Brideshead Revisited

Celia arranges a showing of Charles’s art. Charles is uninterested in the event, which Julia attends—as does Samgrass, to his surprise. He plans to go to Brideshead that night, but Celia urges him to see his children instead. He refuses. The showing is crowded, with Celia taking charge of networking with important people and reporters. The exhibition receives far more critical praise than his previous one, which leads Charles to think back to how, during the week of the previous exhibition, he first learned of Celia’s infidelity. He realizes now that this liberated him; he no longer cares about pleasing her.

That evening, Charles and Anthony Blanche go for drinks at a bar that caters to gay men. Charles feels uneasy but pretends to be comfortable. Anthony reports that he has followed Charles’s career but is disappointed by its conventionality. He approves of Charles’s travels abroad but laments that Charles’s art is still characterized by “charm,” which he blames on Charles’s association with the Flytes. He recalls warning Charles about Sebastian. Charles leaves and catches a train with Julia, whom he has missed despite their short separation. Everyone knows about their affair, he reports. Julia is unperturbed, even about the possibility of Rex knowing. Rex, she says, “just doesn’t exist” (261). The two feel comfortable in each other’s presence.

Charles visits with Rex, who is happy to see him. Charles is unimpressed by Rex’s conservative politician friends, who discuss the rise of Nazism and Edward VIII’s relationship with Wallis Simpson. Later, Charles complains to Julia that he doesn’t know what he dislikes more, Celia’s obsession with art or Rex’s with money. They agree their spouses cannot harm the happiness they have found together, though they are uncertain how long this happiness can last.

After an afternoon spent painting Julia’s portrait, Charles emerges into beautiful weather. They recollect the previous two years of their affair and the few days they have spent apart (such as Christmases, where they make appearances with their spouses for the sake of propriety). Marchmain knows of their affair. Julia wants to marry Charles, believing marriage is the only way they can feel true peace together.

Julia and Charles have dinner with Brideshead, who has amounted to little but is known for having a large collection of matchboxes. Brideshead asks about Lady Marchmain’s jewels but doesn’t explain why he is asking. He announces that he is engaged to marry a local widow whom he met because her late husband collected matchboxes as well. Brideshead makes a disparaging comment about Julia’s relationship with Charles, citing it as the reason he has not invited his Catholic fiancée, Beryl, to the house. Julia is offended, which baffles Brideshead, who claims he was “merely stating a fact” (272).

Charles finds Julia weeping about the “sin” of their continued affair. She gives a long speech on the ways she has seen her sin affect her life. Charles is miserable that he can’t comfort her. She calms and insists they return to sit with Brideshead. The siblings discuss the future of the ancestral home; Rex and Julia will have to leave so Brideshead can live there with his new wife and her three children. After Brideshead goes to bed, Charles says that Julia’s guilt about sin is “all bosh.” Julia disagrees and shares that Sebastian has also returned to Catholicism. She says she would like to have a child with Charles, after they marry. They walk around the garden, and Charles likens their conversation to a play, which annoys Julia. She hits him in the face with a switch. Her rage vanishes and she apologizes, fearing for her sanity. They go to bed and spend the next day with Rex and his political associates, politely listening to conversation before going to walk together into the moonlight.

Charles and Mulcaster negotiate the terms of Charles’s and Celia’s divorce, which is amicable as Celia also has a lover. Rex, however, protests, arguing there is no need for divorce, as he has not interfered with Julia and Charles’s affair and it is a bad time politically for him to divorce. Brideshead’s fiancée is friendly but condescending to Julia. Their divorces become a matter of much gossip among their friends.

Cordelia returns to England, and Charles finds her “roughened” by her years in a convent and then serving as a nurse in Spain; he thinks this is a waste of the “burning love” she showed as a child. Julia, Cordelia, and Charles visit with Nanny Hawkins, who still lives at Brideshead. Cordelia reports that Sebastian is living in Tunis, but that his health is poor. He lives with monks and is, Cordelia reports, very religious—though Nanny Hawkins disbelieves this.

Julia comments on how Charles has forgotten Sebastian, whom he described as merely a “forerunner” during the storm on the ship. She worries that she, too, is just a “forerunner.” Charles opines that perhaps all loves are temporary, which does not comfort Julia. Privately, Charles reflects that he has not forgotten Sebastian at all, and that he thinks of Sebastian whenever he looks at Julia.

