Brideshead Revisited: Prologue Summary & Analysis

Brideshead Revisited is set during World War II. Although being a soldier was generally revered as a brave and honorable pursuit during this time, it’s clear that Charles is disillusioned with the war and no longer passionate about his role as a Captain.

Ironically, World War II, which caused  destruction throughout Europe, has saved the farmhouse from demolition and given it a new purpose. The inmates mirror the soldiers, as the soldiers are essentially trapped in their military and cannot escape and war, which itself is like a form of madness. Along with World Wars I and II, the early-20th century was also a period of extreme technological and social change. Although this is commonly thought to represent “progress,” Charles thinks that it is really a regression and that the modern world is a brutal place. This is confirmed when Hooper implies that it would be better to kill the lunatics: Hooper is a symbol of modernity to Charles, and his comment supports the idea that the modern world is callous.

Many men considered it to be a matter of pride and honor to participate in World War II and fight for their countries. However, even Charles, the company’s Captain, cannot muster up the sense of duty necessary to motivate his own men. This suggests that Charles has become gripped by the tedium of everyday life in the camp and thus disillusioned with his former notions of what serving in the army would be like. He has clearly lost control of his men, and discipline is lax in the camp.

Youth is associated with love throughout the novel, and Charles likely feels old because, like a young man growing apart from his first love, he has come to recognize the military for what it really is beneath its glamorized public persona. His comparison between war and divorce suggests that Charles has been disillusioned in romantic love as well as in his career as a Captain, and that he may be divorced himself.

Charles is clearly educated and has an academic background. He has read academic books and can imagine the style in which they are written. Charles is also very detached and lives in an imaginative world of his own. He believes that archeologists in the future will think that 20th-century society was violent and lawless, which Charles suggests it is, although it pretends to be “civilized.”

The “damages book” implies that there extensive records are kept of everything that happens in the army. This suggests that there is also a dull, bureaucratic side to military life—not unlike the civilian sector. Charles is clearly quite a sympathetic man and pities Hooper because he is socially ostracized. The Colonel likely cut Hooper’s hair to make an example of him for the other men, and to reinforce the strict uniformity and discipline that the army requires.

Hooper has been conscripted into the army, whereas Charles signed up willingly and has a lifelong belief in patriotism and the idea of war as heroic—an idea that has clearly come to pass as Charles has come to recognize the tedium and meaninglessness of war. Hooper represents the modern world for Charles, suggesting that the 20th century, like Hooper himself, loves efficiency but is inefficient. This is demonstrated by World War I and World War II, in which countries tried to use efficient new weaponry to fight wars. However, war dragged on for much longer than expected, and the result was more chaos and destruction, rather than a cleaner or less painful conflict.

Charles’s nonchalant attitude toward servants suggests that he is of a relatively high social class, and that having family servants was a common occurrence when he was growing up. Hooper is younger than Charles, and from a working-class background, so he’s less familiar with this. The idea that servants will “get back” at their masters suggests that the discipline between servants and masters has broken down and predicts that, soon, having servants will be a thing of the past. The C. O. looks for reasons to discipline Charles, because Charles disrespects his authority. However, the C. O. backs down, and this suggests that the C. O. has lost his men’s respect.

Hooper does not dream of military glory and simply wants to fit in with other men his age who have been part of the war. The C. O. punishes Charles’s company for Charles’s insolence. This clearly happens often and suggests that Charles dislikes authority and is not a good leader for his men.

The men like this job because it gives them a sense of purpose. This suggests that they lack direction while they wait to be deployed in army camps, demonstrating the mundane reality of military life that fails to live up to how the soldiers likely imagined their time at war would be.

It is implied that Charles knows the place, and that his return to it brings him a sense of calm, as though he has returned home. This suggests that Charles feels out of place in his current role, and perhaps in his current stage in life as a whole, and that his past holds a sense of peace that he’s been lacking. The grounds of the house have been designed to look old, suggesting that whoever built them believed that the past is superior to, and more beautiful than, the present.

The grounds are very large, and this is clearly a stately manor and the home of a very wealthy Catholic family. There were many country houses of this sort in England, which were repurposed during World War II, and which remain in existence as heritage sites today.