because, she says, that if he changed, he might stop loving her. Charles says that change is the only proof that one is alive. Celia asks if Charles is in love with anyone else and Charles says he is “not in love” which comforts her.

Celia does not like change. Charles views this as a denial of life, as life in is constant flux, and finds her outlook stifling. She is pleased that things stay the same, but he finds their relationship stagnant. When Charles says that he is “not in love,” he really means that he is not in love with Celia, though she does not seem to realize this. His disinterest in his wife, as well as his life, suggests that while Charles’s relationship with Sebastian ended many years ago, he is likely still trying and failing to find the same sense of love and fulfillment their bond gave him.

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Celia has been a large influence on Charles’s career. Although she won’t admit this openly, she has helped him build his reputation. Charles has been given money by his father and bought himself and Celia a house in the country. Celia tells him that, while he was away, she has had the barn converted into a studio for him. It has been photographed for Country Life. Charles is secretly disappointed, however, because the old “smell of the place” will be lost.

Charles has used Celia to progress professionally. She wants him to feel like this is his doing, but he knows that she has made his career what it is. Charles is dependent on others for everything he has, and, like Sebastian, he feels trapped. Likely due to his lingering emotional attachment to Brideshead Castle, Charles feels that by converting the old barn, Celia has destroyed something old and beautiful for the sake of modernity.

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Celia says that she has a lot of work lined up for Charles when he gets back (all English country houses), and she hopes that his South American work has not ruined him. Charles says no and that it is “just another jungle.” Celia tells him that her brother, Boy Mulcaster, has called off his engagement and has had to pay his fiancée off in the dispute. She says that Boy is great friends with Johnjohn, and that it is like they are the same age when they talk.

Although Celia means her comment about Boy as a compliment, it implies that Boy is immature and has the emotional range of a young child. This suggests that modern, fashionable society, which Charles feels he has married into, is childish and trivial in its values.

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Charles and Celia fall asleep in the early hours and are woken early by the hotel’s alarm call. Charles gets up to shave, and while he is in the bathroom, Celia says that this feels just like old times. She tentatively suggests that they are like they were before. Charles asks Celia what she means, and she says she means before he went abroad. Charles says he thought she might mean something else, and Celia grows frustrated and says that this is “all forgotten.” Charles coldly agrees, and Celia begins to cry.

Celia has been unfaithful to Charles. She clearly regrets her behavior and hopes that they can forget it and go back to the way they were before, but Charles makes it obvious that he has not forgiven Celia. He is passive-aggressive with her, and she cries because although he has agreed that it is forgotten, he does not really mean it and still holds it against her. Although Charles hates the modern world because he views it as callous and unfeeling, his attitude towards Celia is somewhat cruel, suggesting that perhaps he has begun to fall into the same trappings of modernity he once despised.

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Celia and Charles board the boat back to England. Celia is very popular in America. Charles thinks she is neat and friendly, like an American, and her cabin is full of gifts from friends she made in New York. Celia immediately checks the passenger list and is pleased to find that she knows a lot of people on board. Julia’s name is on the list. Charles has not seen Julia for several years. She is married to Rex, but he has heard it is not a happy marriage. Sebastian, Charles knows, still lives abroad.

The journey by boat across the Atlantic takes around six weeks. British culture is notoriously reserved in comparison with American culture, which Charles views as open and extroverted. Rex and Julia are both well-known in social circles, and there is clearly gossip about their marriage. Sebastian serves as a reminder of Charles’s past life and provides a stark contrast with his present, which Charles views as filled with shallow, false relationships rather than loving, meaningful ones. This supports the idea that Charles has been cast out of his earthly paradise: his youthful time with Sebastian.

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Rex is involved in politics but has not had the success that he hoped for. He has “flirted” with fascism and communism. Although Charles and Julia have often lived in London at the same time, England is made up of separate worlds in which people may live very near each other but never interact. Celia begins to call people on the passenger list to make social plans. Charles goes to look at the crowd on deck, who wave to the people below, and thinks that they look an odd bunch.

The political tension between fascism, under the Nazi party, and communism, in the Russian Soviet Union, contributed to the division and instability which led to World War II. Charles associates the 20th century with destruction, instability, and political extremes. Thus, he dislikes the conventional, fashionable society which he views as aligned with the modern world. Although they are the cultural mainstream, Charles feels they are the strange ones, which highlights Charles’s position as an outsider.

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Charles walks around the ship. It is vast and luxurious, but Charles thinks it looks childish and that it lacks grandeur because it is too modern. As he moves through the lounge, he passes Julia, who calls him over. Julia tells him that she is waiting for her room to be made up. She is pleased to see Charles and says she never meets anybody she likes anymore. Charles sits down with her.