The next day, Cordelia reports all she knows of her brother. He still struggles with alcohol misuse but makes friends wherever he goes. He persistently attempted to join a group of missionaries, though they sent him away repeatedly due to drunkenness. Eventually he grew ill and was admitted to the infirmary. When Cordelia visits Sebastian, he speaks mostly of Kurt, who was imprisoned, deported to Germany, and spent a year espousing Nazism before attempting to flee the country. Kurt was sent to a concentration camp, where he died by suicide. Sebastian returned to Morocco, where he enjoys life on the fringes of the monastic order (who will not truly admit him while he drinks). Cordelia claims that she has shared more details with Charles than with Julia, as Julia never loved Sebastian as much as she and Charles “do”; the present tense shames Charles, who feels he has neglected Sebastian. Cordelia casts a cheerful picture of Sebastian’s future as a “hanger-on” at the religious house, in which he will intermittently drink but be accepted for himself.

Charles wonders if this means Sebastian doesn’t suffer; Cordelia corrects him, saying that suffering is a part of holiness, but that Charles, not religious, probably wouldn’t understand. She wonders if he found her “thwarted” as a spinster; he did, but no longer does. She counters that Charles and Julia have “thwarted passion.” Charles dwells on Cordelia’s conviction that he lacks the perspective granted by religious devotion. This causes him to think of a house being slowly covered by snow until it is destroyed.

Julia, Charles, Celia, and Rex move residences in anticipation of divorce. Marchmain announces that he is returning to Brideshead, considering the rise of Fascism in Europe. This benefits only Cordelia (who had been seeking her own lodgings) and inconveniences Brideshead and Beryl the most, as their imminent move means they are now without a place to live. As everyone scrambles to find new arrangements, Marchmain unhelpfully sends contradictory information about his arrival.

When Marchmain finally arrives, Julia and Charles return to Brideshead to welcome him. He has aged a great deal in the short time since they last visited him; he blames the cold English weather for his apparent illness. He asks the servants to set him up a room on the ground floor as he cannot manage the stairs to his old chambers. He also requests a massive piece of furniture, “the Queen’s bed” (301), to be brought to the room, causing much anxious activity among the staff. Marchmain admits a dislike for Brideshead’s new wife. He discusses the imminent war, advising Charles to become an “official artist” in the army, but Charles intends to join the Special Reserve. When the queen’s bed is arranged to Marchmain’s liking, he urges Charles to draw it and term it “the Death Bed” (303).

Cara matter-of-factly confirms that Marchmain is dying. Cordelia, an experienced nurse, takes charge of his care. Doctors come from London, but they have no sense of how long Marchmain may live. Marchmain frequently complains about his new daughter-in-law, Beryl, and considers leaving Brideshead to Julia, not his eldest son. Charles privately likes the idea, and Julia says she will accept, if her father offers. Marchmain languishes, gathering Cordelia, Julia, Cara, and Charles around him as often as possible. When Brideshead and Beryl return from their honeymoon, however, he refuses to see them. Marchmain speaks briefly with his eldest son before Brideshead and Beryl leave, promising to return if Marchmain’s condition worsens. Brideshead is summoned at Easter and insists Marchmain must see a priest for last rites; he and Cordelia argue about whether it is time for this step. Charles is irate that the two siblings are pressuring the irreligious Marchmain in his final days. Julia doesn’t understand why Charles is so opposed; he himself lacks the words to express why he finds the matter so significant.

Father Mackay comes the following day, but Marchmain quickly sends him away again, much to Charles’s pleasure. Brideshead frets over this, wondering if his father will ultimately agree to see a priest; the group quibbles over the finer points of last rites. Later, Julia chastises Charles for starting “religious arguments.”

Charles’s divorce is finalized in June; Julia’s divorce will not be final until September. Charles notes the simultaneous approach of his marriage to Julia and war in Europe. Marchmain clings to life, which his doctor attributes to “a great fear of death” (316). Marchmain mutters about his family history, continually insisting that he will be better when summer arrives, not knowing they are already well into the season. In mid-July, on the one day Cordelia is absent from Brideshead, Marchmain worsens, and the debate over calling a priest renews. Julia ultimately decides to take Father Mackay in to see Marchmain, and Charles is surprised to find himself hoping that Marchmain will accept the rites, for the sake of Julia’s peace of mind. The priest calls the rites “beautiful.” Marchmain dies that evening. Julia tells Charles she cannot marry him and that they must separate; Charles, who knew this was coming, accepts. She feels she must reconnect to her religion and is sorry that Charles is not a believer.