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Setting
Definition of Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often... read full definition
Prologue
Explanation and Analysis—Brideshead Mentioned:
In the Prologue, an aged Charles learns that he and his soldiers have been stationed at Brideshead, now vacated by the Flyte family. In his moment of recognition, Charles experiences a flashback, recalling his time spent with Sebastian and Julia:
“What’s this place called?”
He told me and, on the instant, it was as though someone had switched off the wireless, and a voice that had been bawling in my ears, incessantly, fatuously, for days beyond number, had been suddenly cut short; [...] for he had spoken a name that was so familiar to me, a conjuror’s name of such ancient power, that, at its mere sound, the phantoms of those haunted late years began to take flight.
In the above passage, a simple mention of the name "Brideshead" triggers Charles's memories, leading him to recall several formative relationships and events in his life. Charles uses metaphor to compare the name "Brideshead" to that of a "conjuror," such is the emotional power associated with the old estate. The fact that Charles experiences such a shift—from mental disturbance to quiet, pensive recall—is noteworthy. While Brideshead does hold positive memories for Charles, those memories are ultimately "phantoms" of "haunted late years," ghosts of a past once buried that have come back to remind him of lost relationships.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—The Eldest Brideshead:
As Anthony Blanche talks Charles's ear off in Part 1, Chapter 2, he gradually assesses each member of the Flyte family, laying bare their respective characters. He uses several oxymorons to describe Brideshead, the eldest child and son of the Flyte clan:
“There’s Brideshead who’s something archaic, out of a cave that’s been sealed for centuries. He has the face as though an Aztec sculptor had attempted a portrait of Sebastian; he’s a learned bigot, a ceremonious barbarian, a snow-bound lama…."
In the oxymoronic words of Anthony, Brideshead is a "learned bigot, a ceremonious barbarian, a snow-bound lama." Anthony uses such statements to point out what he perceives as disconcerting incongruities in Brideshead's character. The eldest Flyte son adheres to tradition and propriety, something Anthony views as "bigoted" or "barbaric." Anthony appears to think of Brideshead as a man out of place—ill-suited to the finer points of conduct in intellectual circles, but set on establishing himself in those circles regardless. Brideshead lacks the refinement of his younger siblings, both in appearance and manner.
It should be noted that, in the above passage, Anthony degrades Aztec sculpture as a means of diminishing Brideshead and elevating Sebastian. Anthony's comparison implies that the art forms of non-Western civilizations are "crude" imitations of Western refinement—emblematized by Sebastian, whose "fine features" juxtapose his brother's.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Fermentation:
In a curious example of simile from Part 1, Chapter 2, Charles analyzes the character of his and Sebastian's "wickedness" during their first year at Oxford:
I could match my cousin Jasper’s game-cock maturity with a sturdier fowl. I could tell him that all the wickedness of that time was like the spirit they mix with the pure grape of the Douro, heady stuff full of dark ingredients; it at once enriched and retarded the whole process of adolescence as the spirit checks the fermentation of the wine, renders it undrinkable, so that it must lie in the dark, year in, year out, until it is brought up at last fit for the table.
Charles compares his "wickedness" during his first year at Oxford to a "spirit" used to check the fermentation of wine until it can emerge as stronger liquor. The partying and drunkenness Charles engages in is thus intended to slow maturation and prolong adolescence.
Charles's choice of simile in this moment is unfortunately prescient, connecting the imagery of drunkenness and fermentation to delayed maturation. In Brideshead Revisited, alcohol consumption directly correlates with Sebastian and Charles's spats of prolonged irresponsibility. Alcoholism enables Sebastian, in particular, to avoid all manner of petty and profound irritations. The fermentation process and its addictive product do not just symbolize delayed adolescence in Brideshead Revisited—they fuel it.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Fear:
In the following example of simile from Part 1, Chapter 3, Charles narrates his panic upon receiving a letter from Sebastian, informing him that the Flyte boy is in grave danger:
[F]ear worked like yeast in my thoughts, and the fermentation brought to the surface, in great gobs of scum, the images of disaster; a loaded gun held carelessly at a stile, a horse rearing and rolling over, a shaded pool with a submerged stake, an elm bough falling suddenly on a still morning, a car at a blind corner; all the catalogue of threats to civilized life rose and haunted me [...].