Charles dislikes modernity’s focus on comfort and efficiency, rather than beauty and grandeur. He thinks that this approach to aesthetics is limiting, and feels that it is evidence that modern society is childish and soulless because it sacrifices beauty for convenience. Julia socializes for the sake of convention and propriety, not because she likes the people in her social group, essentially validating Charles’s belief that fashionable society is cold and devoid of genuine connections.

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Charles immediately feels comfortable and intimate with Julia, as though they have always been good friends. He remembers that he used to find her arrogant, but she seems kind and genuine now. Julia says that Charles has changed and that he is much “harder” than when she first met him. Charles says that Julia seems much “softer” and “more patient.” Charles thinks that she seems sad but that her sadness makes her beautiful, although she has lost the fashionable beauty of her youth.

Charles has a lot of common history with Julia, and this contributes to their intimacy. As a young woman, Julia was extremely confident and a little selfish, but time and life experience have mellowed her. Sadness is associated with beauty, holiness, and virtue in the novel, and this reflects the Catholic idea that suffering leads to these very things.

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When Charles returns to his cabin, he finds Celia preparing for a party. They have been given very large rooms because the “quartering master” likes Celia. She has been sent an ice sculpture in the shape of a swan to store the caviar for her party. Charles tells Celia that he met Julia, and Celia says she remembers her “dipso brother.” Celia asks how the room looks, and Charles says that it looks suitable for a movie actor. Celia has recently decided that Charles could have a career painting movie sets and has invited several directors to the party.

Celia uses her ability to make friends to her advantage. Celia’s comment refers to Sebastian, and shows that Celia knows nothing about Charles’s life before her. It is implied that Celia would not understand Charles’s love for Sebastian even if he told her, because she is shallow and incapable of this type of love. She reflects modernity and the shallowness Charles equates with modern society. As further proof of this, Celia always thinks ahead to improve Charles’s career, not unlike Rex’s ongoing obsession with improving his business prospects.

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The chief purser, who has sent Celia the swan, arrives, and the party gets underway. The purser says that there will be a storm, but Celia thinks that he is teasing. Charles knows many of the guests but is not friends with any of them. One woman says that she feels she knows him because of Celia’s descriptions. What she does not know is that he is secretly thinking about Julia.

Unlike Celia, Charles does not make emotional connections with people easily. He is cold and reserved, and has been emotionally-deadened since the loss of Sebastian. Sebastian represents youth and love for Charles, and without these things, Charles feels that life is incomplete. People do not really know Charles, and only know the public persona that Celia has created for him. This façade is based around his work and his conformity to social rules and values, rather than his real self.

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Midway through the party, Charles notices a strange, shabby-looking man who stands by the swan and stuffs himself with caviar. He goes to speak to the man, who tells him that he has counted the drips which fall from the swan’s beak. The man introduces himself to Charles as Mr. Kramm. He says he is a film director, and the two have a strange, awkward conversation. When the party is over and most of the guests have gone, Charles remarks that Julia never turned up. Charles says that he spoke to Mr. Kramm, and Celia says that she never invited him and does not know who he is.

Mr. Kramm stands out at the party because he does not have the same social veneer as the other guests. He is like Charles in this sense, and reflects Charles’s own discomfort in this social realm. Mr. Kramm is implied to be a fraud who has pretended to be someone he is not. His likeness with Charles, then, supports the idea that Charles lives a lie in his everyday life. He pretends that his life is vital and exciting, but really, inside, he feels that he is dead and has lost his sense of joy and hope.

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Celia and Charles have been invited to dine at the captain’s table and make their way there after the party. Julia is at the table, with several other fashionable people, and she tells Charles that she missed the party because of her maid, who went to play ping pong and forgot to bring Julia her dress. Conversation at the table is stilted and uncomfortable. Charles sits beside a missionary who is on his way to Spain. He tells Charles that the age of words is over and that, although he does not speak Spanish, he will speak the language of “reason and brotherhood.”

Charles is clearly quite a celebrity, as only the most important passengers are invited to eat with the captain. Julia is from an aristocratic family, and is therefore socially important. Julia’s unreliable servant demonstrates the breakdown of traditional class barriers because servants are now less obedient to their masters. This suggests that modernity will bring about significant changes to established ways of life. As someone who venerates the upper classes and dislikes the new social mobility available to the lower classes, Charles disapproves of this type of change and sees it as evidence of modern corruption. The missionary is a communist and implies that all humans are the same regardless of language. Charles dislikes this idea because it disregards individuality in favor of the collective. Charles prefers people who stand out, rather than people who blend in with society and conform to its rules.

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Charles feels as though he is going mad. It feels surreal to him to be here after his time in South America and he is reminded of King Lear. He wishes there could be a storm and, immediately, the ship begins to sway. The people round the table begin to look nervous, except Julia, who looks relieved and says to Charles that it reminds her of “King Lear.” People start to leave the table, and soon only Julia, Celia, and Charles are left.

