Chapter Commentary of Brideshead Revisited - Study Guide by Evelyn Waugh

Charles and Blanche part. What action Charles sees in the General Strike is nothing like the romantic picture that he had envisaged. The General Strike ends and, again, he returns to "live in a world of three dimensions". But, as he said when he left Brideshead, "life has few separations as sharp as that" (164). His brief return to the world of romanticism is once again terminated but a thread is left uncut. Julia hears that he is in London and contacts him. Lady Marchmain is dying and she wants to see Sebastian. Charles leaves for Morocco. "Morocco was a new and strange country to me. Driving that day, mile after mile up the smooth, strategic road…new, white settlements and the early crops standing high in vast, open fields…hoardings advertising the staples of France - Dubonnet, Michelin, Magazin du Louvre - I had thought it all very suburban and up-to-date; now, under the stars, in the walled city, whose streets were gently, dusty stairways, and whose walls rose windowless on either side, closed overhead, then opened again to the stars…" (202). He finds himself in Sebastian’s "enchanted garden" and says so, "…now, I knew what had drawn Sebastian here and held him so long". Here was a city uncorrupted by the modern age, preserved, a wonderland free from the "harsh, acquisitive world" of Rex, "where the dust lay thick among the smooth paving stones and figures passed silently, robed in white, on soft slippers or hard, bare sole; where the air was scented with cloves and incense and wood-smoke…" (202).

Charles finds Sebastian’s house but he is not there, only Kurt. Kurt talks a little about his past, studying history at a German university, "Then one day we said: 'What the hell? There is no work in Germany. Germany is down the drain'… and we went away and walked and walked…" (204). He might be the antithesis of Sebastian in his looks ("wolfish") and his charm may be rather more difficult to detect ("his sibilants came sometimes with a disconcerting whistle, which he covered with a giggle") but he shares the same despair of the modern world, the same romantic quest, the same code of imperatives that had governed Sebastian’s life in Oxford ("I must have pillar-box red pyjamas"), "Then we said: 'There is no army in Germany, but we must be tholdiers,' so we joined the Legion". Just as Charles’ romantic notions of the military world were shattered during the Great Strike, so too were his, "My friend died of dysentery…When he was dead, I said, 'What the hell?' so I shot my foot…" - his escape, like Sebastian’s is at the expense of his health.

Charles discovers, finally, that Sebastian is in hospital. He goes to visit him. "…so patient…never complains…so kind…A real Samaritan", the monk tells him. "Poor simple monk…poor booby", Charles thinks. "Your friend is so much happier today, it is like one transfigured", the monk says. "Poor simple monk…poor booby", Charles thinks again but the monk continues, "You know why? He has a bottle of cognac". Sebastian speaks for himself, "You know, Charles, it’s rather a pleasant change when all your life you’ve had people looking after you, to have someone to look after yourself" (205-7). Charles does not realise until later that this is the key to understanding Sebastian. He had said it himself, years ago, to Jasper, "that to know and love one other human being is the root of all wisdom" (46). "God forgive me!" he says, realising that the monk was not so naïve. When Sebastian returns home to Kurt, Charles offers to fetch some cigarettes for Kurt. "No, that’s my job" says Sebastian. "Yeth, I reckon that’s Sebastian’s job", Kurt confirms (208). Charles leaves them and returns to London to see Brideshead to discuss the matter of an allowance for Sebastian. He presents the facts and Brideshead decides, "Then he must have the allowance as you suggest. The matter is quite clear" (209). It is clear, black and white like the catechism. As he is leaving, Brideshead nonchalantly suggests that Charles might like to paint Marchmain house, which is to be demolished, to be replaced by a block of flats. It is Charles’ first commission and the beginning of his career as an architectural painter.

Cordelia watches him as he paints the drawing-room and, that evening, they go out to dinner. It is a very important passage in the book. Though she is only fifteen, excited by her time that she had been taken out to a restaurant alone, into her "convent chatter" she unwittingly makes a number of very important points that stick in Charles’ mind. She tells him that the chapel at Brideshead was closed after her mother’s requiem mass. She watched the priest take out the altar stone, empty the tabernacle and holy water stoop, blow out the lamp in the sanctuary, burn the wads of wool holy oil on them and throw the ash outside. "Then suddenly, there wasn’t any chapel there any more, just an oddly decorated room" (212). She tries to explain to Charles how it felt by quoting the chant, "Quomodo sedet sola civitas…". It sticks in