Fear works rapidly "like yeast" in Charles's mind, giving rise to all manner of horrific musings on Sebastian's supposed demise. The extremity of Charles's thoughts in this moment reflect his deep and abiding love for Sebastian, with whom he has developed a relationship that far exceeds friendship. Charles responds to Sebastian's plea for help in earnest, genuinely terrified at the thought that something tragic has befallen his pseudo-lover.
Charles's earnestness and care for his friend is not entirely mirrored. While Sebastian undoubtedly loves Charles, his love is self-centered, hinging more on what Charles does for Sebastian—or makes him feel—than mutual support and care. This self-centeredness arises in part as a product of Sebastian's depression and ennui. Ensconced in his own psychological and societal troubles, Sebastian often fails to appreciate Charles as a friend should.
Related Themes:
Part 1, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Sebastian and Religion:
In Part 1, Chapter 4, Charles slowly begins to unearth certain truths about Sebastian's nature through exposure to Brideshead and the entire Flyte family. Notably, Charles uses the following simile to describe Sebastian's relationship with Catholicism:
Often, almost daily, since I had known Sebastian, some chance word in his conversation had reminded me that he was a Catholic, but I took it as a foible, like his teddy-bear.
Charles compares Sebastian's religious beliefs to his affinity for Aloysius—a minor idiosyncrasy, a quirk of personality. It is a tad unexpected to refer to religious beliefs—which often exert significant influence on a person's morality and decision-making—as a simple quirk. Charles's remark reflects Sebastian's fluid, strange relationship with Catholicism.
Sebastian clearly detests the role Catholicism plays in his life, though not out of spite towards the religion itself. The second Flyte son associates Catholicism with his family, whom he finds irksome and restricting. Sebastian's issue with Catholicism is one of irritation by association. He is particularly inclined to find Catholicism invasive and stifling in relation to Lady Marchmain, who uses her extensive religious network to surveil Sebastian while he is at Oxford.
Sebastian's antagonism towards Catholicism does not last indefinitely, as evidenced by his later-in-life re-conversion. This choice speaks to Sebastian's complicated relationship with Catholicism and family as identity categories. He holds these identities loosely, until he finds himself destabilized beyond comfort. Seeking the comfort of familiar institutions and labels, he returns to the religion he once scorned.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Julia:
At the beginning of Part 2, Chapter 2, Charles begins his narration with foreshadowing, alluding to the fact that Julia will play a far greater role in the events of Brideshead Revisited than she has thus far:
It is time to speak of Julia, who till now has played an intermittent and somewhat enigmatic part in Sebastian’s drama. It was thus she appeared to me at the time, and I to her. [....] She told me later that she had made a kind of note of me in her mind, as, scanning the shelf for a particular book, one will sometimes have one’s attention caught by another, take it down, glance at the title page and, saying “I must read that, too, when I’ve the time,” replace it, and continue the search.
Charles’s choice of phrasing is noteworthy: he states that “it is time to speak of Julia,” using a tone that verges on begrudging. Though she is undoubtedly a significant part of the story, her role in Charles’s life appears difficult for him to broach. This reluctance foreshadows Charles’s complicated relationship with Julia, and the no-doubt tumultuous emotions associated with their affair.
In the above passage, Charles also recalls a simile Julia once used to describe their relationship. She likened him to a book—one she’d always intended to read but chose to save for later. Julia’s phrasing, as Charles recalls it, comes across as slightly too intimate for simple friends or acquaintances. While her choice of words does not explicitly foreshadow the affair, the passage does allude to a deeper relationship than the reader has yet been shown.
Related Themes:
