War and Brideshead Revisited

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3). All throughout the prologue, in fact, Charles does not say any positive things about the war or the army. This negative mentality about the war carries on to the epilogue and extends to generalize his entire life. When talking with Hooper, Charles says, “I never built anything, and I forfeited the right to watch my son grow up. I’m homeless, childless, middle-aged, loveless, Hooper” (Waugh 401). For Charles, the life that he lives now holds no meaning to him. He envisioned a life in the army of bravery and valiance, but there is none of that with his current situation. Charles contrasts with Hooper in his views about what the war was. As a child, Charles dreamt of heroic mythological scenes like the epitaph at Thermopylae, the legendary battle between the greatly outnumbered Trojan army against the Persians, but Hooper had no aspirations to join the army and “had come to it reluctantly, under compulsion, after he had made every feeble effort in his power to obtain deferment” (Waugh 9). Charles’s older generation and Hooper’s younger generation perceive the war differently, but neither of them enjoy it.

Overall, Waugh puts his own convictions about the war into the book through the characters and their experiences. Charles is a direct parallel to Waugh. Like Charles, Waugh is an army captain, but never actually sees combat (“About Evelyn Waugh”). Also, Waugh did not have the physique of a warrior which is similar to Charles being a romantic and a painter (Burdett). Waugh also incorporated some of his views into Hooper. Hooper is the representative for the new wave of people that are fighting in the war. He counted them “as an ignorant boor oblivious both to regimental tradition and to the refined sensibilities of Ryder/Waugh” (“Evelyn Waugh and the Origins of Brideshead Revisited”). Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited has a central focus surrounding the wars because of his own personal experience in it, and portrays his characters as being impacted by them.

Works Cited

Evelyn, Waugh. Brideshead Revisited. Back Bay Books, 2012

“Evelyn Waugh and the Origins of Brideshead Revisited.” Web Archive, March 23, 2012,

https://web.archive.org/web/20120314110135/http://www.adam-carr.net/012.html

Works Consulted

Burdett, Paul S. “Evelyn Waugh: The Novelist’s World War II Service.” Historynet, June 12,

2006, http://www.historynet.com/evelyn-waugh-the-novelists-world-war-ii-service.htm

“Reserved Occupations.” BBC, October 15, 2014,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652019.shtml

“About Evelyn Waugh.” Evelyn Waugh Society, Accessed December 7, 2016,

http://evelynwaughsociety.org/about-evelyn-waugh/