Chapter Commentary of Brideshead Revisited - Study Guide by Evelyn Waugh

that the other has changed: Charles has become, "so lean and grim; not at all the pretty boy Sebastian brought home with him. Harder, too" (227); "And you’re softer", Charles says, "Sadder too". "Oh yes, much sadder", she replies (228).

On the boat, Julia and Charles are able to spend a lot of time alone together because a storm brews up and the majority of passengers are confined to their beds with seasickness. During an amusing but painful meal at the Captain’s table, an "Episcopalian Bishop" sitting next to Charles turns to him and says "The speech of the coming century is in thoughts not in words. Do you not agree, Mr. Ryder?" (235). Though Charles’s reply, "Yes, Yes" is merely a polite agreement, his first conversation with Julia left a lot thought that was unsaid. During supper with the Bishop and company, Charles is reminded of King Lear. The storm breaks and soon only Julia, Charles and his wife are left seating there. "Telepathically", Julia says, "Like King Lear" (236). There is a similar unspoken understanding a little later and Charles confirms, "I knew what she meant… then and always, however she spoke to me, in half sentences, single words, stock phrases of contemporary jargon, in scarcely perceptible movements of eyes or lips or hands, however inexpressible her thought…I knew; even that day when I still stood on the extreme verge of love, I knew what she meant" (241). And so, at the height of the storm, Charles and Julia become lovers. Charles finds a new "enchanted garden": "Now on the rough water there was a formality to be observed, no more. It was as though a deed of conveyance of her narrow loins had been drawn and sealed. I was making my first entry as the freeholder of a property I would enjoy and develop at leisure" (248).

When they return, Charles holds an exhibition for his paintings. They are well received, "If you had asked me to guess, Ryder’s is the last name that would have occurred to me. They’re so virile and passionate" (255). His wife works relentlessly, flitting from one guest to another, dealing out little gems like, "Charles lives for one thing - Beauty. I think he got bored finding it ready-made in England; he had to go and create it for himself…" (254). Her account of the "human story" of Charles’ journey is wonderfully wrong - and right - "Charles "Stately Homes" Ryder steps off the map. That the snakes and vampires of the jungle have nothing on Mayfair is the opinion of socialite artist Ryder, who has abandoned the houses of the great for the ruins of equatorial Africa…" (254). More interesting is the criticism receives from Anthony Blanche. Of his earlier work, he tells Charles, "'Charles has done something,' I said, 'not all he will do, not all he can do, but something'". Of his most recent paintings, he says, "It was charm, my dear, simple, creamy English charm, playing tigers" (260). He thus charts Charles seduction, a seduction that he had warned Charles against when they were at Oxford. "I was right years ago…when I warned you. I took you out to dinner to warn you of charm. Charm is the great English blight…It spots and kills everything it touches". Sebastian himself had said of his mother, "Poor Mummy. She was a femme fatale, wasn’t she? She killed at a touch" (206). Anthony Blanche continues, "It kills love; it kills art; I greatly fear, my dear Charles, it has killed you" (260).

Celia soon discovers Charles’s infidelity. He stays with Julia at Brideshead, their peace only interrupted by Rex and his "Brideshead set" and a few periods of separation due to illness or Charles’ family duties. Chapter 3 begins, "Do you remember…" (263). "So much to remember," she says. "How many days have there been since then, when we haven’t seen each other; a hundred, do you think?" she continues, "How many more? Another hundred?" (264). On this rare and very significant occasion, their thoughts fail to keep pace. "A lifetime" Charles replies. This is the turning point. Though there is no lack of love between them, there is a greater love, that of God that will keep them apart. When Cordelia speaks to Charles later in the book, she describes Charles and Julia’s romance as "thwarted passion" (295). She, like Sebastian, is but a forerunner, a forerunner for Charles’ ultimate and only love: God.

This emerges slowly. There is no rending of curtains yet. They continue in their romantic world, plan to get married and set about divorcing their respective spouses. The first intimation of God’s entry and division of their world come from Brideshead. In his characteristically tactless manner he refers their relationship as "living in sin" (272). She leaves the room, crying, and Charles reprimands Brideshead for being so offensive. Brideshead replies simply, clear-cut, "I was merely stating a fact that was well known to her".