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Brideshead Revisited
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1. Why do Sebastian and Lord Marchmain seem to hate Lady Marchmain?
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John
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Nov 01, 2016 03:30AM
1. Why do Sebastian and Lord Marchmain seem to hate Lady Marchmain and want to run away from her? What exactly are her flaws? Are we supposed to like her?
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Lady Marchmain is that person who adopts all of the outward expressions of religiosity, but doesn't experience the interior conversion that leads to repentance and change. She remains manipulative and controlling. Sebastian runs from her, and his apparent vocation, because yielding to God feels too much like yielding to his mother.
John wrote: "Lady Marchmain is that person who adopts all of the outward expressions of religiosity, but doesn't experience the interior conversion that leads to repentance and change. She remains manipulative ..."Hmmm, I may have to rethink this. In looking for something else, I found a discussion between Charles and Cordelia, in which Cordelia identifies her mother as the saintly person that people hate when they are mad at God, but can't hate Him and His saints. So they find a person like themselves, but more saintly and hate them.
The author is rebelling against traditional Catholicism. Sebastian and Lord Marchmain are the characters who represent this rebellion in the novel.
Jerry-Book wrote: "The author is rebelling against traditional Catholicism. Sebastian and Lord Marchmain are the characters who represent this rebellion in the novel."I don't think I agree with that. Neither Sebastian nor Lord Marchmain are painted very sympathetically, except Sebastian when he attempts to join the religious order in Africa, and Lord Marchmain on his deathbed. If they represent rebellion (perhaps flight?) Waugh seems to sympathize with them most when they return.
This is a tough one, I don't think Sebastian hates his mother instead I think he resents the way everyone seems to her love her and the fact that she is mother and wants a say in his life causes him to rebel against her ideals.
Marchmain is her estranged husband so animosity is to be expected, it may well be her faith that drove him away as he only converted to the Catholic religion to marry her, he probably didn't understand the constraints and the serious commitment it would entail.
Marchmain is her estranged husband so animosity is to be expected, it may well be her faith that drove him away as he only converted to the Catholic religion to marry her, he probably didn't understand the constraints and the serious commitment it would entail.