King Lear is a play by Shakespeare in which the main character, Lear, famously goes mad. Since Charles’s own life reminds him of this play, it’s clear that he feels disconnected from society and everyone around him, and that this alienation feels like madness. It is implied that Julia feels the same way as Charles, and they share this emotional connection.

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After dinner, they struggle across the rocking ship to the ballroom. It is deserted, however, and the stewards have tied down most of the furniture. Soon, Celia complains that she is tired, and that the movement of the ship gives her a headache. She goes to bed, and Julia leaves too. Charles walks around the ship and watches the waves crash against the windows, then he too goes to bed.

The veneer of sociability and glamor on board the ship is disrupted by the reality of the storm. This suggests that nature triumphs over civilization, which Charles views as something exclusively modern. Charles feels out of touch with civilization, and the storm reflects his alienation and his hope that modern society will be destroyed.

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When Charles gets back to his cabin, he finds that Celia is seasick. She complains bitterly about it, and Charles thinks she is like a woman who has booked into a luxurious hospital to give birth and is offended when her labor still hurts. In the early hours, he calls a servant to bring her medicine, and gets little sleep himself because the ship throws him around in bed.

Celia, in contrast to Charles, has faith in modern civilization and believes that it can conquer nature. She is upset by the storm because it destroys the atmosphere of civility on the ship. Charles suggests that Celia wishes to gloss over reality and thinks that money and modern comforts can make life predictable and tame. This is impossible, however, as suffering and pain are inevitable parts of life. This supports the Catholic idea that God allows suffering for humanity’s own good because suffering increases holiness and closeness to God. Those who wish to avoid suffering are, therefore, not spiritual. The modern world falls into this category, as many of its social and scientific aims involve the eradication of suffering.

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The next morning, the wind has gone down, but the ship is still rocked fiercely by the swell. While Charles has breakfast, more gifts for Celia arrive. One of them is a large bunch of roses, and Charles removes the label and has them sent to Julia. Julia phones him and teases him about this. She says she will meet him later. Charles stops in to see Celia and then heads down to Julia’s cabin. They stagger around the ship together once, but Julia grows tired and they head towards the lounge.

Charles behaves extravagantly when he sends Julia the roses. This links Charles’s relationship with Julia back to his relationship with Sebastian, which also began with a grand gesture, in which Sebastian sent Charles flowers. Given that Charles also noticed Julia’s striking resemblance to Sebastian when he first met her years ago, this supports the idea that Charles’s relationship with Julia is an attempt to recapture his past with Sebastian, which he feels is superior to his present.

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The heavy, bronze doors of the lounge have broken loose from their restraints and swing back and forth violently. Charles is impressed that Julia takes his arm and walks through with perfect calmness. There are very few people about, and they subtly congratulate each other on not being seasick. Julia orders champagne to drink, and Charles tells her that the roses were sent to Celia. Julia says that this is alright then. As they sit and talk together, Charles feels that they understand each other perfectly even though their conversation is mundane.

Charles is impressed by Julia’s calm and detached demeanor because it reflects his own. This suggests that Julia, too, has suffered a level of emotional pain and disillusion, like Charles, and that she is not as vital and vibrant as she was in her younger life. Julia is deliberately extravagant because she and Charles feel like they are rebellious and doing something out of the ordinary, which they could not do in everyday life. This brings a sense of youth and irresponsibility back to them. There is a sense of freedom on the ship—it feels like the usual social rules do not apply.

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A man approaches them and seems impressed that Julia is not seasick. He thinks they are a couple, and Charles feels this brings them closer to each other. They go back to their cabins to sleep after lunch. When they reunite that evening, they hear that the man they met will throw a party that night. They attend and, at some point, the party moves to Charles’s room so that the men can gamble. Julia leaves early, and the host gets drunk and falls asleep in a chair. Charles later hears that, on his way back to his cabin, he fell and broke his leg.

Charles and Julia do not deny they are a couple, and this suggests that they both acknowledge they will become one. The people on the ship who are not seasick behave extravagantly, and there is a mood of reckless freedom among them. They feel that they are exceptions to the general suffering, and this makes them feel like outsiders from society. Being an outsider brings a sense of freedom, as well as a sense of alienation, and both these feelings are prevalent in the descriptions of Charles’s time on board the ship.

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Charles and Julia spend the next day together, and Charles thinks about how different he feels with Julia compared to other women. He does not feel that he needs to use “tactics” with her. That night, he follows her to her cabin, but Julia stops him at the door and says she does not want love. Charles says that he doesn’t either, but Julia disagrees and shuts the door in his face. That night, the storm grows worse.

Charles feels emotionally connected with Julia. He does not usually feel this with anyone else, and therefore must pretend and use “tactics” to win people over. This also suggests that Charles usually views romantic love as a competition, or conflict, in which one can either win or lose.

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In bed, Charles thinks over everything Julia has told him. She told him about her childhood at Brideshead and her fond memories of religion as a child. She is unhappy in her marriage with Rex. They struggled to have a child and, when she did become pregnant, the baby died before it was born. She says that Rex tries to love her but that he is not a complete man and does not understand her. He was still sleeping with Brenda Champion after their wedding and did not understand why Julia was upset by this.

Although Julia is not a Catholic, her religious upbringing has affected her because it was one of the first things she knew as a child. She has lost her faith, which suggests that, like Charles’s relationship with Sebastian, there is an innocent time in her life which she cannot recreate or recapture. Rex is insensitive and emotionally stunted. He does not feel things deeply and, therefore, is quite happy in his marriage to Julia although he does not love her. Rex symbolizes modernity because he prioritizes comfort, efficiency, and material success over emotional fulfillment.

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Julia asks Charles why he married Celia, and Charles says that he was lonely and ambitious, and that he missed Sebastian. Julia asks if he loved Sebastian, and Charles says that he did. She tells him that Sebastian has completely vanished, and that Cordelia works for an ambulance in Spain. Brideshead lives in Brideshead Castle and is a strange, solitary figure there. Lord Marchmain still remains in Venice and Julia visits him often.

Charles has unsuccessfully tried to recapture his love for Sebastian in his marriage. He has tried to find love in false, shallow things, like professional success, rather than in emotional connection. This is impossible because, according to Waugh’s Catholic perspective, real, lasting love is only available through a connection with God and through love for others.

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Julia cannot stand Rex’s friends. She says they are obsessed with money and gamble on everything. Rex is disappointed with her and wishes he hadn’t married her. He only grows interested when one of his friends finds her attractive. When she found out she was pregnant, Julia decided to raise the child Catholic. She thinks this is odd, because she is not Catholic herself, but she wanted to pass on “something she has lost” to the child. She believes that she has been punished for her marriage to Rex and wonders if her meeting with Charles is “part of a plan.”

Rex’s friends are extremely modern, like him: they are shallow and materialistic, and only care about wealth and status. This causes Julia to miss her faith, although she is not a practicing Catholic in adulthood. Like Charles, Julia feels that her youth holds the happiness she has lost as an adult. She has become cynical and disillusioned herself, but wishes her child to have a different experience, and likely wants to recapture her innocence through a child. Although she is no longer Catholic, she still feels that God will punish or reward her depending on her behavior.

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The next day, the swell is bad, but the sun comes out towards evening. Charles and Julia walk on the deck and are thrown against each other on the railings as the ship goes over a wave. Charles feels as though he holds Julia prisoner in his arms. She whispers, “Yes now,” to him, then leads him to her cabin. They have sex, and Charles knows this will be the first of many times.

The sun metaphorically sets on Julia and Charles’s brief, solitary time together, away from the pressures and responsibilities of the outside world. From now on, they must function in the real world and face the mundane and restrictive pressures of this. Charles is, once again, cast out of a temporary, Eden-like paradise, which cannot last because it is on Earth and not with God. Charles feels that this night makes him and Julia officially a couple, who will now stand together against the world. This suggests that Charles views relationships as fortresses in which one can escape from the world.

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They have dinner together afterwards and Charles looks at the stars through the windows. It reminds him of his time at Oxford. Julia has heard that the weather will improve the next day, and she and Charles are disappointed because they know that they will not have the ship to themselves for much longer.

Charles finally feels something. He is reminded of his time at Oxford because he feels love and hope again, and these were his main emotions during his first term with Sebastian. This suggests that Charles’s relationship with Julia does not bring up new and hopeful feelings of love, but nostalgic and recycled ones, which seek to recapture a lost time.

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The next morning, Celia feels better, and Charles tells her that he has spent the storm with Julia. Celia is pleased because she thinks that Charles and Julia get along well. There is a festive atmosphere on the ship that evening and Charles, Celia, and Julia dine at the captain’s table. The ship will dock the next day, and Charles and Julia plan secretly to meet in London when they arrive.

There is a festive atmosphere because people are relieved the storm is over and feel that order and conventionality has been restored. This suggests the triumph of modernity over what Charles perceives to be the chaos, disorder, and grandeur of the past.

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As the ship arrives, Celia tells Charles that Mr. Kramm has been arrested. Charles tells Celia that he will not come home with her: he must stay in London to organize his new exhibition. Celia thinks that the children will be disappointed but does not protest.

Mr. Kramm is clearly a conman or criminal. This reflects the idea that he is an imposter in civilized society, just as Charles feels himself to be. Charles lies to Celia so that he can meet Julia in London.

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Brideshead Revisited

Evelyn Waugh

Brideshead Revisited: Part 3, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis