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e Value of Aending University: An Analysis on
the Novels of Evelyn Waugh and their Adaptations
Evan J. Molineux
Claremont McKenna College
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Claremont McKenna College
The Value of Attending University: An Analysis on the Novels of Evelyn Waugh and
their Adaptations
submitted to
Professor Kathryn Stergiopoulos
by
Evan Molineux
for
Senior Thesis
Spring 2016
April 25, 2016
i
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 – 7
II. The Transformative Effects of Oxford in Brideshead Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . 8 - 30
III. Paul Pennyfeather’s Chaotic Journey through Decline and Fall . . . . . . . . 31 - 55
IV. The Bright Young Things of Vile Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 - 70
V. The Reaffirming Power of Evelyn Waugh Through Film and Television . . 71 - 85
Works Cited
ii
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Professor Kathryn Stergiopoulos, for her
patience, guidance, support, and constructive criticism over the past two semesters.
Without her or her colloquiums, this thesis would not have been nearly as enjoyable to
work on. I would also like to thank the rest of the literature department for helping to
nurture my love for a subject that I have truly enjoyed studying over the past four years.
To all my friends, thank you for your ever present love, I “squanch” each and every one
of you. Especially, Jackman, Bob, Joel, Alec, and The Guantanamo Babes. To my
parents, Karl and Renee, thank you for teaching me how to read, without your help this
thesis would have been a lot harder. Thank you to the University of Melbourne Library,
which is where I first picked up a copy of Brideshead Revisited. Thank you to the park in
Melbourne where I first read and fell in love with the book. Finally thank you to Evelyn
Waugh. There are not many authors I could have spent a year reading and writing about. I
still do not loathe you or the way you write, which is an amazing feeling.
1
I. Introduction
On the 21
st
of June 1930 Evelyn Waugh wrote a piece for the Daily Mail. The title
of the piece asked the simple question, Was Oxford Worth While? The first half of the
article places the question of worth in terms of money. Waugh asks: “Is the money spent
on university education a sound capital investment?” (A Little Order 15). He questions
the pragmatism of his investment and whether the return made was worth the £1000 it
cost him to earn a degree from Oxford in the early 1920s. He then asks, whether he could
have placed his money in an even more worthwhile venture. The simple answer Waugh
gives in regard to the pragmatic value of his investment, is no. Oxford was not worth it.
Instead, “as far as direct monetary returns are considered, our parents would have done
far better to have packed us off to Monte Carlo to try our luck at the tables” (A Little
Order 16). However, according to Waugh analyzing an education in terms of monetary
yield from a university degree is “a narrow and silly way to regard education” (A Little
Order 16).
The true value of receiving a university education is not the job or salary resulting
from the degree, but instead lies in the culture of the institution. Waugh admits that in
terms of an academic education, Oxford “is not up to date in the latest theories of
aesthetics and psychology…the undergraduates express the heartiest contempt for
everything to do with art or intellect.” (A Little Order 16) The institution should no
longer simply be regarded for its academic superiority. Waugh explains how the value of
Oxford extends far beyond the degree received. Instead, the true value is found in the
process of receiving it.
2
Waugh states that an education at an institution like Oxford was and is
worthwhile because it provides students with “another four years in which to grow up
gradually. It puts them out of the way of their fellow-citizens while they are making fools
of themselves.” The practical learning comes not through books or lectures, but because
students “can learn to get drunk or not to get drunk; they can edit their own papers and air
their opinions; they can learn how to give parties; they can find out, before they are too
busy, what really amuses and excites them; and they can do all this in a town by
themselves.” Oxford allows students essential time for which to prolong having to enter
the working world. Waugh notes the absurdity to the fact that a society would “pretend
that a boy of eighteen, however sound he has been as a school prefect, is a fully grown
man.” Regardless of a boy’s aptitude or maturity, a university experience is essential
because it provides a unique, exploratory experience that will temporarily prevent
students from “the dreary and futile jobs that wait for most of them” and give then a
chance at “keeping their sense of humour and self-respect.” (A Little Order 17)
In his novels Brideshead Revisited and Decline and Fall Waugh shows the
positive effects of providing young men with the appropriate period of time, setting, and
culture to grow up within. In Brideshead Revisited going to Oxford allows both Charles
Ryder and Sebastian Flyte the opportunity to separate from their families and engage in a
unique world that fosters their development. In the world of Oxford the boys drink
alcohol, collect art, throw parties, and fraternize with other students currently engaged in
the same experience. The boys hardly attend class and struggle academically, but their
experience at Oxford is entirely positive because they are immersed in a culture that
promotes their constant growth. The lives of the boys do not derail until they are
3
prematurely removed from their educational oasis or when exterior forces impose on their
lifestyles. Waugh shows how once removed from Oxford, Charles and Sebastian still try
to engage in their same juvenile behavior, yet how outside of Oxford their growth is no
longer facilitated. Especially with Sebastian, Waugh shows the extreme consequences
that arise once his family restricts his experience at Oxford and eventually try to remove
him completely from the college. Sebastian experiences an intense and rapid decline until
he removes himself from normal society and becomes an alcoholic, which eventually
leads to his sickness and death.
Charles is able to learn from the contrast between his positive and negative
experiences growing up as a student both inside and outside of Oxford. However, in
Waugh’s other novel Decline and Fall Paul Pennyfeather is only given a brief taste of
Oxford, before he is quickly thrown into a chaotic universe. Paul’s descent in the novel is
helpless because he has no experience to reflect back upon or an appropriate environment
of support. Unlike Charles, Paul is unable to return to Oxford until the novel’s Epilogue.
Charles is able to draw on his experiences as a student within the narrative and grow;
Paul is never afforded this opportunity and his growth is restricted.
Waugh creates a division between spaces in order to reinforce why attending an
institution like Oxford is worthwhile for his protagonists. When Charles drinks alcohol at
Oxford, his experiences are positive and become associated with moments like his first
encounter with Sebastian: “I might well have spent my three or four years in the
University and never have met him, but for the chance of his getting drunk one evening
in my college” (Brideshead Revisited 25). However, in situations like when Charles and
Sebastian leave Oxford and go to London, their drunkenness is not rewarded and instead
4
the consequence is that they are thrown into prison. Since Paul is removed from Oxford
at the start of the novel, when he drinks in Decline and Fall, the alcohol serves primarily
as fuel for the novel’s chaos. For example, when his colleague Captain Grimes laments
over the failure of his marriage (which happens because he forgot to mention to his new
fiancée that he is already married), the fact that they were “drinking cocktails in the Palm
Court before dinner” (Decline and Fall 128) precedes the actual scene. Their constant
drinking sporadically breaks up their conversation. This scene eventually devolves into
Grimes getting so drunk that he exclaims in front of a crowd: “I can juggle with a
whacking great bottle and a lump of ice and two knives. Look!” (Decline and Fall 136).
The next instance that he is referred to in the text is in regard to his perceived suicide.
Paul is unable to achieve any real growth throughout the novel, until the very end when
he is finally allowed to return to Oxford.
Waugh’s sophomore novel, Vile Bodies, provides a completely antithetical setting
to Oxford. The novel catalogues the experiences of a group similar in age to Charles,
Sebastian, and Paul, but their world denies education and promotes a society that has
devolved into complete chaos. The novel’s central figure Adam Fenwick-Symes is
sucked into this world and becomes trapped within the riotous universe of the aristocratic
youth’s that Waugh ironically refers to as “The Bright Young Things”. Waugh uses the
novel to show a world where everyone is denied the educational experience he cites as a
necessity in his article. The result for Adam is that he is tossed around through a series of
discordant action and like Paul is never afforded any opportunity for growth. However,
unlike Paul, Adam is hardly the center of the novel’s action and instead is used as a way
to transition between action and nonsensical situations for other characters. Waugh shows
5
through the other characters in his novel how without a proper, formative education they
are doomed to act idiotic, spoiled, and foster a meaningless world of simple comforts.
Aside from Adam, The Bright Young Things are seemingly flushed with money, yet their
wealth is unable to correct the issues of their universe and instead magnifies it. Their
senseless behavior cries out for the corrective, formative education they would receive at
an institution like Oxford. It is not until the end of the novel when The Bright Young
Things are confronted with the intense realism of war that the truth of their characters as
entirely incompetent is unapologetically revealed.
These three novels all work to back up Waugh’s claim as to the true necessity of
sending young people to university. The film and television adaptations of these works
also work to similar effects. Brideshead Revisited, Decline and Fall, and Vile Bodies
were all used as the source material for either films or television series. In 1981
Brideshead Revisited was turned into an eleven episode miniseries, directed by Charles
Sturridge and Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The series was notable for sticking closely to its
source material and transferring the images of the novel in an almost identical fashion to
television. The series gave a modern audience a clear view into the world of Oxford and
England during the 1920s. It utilized expansive shots of the actual university through
location shooting and color patterns to show a nostalgic image of Oxford. Stephen Fry’s
2004 film adaptation of Vile Bodies, Bright Young Things, worked to a similar effect as it
adhered closely to its subject matter. It also used on screen techniques like quick
crosscuts and cluttered frames to illustrate the chaotic world of the novel. The film roots
its characters distinctly within the time period of the novel, with set designs, costumes,
and music that all echo 1920s London. The primary effect of these two adaptations is to
6
reinforce the points made in Waugh’s novels through the added visual effects, which film
and television can achieve that a novel does not have the advantage of utilizing.
Therefore the Brideshead Revisited television series and Bright Young Things reinforce
Waugh’s point on the value of education.
The film adaptation of Decline and Fall takes a slightly different approach in the
treatment of its source material compared to the other aforementioned adaptations.
Instead of sticking directly to the novel, Decline and Fall of a Birdwatcher (Goodwin,
1969) places the narrative of its story in a contemporary universe to the year in which the
film was made. Unlike Brideshead Revisited and Bright Young Things, Goodwin does not
make a film which reflects the world of Waugh, but instead reflects his own. The film
possesses images and a score that are definitive of the late 1960s. The film also takes
greater liberty with changing the course of its narrative, with a major shift away from the
novel taken during the film’s ending. However, despite these changes the film still shows
the chaotic world of Waugh’s novel and uses it to show the transformative effects of a
positive educational environment and the degradation, which occurs in a more unholy
environment. The film’s shift in time period simply proves the timeless truth to the point
made in Waugh’s article Was Oxford Worth While?
Despite having been made across the span of nearly eight decades since Waugh
first published his novels, the adaptations of his work reflect the constant relevance of his
themes to the English audience. The liberties that Goodwin takes in modernizing his film
and moving away from the world of Waugh reinforce the power of these themes. The
adaptations use a variety of points to back up the fact that an education is valuable
because it allows students “another four years in which to grow up gradually” and teaches
7
them things like how “They can learn to get drunk or not to get drunk” (A Little Learning
17).
8
II. The Transformative Effects of Oxford in Brideshead Revisited
Oxford is the main setting of Brideshead Revisited’s Book One. The formative
experiences had at Oxford prove vital for the characters. The university becomes a
romanticized space characterized by a sense of openness. Oxford embodies the practical
function of school described by Waugh in his piece Was Oxford Worth While? It gives
Charles and Sebastian “another four years in which to grow up gradually.” Waugh titles
book one of the novel “Et in Arcadia Ego”, which translates from Latin into the phrase
“And in Arcadia I Am”. In 42 B.C. Virgil established Arcadia as an “imaginative
creation…it is the land of shepherds and shepherdesses, the land of poetry and love.”
(Wooden 36) Warren Wooden describes the nature of the Utopia as coming from “a
growing humanistic dissatisfaction with the corruptions of the civilized world and a
longing for a simple, rational and humane style of life.” (36) This definition foreshadows
the effect of book one’s setting.
A straightforward reading of “Et in Arcadia Ego” shows Oxford as the novel’s
Utopia. The quote highlights the transformative effects of the university. The declarative
statement of “I am” reflects the actions of the students. For Charles and Sebastian,
Oxford will serve as a setting that facilitates their ability to exist and live properly. The
phrase establishes Waugh’s idea that Oxford will serve as a fantastical setting that will
allow for intense development of his characters. In his essay on Waugh, David Lodge
describes a similar sensation in Brideshead Revisited and notes how “By 1922, the sober
veterans of the war had departed, and the University was ‘re-possessed by the young.’
The manner of their repossession – the drinking, the ragging, the dandyism, the defiance
9
of authority, the experimentation with every style of life and art-is unforgettably evoked,
for all its nostalgic idealization, in the long first section of Brideshead Revisited.” (13)
In the novel’s first section, the depiction of Oxford is characterized by Charles’s
unique perspective of innocence and interest. He moves into Oxford with a sense of
amazement that highlights both the idealization of the space and foreshadows the
experiences he will have. Charles’ narration establishes Oxford as a fantastical setting.
He blends ideas of mythology with an acute sense of his surrounding nature and further
recognizes the significance of coming to Oxford by connecting it to his present:
That day, too, I had come not knowing my destination. It was Eights
Week. Oxford – submerged now and obliterated, irrecoverable as Lyonnesse, so
quickly have the waters come flooding in – Oxford, in those days, was still a city
of aquatint. In her spacious and quiet streets men walked and spoke as they had
done in Newman’s day; her autumnal mists, her gray springtime, and the rare
glory of her summer days – such as that day – when the chestnut was in flower
and the bells rang out high and clear over her gables and cupolas, exhaled the soft
airs of centuries of youth. (Brideshead Revisited 21)
Charles connects his arrival in the novel’s preface at Brideshead to his earlier arrival at
Oxford. The connection comes through the word “too”. Like his arrival in the prologue at
Brideshead, Charles “had come not knowing my destination.” This is the first sentence
Waugh provides about Oxford and it is strongly characterized by an overwhelming
nostalgia. Oxford is both positively associated with Brideshead and with the sense of
adventure that comes with arriving at an unknown destination.
10
Through his introduction, Charles also brings in a contemporary perspective of
the university. His nostalgia is interrupted by the realization that Oxford is now
“submerged and obliterated, irrecoverable as Lyonnesse, so quickly have the waters come
flooding in.” The “submerged” is most obviously a reference to the Second World War.
World War II curtailed time for students at Oxford and a major military presence became
present on the campus. Oxford, like the rest of England was literally submerged by the
country’s involvement in the war. However, using the comparison of the lost quality to
“Lyonnesse” extends Charles’ sense of nostalgia. In an essay titled “Lyonnesse: The
Evolution of a Fable”, A.D.H. Bivar discusses how the mythic land of Arthurian legend
was referenced heavily throughout English literature from the 17
th
to 19
th
centuries. As a
result of unregulated mythology the facts became distended and the name “Lyonnesse”
lost meaning. Like Bivar’s point, the university has lost the meaning it once held for
Charles and it is now “irrecoverable”. Charles specifies the quality that Oxford has lost
because it used to be “a city of aquatint.” Describing Oxford as a city of aquatint is
peculiar given the singular definition related to printmaking
1
. This definition relates to a
number of aspects in the life of Charles given the novel’s later contexts. Removing those
future contexts, the aquatint most likely refers to the inspirational effects of the city. On
the most basic level of the word’s definition, the artistic process reflects Charles eventual
profession as a painter, which was developed at Oxford. A more in depth reading of the
1
Aquatint - a variety of etching widely used by printmakers to achieve a
Broad range of tonal values. The process is called aquatint because finished prints often
resemble watercolor drawings or wash drawings. The technique consists of exposing a
copperplate to acid through a layer of melted granulated resin.
11
word alludes to Charles’ exposure to potentially dangerous influences. Just as copper and
acid mix in the process of aquatint, Charles was forced into relationships with the human
equivalents of acid, which came together to shape his adult character.
“Aquatint” also works to separate the past from the present and associate a
negative emotion with contemporary Oxford. A sharp contrast is established with the
waters, which “quickly have…come flooding in”. The tense places the flooding waters in
the present, which is contrasted with the “city of aquatint”, which is no longer part of the
present, but existed “in those days”. Aquatint is an art form, which has colors and a
surface aesthetic that resembles watercolor painting, but does not actually use a water-
based paint. Therefore when water is incorporated, as represented by the incoming
floodwaters, it completely changes the art form. The classic quality of Oxford,
represented by the aquatint is gone and replaced quickly by an overwhelming normalcy
of the new form, which can be assumed to be art based in watercolor paint. This notion of
the genuine, uniqueness of the university being lost is reflected in the final line of the
passage, which in summation states that “exhaled the soft airs of centuries of youth.”
“Exhaled” presents an action of transition and abandonment. Just as air is exhaled from
the human body, the “soft airs of centuries of youth” exuded from Oxford. However,
again denoted by the tense of the passage, this air of youth is no longer being “exhaled”
and like the quality of “aquatint”, Charles’s reflection shows how Oxford has changed
and its current state is a negative one.
Charles’ unknown destination is however not Oxford. At the point of this
introduction, Charles is well established within the university. He introduces Oxford not
on his first day, but on a day during his “third term since matriculation” (Brideshead
12
Revisited 25). The in media res introduction to Oxford is characteristic of the setting’s
effect. The space is defined by the experiences it fostered. Waugh immediately
establishes the value in attending Oxford. Charles’ initial reflection does not provide a
physical description of the university, but recounts an adventure with Sebastian.
Waugh particularly places the order of events in his first chapter through the voice
of his narrator. He moves from an introduction of Oxford into an account of Sebastian
Flyte and then finally into his first day at university. After Charles’ introduction, the
novel’s first book is rich with the characteristics Lodge gives Oxford: “the drinking, the
ragging, the dandyism, the defiance of authority, the experimentation with every style of
life and art”. However, Sebastian has to be placed as the focus of the introduction
because without his influence Charles’ life would not have matured in the same way.
Starting the book with “I have been here before,’ I said; I had been there before; first with
Sebastian more than twenty years ago on a cloudless day in June” (Brideshead Revisited
21) gives immediate attention to the novel’s most significant relationship. Sebastian
literally comes first both in Charles’ memory and in the chronology of Book One. This
first memory of Sebastian is also defined as “cloudless,” which reflects the quality of
Charles’s narration. However, the negative influence of Sebastian is present even if it is
not fully realized by Charles as the narrator. Early in the text he comments “I sometimes
wonder whether, had it not been for Sebastian, I might have trodden the same path as
Collins round the cultural water-wheel.” (Brideshead Revisited 47) This sense of doubt
occasionally creeps into the narration, but is often explicated through external voices.
An example of the type of exterior influence that affects Charles is his cousin
Jasper. Charles is told by Jasper that “I expected you to make mistakes your first year.
13
We all do…But you, my dear Charles, whether you realize it or not, have gone straight,
hook, line and sinker, into the very worst set in the University.” (Brideshead Revisited 44)
This remonstration is definitive of Charles’s time at Oxford and his relationship with
Sebastian. He is told off for his social circles, drinking habits, lack of attendance in class,
physical appearance, and most significantly his lavish quality of living. Jasper makes the
point that “I don’t know what allowance my uncle makes you, but I don’t mind betting
you’re spending double. All this.” (Brideshead Revisited 45) This expensive quality of
life is a feature Charles has adopted chiefly from Sebastian. In this passage, the
italicization of “this” provides significance through emphasis. The “this” turns into a
much larger and exaggerated image of all Charles’ unnecessary possessions. Following
the “this” is “a wide sweep of his hand the evidence of profligacy about him.” A series of
items are then explained having been encompassed by the sweep of the hand, including
“the box of a hundred cabinet Partagas” and “a dozen frivolous, new books.” (Brideshead
Revisited 45) The language shows Charles’ awareness in how ludicrous his purchases are.
He describes the books as “frivolous”, which connects directly back to the first
description of the room before he had met Sebastian. At that point at the start of his
education, “My books were meager and commonplace…and my earliest friends fitted
well into this background” (Brideshead Revisited 28). Now that his relationship with
Sebastian has been established he has abandoned any sense of modesty in place of such
items as the one hundred “Partagas”, a type of cigar that would probably go
misunderstood by the average reader. The most significant item comes last in the list,
when Jasper acknowledges “that peculiarly noisome object” (Brideshead Revisited 45).
Waugh again uses italics to heighten the weight of the speech, adding special attention to
14
the description of “a human skull lately purchased from the School of Medicine, which,
resting in a bowl of roses, formed, at the moment, the chief decoration of my table. It
bore the motto ‘Et in Arcadia ego’ inscribed on its forehead.” (Brideshead Revisited 45)
The skull bearing the motto, which is shared with the title of the novel’s first
book, is definitive of the formative, early years of Charles’ times at Oxford. The motto
itself presents the same aforementioned meaning and significance, as it represents Oxford
as the Arcadian utopia where the students are allowed to grow and learn in an
unadulterated environment. The Utopian metaphor contrasts Jasper’s remonstration and
reveals how despite his misbehavior, the value of his time at Oxford is because of his
experiences. The descriptive language surrounding the skull works in agreement with this
idea of free unrestricted growth. Charles purchased the skull using the allowance from his
uncle, showing the value of money in the Utopian Oxford. Money is never a concern for
Charles; instead of focusing on dollar amounts, he shows a blatant disregard for economy
in search of happiness through material possessions. The skull was also purchased from
the “School of Medicine”, a specifically mentioned part of the University’s prestigious,
educational institutions that Charles has almost definitely neglected other than to
purchase this skull. In doing so it again reveals the idea that his education is not
facilitating him to study medicine, but allowing him access to a facility that will foster his
inordinate spending and behavior. The final detail of the skull is that it’s “resting in a
bowl of roses”. The placement of this detail is significant given how it immediately
follows that it was purchased at the “School of Medicine”. The order of the objects shows
that the purpose of the skull is to be “the chief decoration of [Charles’s] table.” There is
no deep, intellectual meaning Charles has applied to its placement in the room, which is
15
why its origins are presented as an aside to the point that it is simply an expensive
decoration. The fact that the skull is placed in a “bowl of roses” also reflects the
meaningless to Charles’s excess. In her essay “Just Roses”, H.J. Taylor describes the
timeless style of the flower and the way that they “seem to speak as no other flower can.”
(155) Taylor notes how there is not a single type of rose and therefore there is no singular
symbol when the flower is included in literature. “The rose is a favorite flower but it
cannot be said that every one loves and admires roses” (159), Charles roses are undefined
and are therefore devoid of a specified meaning. The fact that his skull is placed in a
generic “bowl of roses” again shows the way his possessions provide style without
significance.
Going to Oxford allows students to purchase ornate and frivolous items and
display them for their social circles. This idea of life at the university is not one inherent
to an idea of a classical education, but falls in line with Waugh’s idea that a significant
university education is one, which provides the students with a unique experience. The
type of secluded experience that avoids the reality of dealing with money and pushes
adult life aside so “After…they can begin on the dreary and futile jobs that wait for most
of them, with a great deal more chance of keeping their sense of humour and self-
respect.” (A Little Order 17) Despite not receiving money from his father, Charles spends
endlessly throughout his time at university. Allan Hepburn describes the negative quality
to the excessive lifestyle Charles and the rest of the students take on, as it “creates class
divisions within families and pushes people to constitute new families” (243). Mr. Ryder
withholds money from Charles, which is why he becomes reliant on the allowance given
to him from his uncle. It is also why he becomes so attached to Sebastian and the rest of
16
the Flyte family. “The narrative of Brideshead Revisited concentrates on acts of
exchange, scrimping, and prodigality.” (Hepburn 244) For Hepburn, the atmosphere
created by forcing an aristocratic lifestyle on students that cannot afford it, paired with
the extreme levels of spending creates a disturbing comedy. Charles is forced to
“enumerate items of décor and delicacies that he has not paid for in his Oxford rooms.”
(Hepburn 244) He spends money on “frivolous, new books” (Brideshead Revisited 45)
yet in order “To cover end-of-term expenses I had sold my Omega screen to Collins for
ten pounds, of which I now kept four.” (Brideshead Revisited 67) Charles struggles to
pay for his education: “I had started the term with my battels paid and over a hundred
pounds in hand. All that had gone, and not a penny paid out where I could get credit.”
(Brideshead Revisited 67) Charles admits how “Sebastian used to tease me – ‘You spend
money like a bookie’ – but all of it went on and with him. His own finances were
perpetually, vaguely distressed.” (Brideshead Revisited 67) The relaxed attitude wealthy
students have with money and the social divide it creates at the university such as with
students like Sebastian facilitates this debt for Charles, yet it also gives him a more
complete understanding to the value of money.
Hepburn presents a largely critical reading of the world at Oxford. He views the
novel’s ideas of debt and exchange as detrimental to the average student, while
accentuating the economic position of an affluent student like Sebastian. Although the
spending habits that Charles falls into are largely negative and at times detrimental, they
extend beyond his time at university, to where his experiences with debt can be seen both
comically as Hepburn states, but extremely formative and valuable. Had it not been for
his time at Oxford, Charles would not have had intimate experiences with students whose
17
own finances were “perpetually, vaguely distressed.” He would not have been introduced
to a mentality like Sebastian’s which allows him to speak of money casually and put it
aside with remarks like, “‘It’s all done by lawyers,’ he said helplessly, ‘and I suppose
they embezzle a lot. Anyway, I never seem to get much. Of course, mummy would give
me anything I asked for.’” (Brideshead Revisited 67) Sebastian is willfully ignorant and
unapologetic about his wealth. Waugh uses the reference to “lawyers” and speculative
language like “I suppose” and “I never seem to” in order to accentuate Sebastian’s
condescension. This heightened tone increases the flawed nature of his relationship to
money, adding the comic elements discussed by Hepburn. However, Waugh also
interjects the word “helplessly” to show how Charles is reading the situation as the
narrator. Charles sees Sebastian as helpless and although he has been manipulated into
adopting a culture of lavish spending, he starts to see the obvious flaws in this culture and
the effects it has on Sebastian. These instances and interactions provide Charles with the
real value in attending Oxford. He is able to learn from Sebastian’s ignorance and apply it
to his life beyond the university.
Following this interaction with Sebastian, Charles returns home to spend a period
of his vacation from school with his father. In a conversation at the dinner table Charles
admits that “Well, father, as I told you, I haven’t much money to spare for theatre-going.”
(Brideshead Revisited 72) Mr. Ryder’s response creates a positive juxtaposition with
Sebastian’s reaction to personal finance from earlier in the chapter.
My dear boy, you must not let money become your master in this way.
Why, at your age, your cousin Melchior was part-owner of a musical
piece. It was one of his few happy ventures. You should go to the play as
18
part of your education. If you read the lives of eminent men you will find
that quite half of them made their first acquaintance with drama from the
gallery…The expense is nugatory, and even while you wait for admission
in the street you are diverted by ‘buskers.’ We will sit with the gods
together one night. (Brideshead Revisited 73)
Mr. Ryder’s speech shows the transition, which occurs for Charles when he exits
Oxford. His father is able to break down his adopted idea of the value of money as being
an indicator of happiness and possessions reflecting status and replaces it with a practical
idea of spending. Compared to the thoughts of Sebastian, there is a similar disregard for
accounting for money, but Mr. Ryder is not concerned with spending frivolously or for
decorative purposes. Instead money should not be an issue because it should be saved and
spent on “happy ventures” that will “play as part of your education.” Furthermore it
should facilitate an experience that is not reliant on money, such as their diversion by the
buskers. The buskers
2
represent a nontraditional art form that although motivated by
money, does not require wealth to experience nor is their any discrimination based on
social status. Waugh uses this to show the obviously hollow quality to the life Charles
leads with Sebastian and although he constantly digresses back into it, moments like this
allow for a clear insight into the legitimate value of money and education. If he were not
forced into financial restriction at Oxford then he never would be able to make this
connection with his father.
2
A person who performs music or some other entertainment in a public place (now esp.
in the street) for monetary donations; an itinerant entertainer or musician. (OED)
19
Immediately after Mr. Ryder’s speech to Charles, the scene is amplified to reflect
the plain nature of Charles time away from Oxford. For example Charles describes the
food he shares with his father:
Dinner that evening consisted of a white, tasteless soup, over-fried
fillets of sole with a pink sauce, lamb cutlets propped against a cone of
mashed potato, stewed pears in jelly standing on a kind of sponge cake.
(Brideshead Revisited 73)
The language used in this description of the meal is obvious in the way it uses the
mundane. The core of the meal is standard, just meat, potatoes, and cake, but the
descriptive words surrounding the food amplify the ordinary quality of the meal. The
food is “white” and “tasteless” and served with a “pink sauce”. All of these words are
extremely basic and obvious in the way that they avoid being vibrant or particularly
special. The language purposely falls flat, which is reflected by the way the lamb cutlets
cannot stand up, but must be “propped against a cone of mashed potato”. This type of
scene works to create a sharp contrast once Charles leaves his home and returns to
Oxford.
The contrast between life at Oxford and life outside is apparent throughout the
novel. Charles and Sebastian’s fortunes are far different when they leave their established
bubbles at Oxford and Brideshead. This is perhaps most evident through the boy’s
drinking habits while they are enrolled at Oxford. The first interaction between Charles
and Sebastian comes after a night of heavy drinking. Charles recounts the situation, as
“when at last we met, were the circumstances propitious.” (Brideshead Revisited 30) The
details of the encounter are then given as Charles recounts how “there appeared at my
20
window the face I knew to be Sebastian’s, but not, as I had formerly seen it, alive and
alight with gaiety; he looked at me for a moment with unfocused eyes and then, leaning
forward well into the room, he was sick.” (Brideshead Revisited 30) Despite public
drunkenness and vomiting through a window into an unknown room, the consequence of
Sebastian’s actions is minimal. The results are the frustration of Charles’s housing
attendant who has to clean up Sebastian’s vomit and an apology from Sebastian, which
quickly buds into the characters’ lasting relationship.
Charles and Sebastian’s drinking habits are facilitated in this way until they are
put in more realistic social situations beyond Oxford and Brideshead. One of the first
moments when the novel shows Sebastian struggle with his alcoholism against societal
restrictions is on a trip to London. After being invited to dine in the city, the boys devolve
into their university habits as “Sebastian and I found ourselves drinking alone together as
we always did.” (Brideshead Revisited 127) The boys then find themselves with “Rex
Mottram [who] ordered more wine; presently the three of us were together on the
pavement.” Being on the pavement in this context relates to the extreme drunken state of
the three boys, exaggerating their inebriation to a point where they have lost motor skills
and now reside on the pavement. Their drunkenness is obvious, yet the next course of
action is to drive their car to meet up with another friend. Sebastian provides the logic for
driving because it is “Always better to have one’s own car on an occasion like this.”
Charles has become so used to the distorted reality of Oxford that he is unable to apply
any logic to this situation.
Sebastian’s life has been uniform in the way that both Brideshead and Oxford
have allowed him to live in worlds that neither hold him accountable for his actions nor
21
question his logic. He has been allowed to explore a world that has never hit back, but
instead has promoted his bad habits leading to social irresponsibility and alcoholism.
Charles has fallen into the world of Sebastian, which is why when Sebastian tells his
friends that he is going to drive drunk out of convenience sake, there is no rebuttal.
Instead Charles remembers how “We did not question this reasoning, and there lay our
mistake.” (Brideshead Revisited 128) Sebastian finds himself at the wheel accompanied
by a girl that does not attend Oxford and stands for a sense of external reason. When she
tells Sebastian “It isn’t safe the way you’re driving…Besides, we ought to be on the other
side of the road…Here, stop. I’d sooner walk.” (Brideshead Revisited 131) he stops the
car abruptly and is confronted by two police officers that throw the group of boys in
prison.
The true value of the Oxford education is that it facilitates an environment
described by Waugh, which allows the students to either avoid moments such as these or
use them as lessons. The fundamental difference between Charles and Sebastian is that
while both boys are stalled in a pompous, aristocratic way of life, Charles eventually
emerges from it, learns from his experiences, and becomes a well-rounded adult. Lodge
suggests that “the myth of decline has become more rigid and polemical here – but at the
very end, the narrator recognizes that the disfigurement of Brideshead by its military
occupants and the dispersal of the aristocratic family that once occupied it matter less
than the fact that the sanctuary lamp continues to burn in the ugly little art nouveau
chapel.” (10-11) Lodge’s suggestion proves true given Charles’s concluding realization
upon his return to Brideshead that “the place was desolate and the work all brought to
nothing…Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” (Brideshead Revisited 402) Charles makes
22
this statement at the end of the novel to denote the transition he has made away from the
errors of his youth. Sebastian never makes this realization and his character remains flat
up until his death. This scene where he is thrown in prison for driving drunk is a major
turning point because it reveals this unchanging, singular dimension to Sebastian’s
character.
In his recollection of the group’s night in prison, Charles separates himself from
his friends who “Somewhere to the left of me Sebastian and Mulcaster were raising Cain.
Sebastian had been steady on his legs and fairly composed on the way to the station; now,
shut in, he seemed in a frenzy and was pounding the door, and shouting.” (Brideshead
Revisited 132) This moment is Sebastian’s first real conflict. Until now, the narration has
been extremely positive and the language reveled in a style that was “exceedingly lush,
both the romanticism and the preoccupation with the appeal of aristocratic manners and
accouterments” which showed the “languid and idyllic Oxford years of the early 1920’s.”
(Doyle 29) The style and narration does not abruptly shift through this exposition of
Sebastian’s character, but it slowly begins to turn until Charles is able to make what
Lodge describes appropriately as his realization that “the aristocratic family…matter less
than the fact that the sanctuary lamp continues to burn in the ugly little art nouveau
chapel.” (Lodge 10) It is however this moment in jail that Sebastian stops being just the
“flamboyant, teddy bear-owning aristocrat” (Copping The Telegraph)
After Charles is released, Sebastian tells his friend, “‘I suppose mummy’s got to
hear about it,’ he said. ‘Damn, damn, damn! It’s cold. I won’t go home. I’ve nowhere to
go. Let’s just slip back to Oxford and wait for them to bother us.’” (Brideshead Revisited
136) Sebastian is no longer the calm pillar of swagger he embodied and was known for at
23
Oxford. His speech becomes manic as is denoted by the repetitive “damn”. The concern
for his mother sees a further shift from his former self, which constantly tried to separate
from his family. For example, before returning to Oxford the semester of this incident,
Sebastian dissuades Charles from joining him in his mother’s London home under the
pretense that “the place is probably full of my family.” (Brideshead Revisited 115)
Sebastian upheld an air of disregard for his family, which is why he constantly and
casually separated them from Charles. Now however as the veil around his personality
breaks down, he calls out with concern over the opinion of his mother in front of his
friends. This shift reiterates the significance of Oxford and also provides a clear
separation of the university from Brideshead. Oxford is still a sanctuary for Sebastian,
especially from his home at Brideshead but the value in being there is far less significant
because he refuses to grow or learn from his experiences. Given Charles’ narration and
his infatuation with the Ryder family the descriptions given about Brideshead are
positive. Yet, through the subtle language of Waugh and moments such as these, which
break Charles’ narration and express the feelings of Sebastian, there becomes a clear
division in the spaces.
Physical descriptions of the university are sparse, occasionally negative, and
extremely insignificant compared to Brideshead. Upon arriving at Brideshead, Charles is
struck speechless, finally expressing himself as he tells Sebastian, “What a place to live
in!” The elements of the setting at Brideshead are neither simple nor limited to what is of
significance to the action. Instead, Waugh “conveys his sharp criticism of Brideshead
House through subtly charged language.” (Heath 167) Charles and Sebastian don’t
simply enter the house and proceed immediately with action. They “entered through the
24
fortress-like, stone-flagged, stone-vaulted passages of the servants’ quarters…and
climbed uncarpeted, scrubbed elm stairs, followed more passages of wide boards covered
in the center by a thin strip of drugget, through passaged covered by linoleum…”
(Brideshead Revisited 37) This description continues for another three lines and is
characteristic of the treatment Brideshead receives in the novel.
Brideshead is a “sequestered place” (Brideshead Revisited 18) that rejects any
legitimate sense of intellect and growth as a result of its focus on the wealth of the Flyte
family. “While appearing to praise the house, Waugh condemns it, for its joys are
illusions.” (Heath 167) In the aforementioned passage, the language is repetitive and
descriptive without being overtly flattering. Instead of creating a grandiose entrance, the
boys enter through the “fortress-like, stone-flagged, stone vaulted passages of the
servants’ quarters”. This provides a clear sense of the building’s size with the word
“fortress”, but it is followed up plainly by the repetition of the “stone”. Stone is not a
fancy element of construction, but represents a practicality and even a plain quality to the
building. Waugh elicits a sensation of underwhelming by following up “fortress” with
this extremely plain language. Furthermore, entering through the “servants’ quarters”
creates an awkward contrast and again takes the focus of the reader away from the
overwhelming grandeur of the home and places it again onto a more practical element of
the estate. Bringing out elements like the stone and the servants, which exist at the core of
Brideshead work to Heath’s point on Waugh’s condemnation and how he is exposing the
joys of the estate as illusions.
In the scene where Charles and Sebastian enter Brideshead together for the first
time, Sebastian comments that “You must see the garden front and the fountain…It’s
25
where my family live.” Charles reveals how Sebastian’s introduction left “an ominous
chill at the words he used – not, that ‘that is my house,’ but ‘it’s where my family live.’
(Brideshead Revisited 36) Charles’ revelation shows the hallow quality to Brideshead, the
wealth it represents, and the decadent aristocratic culture it embodies. Charles provides a
constant stream of praise on Brideshead, which places a thin veil over the criticism in
Waugh’s language.
On a later trip Charles says that he is “very near heaven, during those languid
days at Brideshead.” (Brideshead Revisited 87) On that same trip, the Brideshead
fountain becomes a focal point when Sebastian requests that Charles draw it. It was “such
a fountain as one might expect to find in a piazza of southern Italy; such a fountain as
was, indeed, found there a century ago by one of Sebastian’s ancestors; found, purchased,
imported and re-erected in an alien but welcoming climate.” (Brideshead Revisited 89)
Waugh uses the semicolons of this sentence to create a parallelism in describing the
fountain. The initial thought is the quality of the fountain, which is as beautiful as those
of southern Italy. Waugh then repeats “such a fountain as” after his semicolon. This
repetition places the two following thoughts next to each other. Although the fountain is
Italian, it was “found there a century ago by one of Sebastian’s ancestors;” Waugh does
not finish the sentence here, but instead extends the thought through another semicolon.
The fountain is Italian, but was found by one of Sebastian’s ancestors, and finally he
concludes his impression about the fountain with language Waugh uses to denote the true
quality of the items at Brideshead. The genuine quality of the Italian fountain is removed
because it was “found, purchased, imported and re-erected”. Starting this series of
thoughts with “found” connects it to the second part of the sentence, removing the initial
26
correlation to Italy. Waugh uses this sentence to make clear that the overriding quality of
the fountain is that it was “found, purchased, imported, and re-erected in an alien but
welcoming climate.” The language Waugh uses to describe Brideshead is heavy with
words that subtly reveal the negative qualities of the estate. This again falls under Heath’s
point that Waugh condemns Brideshead because “its joys are illusions.” The fountain is
not simply a beautiful piece of architecture within the garden of the estate, but instead
serves as a symbol for the unfiltered wealth of the Flyte family and their power to
manipulate a cultural artifact for the shallow purpose of making their garden look nicer.
Oxford revels in a modestly beautiful city and campus that although described, is
never made the focal point of conversation. Instead the university is described through
the ornate qualities of its students and faculty. Not praising Oxford serves an opposite
effect to the descriptions of Brideshead. Instead of superfluous features that reveal the
negative quality of the wealth Brideshead embodies, Waugh’s description of Oxford are
understated. The physical qualities of the university and town do not mask negative
undercurrents, but instead allow legitimate emotions and interactions to reveal
themselves. Waugh does not hide anything beneath Charles’s language and instead “The
Oxford scenes, so romantic in tone, are recreated exactly as one might look back in
nostalgic remembrance, and especially as Ryder tries to recall precisely how he felt and
acted at the time” (Lane 100).
Charles provides a lavish description of the University on his return and at the
start of his second term.
“‘It is typical of Oxford,’ I said, ‘to start the new year in autumn.’
Everywhere, on cobble and gravel and lawn, the leaves were falling and in the
27
college gardens the smoke of the bonfires joined the wet river mist, drifting across
the gray walls; the flags were oily underfoot and as, one by one, the lamps were lit
in the windows round the quad, the golden lights were diffuse and remote, new
figures in new gowns wandered through the twilight under the arches and the
familiar bells now spoke of a year’s memories. The autumnal mood possessed us
both as though the riotous exuberance of June had died with the gillyflowers,
whose scent at my windows now yielded to the damp leaves, smoldering in a
corner of the quad.” (Brideshead Revisited 117)
This description pays particular attention to the natural elements of the campus and
directly relates them to their influence over the narration. Charles does not denote the
change in season or describe the way “leaves were falling” anywhere else in the novel.
The change in season parallels the transition in space as Charles returns to
Oxford. Just as he has left London and his vacation behind to start again at university,
autumn has also returned. The language of the passage is obvious in the way it provides
significance to the arrival of autumn, the leaves fall and Waugh even uses the phrase
“autumnal mood”. Autumn is a season of transition, the leaves fall and the weather
begins to take a dramatic change, which causes the smoke of the bonfires to join the wet
river mist. The sensation possesses a duality of being familiar, yet strange given the
amount of time that has passed since the last autumn. The lamps around the quad are
“diffuse and remote”, which creates a paradox. The lamps are not situated to illuminate
the maximum amount of space, just as Charles is not fully cognizant of his surroundings
on his return to school. There are elements of the school that despite being beautiful are
distant. The lights are still “golden” they have just taken unfamiliar space. This idea of an
28
unfamiliar return is extended to the “new figures in new gowns”. The first line of the
chapter, “It is typical” establishes the sense of familiarity upon the return to Oxford.
Acknowledging how typical the quality of Oxford is shows both the confidence and sense
of comfort for Charles as he returns for his second year. However, the school also
possesses obvious differences. The repetition of the word “new” shows that despite his
initial sentiment, Charles’s return to Oxford has subverted expectation. These differences
eventually become an aside to what is familiar. The “new figures in new gowns wandered
through the twilight”, yet the paragraph is closed by the “familiar bells [which] now
spoke of a year’s memories.” Ending the passage with this idea of the bells instills the
idea that for Charles’s the space he returns to evokes an overall familiarity.
Moving into the next passage, Waugh continues to build on the familiarity of the
space, but establishes a more somber mood, which contrasts the sense of unknown and
naive excitement Charles exuded on the first day of his inaugural term at Oxford. At that
moment he absorbed his environment and noted how outside his room “there were gilly-
flowers growing below the windows which on summer evenings filled them with
fragrance.” (Brideshead Revisited 28) Now upon his return to Oxford, the excitement has
waned and “the riotous exuberance of June had died with the gillyflowers” (Brideshead
Revisited 117). In his new state of maturity Oxford has become a familiar world that no
longer has the same exciting effects as it did during Charles’s first term. Sebastian
reflects this sense of perceived maturity with the chapter’s first dialogue as he exclaims,
“I feel precisely one hundred years old.” (Brideshead Revisited 117) This transition into
maturity shows the appropriate effects of the University, which Waugh posits in his
essay. As the excitement begins to fade, the exploratory phases of the boy’s lives is
29
satisfied. They got drunk and acted foolish through their first semester and have started
the process of “four years in which to grow up gradually” (A Little Order 17).
Brideshead Revisited shows how Waugh’s practical definition of sending boys to
university is correct because of the growth and decline endured by his two main
characters. Through the beginning of their time at Oxford Charles and Sebastian act like
fools, but their foolish habits are facilitated in the environment of the university. They
live within the Arcadian Utopia and they show slight signs of growth through their
shenanigans. However, their development is derailed when they are pushed into
secondary environments beyond Oxford, like Brideshead and the city. In these
environments, their juvenile behavior is not facilitated, but instead is punished and the
boys are not afforded the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. When Sebastian is
ultimately pushed completely away from Oxford, his character sees a complete decline.
In a moment, which sums up this theme in the novel, Charles describes the significance
of being allowed to explore, act foolishly, and drink alcohol:
I might well have spent my three or four years in the University and never
have met him, but for the chance of his getting drunk one evening in my college
and of my having ground-floor rooms in the front quadrangle. (Brideshead
Revisited 25)
Had Charles listened to his law abiding cousin and changed his room from the ground
floor of the front quadrangle or had Sebastian avoided the advice of Waugh and not
gotten drunk at university, then the entire course of action for the novel would have been
avoided. If Charles had not attended a university, which dissuaded him from drinking or
30
acting strictly within the rules then he would never as Waugh puts it, have been able to
“grow up gradually”.
31
III. Paul Pennyfeather’s Chaotic Journey through Decline and Fall
In a moment of self-reflexivity, Waugh tells his readers what Decline and Fall is
about: “In fact, the whole of this book is really an account of the mysterious
disappearance of Paul Pennyfeather.” (Decline and Fall 163) Waugh is not describing a
literal disappearance of his novel’s main character; he remains the central figure
throughout the text. Instead, this passage refers to the disappearance of Pennyfeather’s
sensibility and the loss of the character’s innocence, as he is placed into an ever-changing
chaotic world after he is expelled from Oxford. The world of Decline and Fall is one
where “madness, mismatch, and misalliance flourish: incompatibles marry, the guilty go
unscathed, innocents bear the blame, incompetents hold positions of power.” (Meckier
51) The book is endowed with a purpose, although it is admittedly a negative one. Waugh
shows through the hapless Paul Pennyfeather, innocence set adrift in a corrupt world.
After being released from Oxford, Pennyfeather begins to move through the social
hierarchy of education moving from his university to a public school in Wales. He
eventually ends up as the private tutor of a wealthy family, and then finally back to
Oxford. As he moves through these institutions his character begins to change and the
characters he interacts with become increasingly strange. Had Pennyfeather been given
the opportunity to remain at Oxford, his character would have been afforded the
opportunity to grow and develop instead of having his innocence manipulated in the
corrupt world beyond his university.
Jeffrey Heath writes in The Picturesque Prison: Evelyn Waugh and His Writing
“the motif of intoxicated and irresponsible authority recurs in Decline and Fall…it forms
the novel’s central theme.” (Heath 64) This motif is played out across the characters in
32
the book and its development parallels the decline of Pennyfeather’s character. As
Pennyfeather begins to move further away from Oxford and is forced into a more open
and public sphere, his character breaks down and the consequences of his actions
intensify. As Waugh states in his article Was Oxford Worth While?, the value of attending
Oxford is not simply the degree, but because it provides an environment that facilitates
unrestricted growth for its pupils. The effect of Oxford is obvious in the novel given the
fate of Pennyfeather, which David Lodge describes as the way the characters “fortunes
follow a circular rather than a vertical trajectory” (7). The circular quality of his fortune
refers to the fact that he eventually ends up at Oxford in a position identical to the one he
held before being expelled. There is a sharp contrast between Oxford and the public
school Llanabba and an even greater distinction between the settings outside of the
schools, when Pennyfeather begins as a private tutor for the Beste-Chetwynde family and
is then put in prison. The novel’s satire and absurdity grows as Pennyfeather’s character
degenerates, while Waugh simultaneously “astringently satirizes what Paul encounters:
the Establishment’s education system.” (Heath 65)
Waugh satirizes the value of education and criticizes the system in Britain. The
satire is obvious even through the novel’s title. Decline and Fall does not simply refer to
the degradation of Pennyfeather’s character, but also to a book of history written by
British historian Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire. Lodge conjectures that it was “a work which Waugh perhaps read as a student of
History at Oxford, and with which he seems to have had a kind of negative
identification.” (7) The title is not inherently negative, but instead serves a satirical
purpose of marking the collapse of two main figures within the novel. Just as the Roman
33
Empire fell, so too does Pennyfeather; the other figure which falls is the education
system. Waugh uses his title ironically to denote the contemporary state of education,
both private and public. His title purposely mimics the title of the history book so that it
can play on the nature of the book and use the metaphor of the fall of the Roman Empire.
As Lodge states, the text was commonly read in classrooms and was notorious for being
dry and long across its six volumes. Waugh uses this image to reflect the current state of
education. Oxford is moving away from his idea of an environment conducive to getting
drunk and exploring the world and further towards an institution run by an old aristocracy
that implements a seemingly practical way of learning through texts such as The History
of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Oxford is consequently placed next to
Rome through this title. This again satirizes the hyper-serious, Victorian attitude of the
University’s elites. Oxford is not a great empire, but merely an educational institution,
which according to Waugh is starting to become ridiculous through its practices.
The novel’s prelude provides a series of interactions among the educational elites
of Oxford. The prelude shows the negative effects of the institution’s elite, older class,
which override the disciplinary system at the university. The novel starts as “Mr. Sniggs,
the Junior Dean, and Mr. Postlethwaite, the Domestic Bursar, sat alone is Mr. Sniggs’s
room overlooking the garden quad at Scone College.” (Decline and Fall 1) The
introduction of these two figures establishes the nature of authority at the university. The
power is in the hands of ridiculous, old men who are definitive of a corrupt and outdated
aristocracy. Waugh uses the names of these two fictitious characters as a means of
mocking their authority. In a statement from Oxford’s University College the primary
responsibility of the Junior Dean is “to help to maintain an appropriate environment in
34
the College by upholding college regulations, especially in the evenings, overnight and at
weekends.” The position of “Domestic Bursar” is similarly defined as “the person
responsible for the administration of the domestic establishment of a college or
university.” (OED) Mr. Sniggs’s name is significant simply because it sounds ridiculous
and elicits an image without requiring further description. It shares a clear relation to the
word “snigger”, which is defined by the OED as “a slight or half-suppressed laugh”. This
effect of Mr. Sniggs’s name parallels the effect of the fictitious “Scone College” he is
employed by. Waugh’s reason for naming a fictitious college at Oxford “Scone” serves
no other reason than to be ridiculous and it makes a connection to something completely
unrelated (the fluffy breakfast pastry, which is its namesake). Sniggs however also finds
its roots and earliest use in Phillips’s New World of Words, which was a text, first
published in London in 1658 and served as the first folio English dictionary. Relating the
name of Mr. Sniggs to Phillips’s New World of Words again brings in Waugh’s idea of an
improper strictly regulated system of education. Just as the word snigger appeared in the
dictionary with a prescribed definition for the English language, the authoritative figures
at Oxford are imposing ill-founded meanings on their students. Mr. Postlethwaite’s name
also relates directly to a popular educational text. Postlethwaite appears on the publisher
information for the aforementioned text The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire by Edward Gibbon. The publishers of the book were Postlethwaite, Taylor &
Knowles, Limited, 1909. Using the name from the publisher makes a clear connection to
this education text and accomplishes a similar function. The name of Scone College’s
Domestic Bursar shows the overriding idea that at Oxford a structured education based
on historical texts is the desired system.
35
Sniggs and Postlethwaite engage in a discussion that reveals another major flaw,
which contrasts Waugh’s ideology of education. Their concern is not to provide for their
students. They focus on economic interests and self benefits. This way of thinking moves
in the opposite direction from an environment that provides students with “another four
years in which to grow up gradually” and does not place students “out of the way of their
fellow-citizens while they are making fools of themselves.” (A Little Order 17) Instead it
brings the aristocratic ideologies of the world into the university and presses it onto their
students, which is eventually why Pennyfeather is kicked out of the school. The novel’s
first dialogue comes through an exclamation from Mr. Sniggs: “‘The fines!’ said Mr.
Sniggs, gently rubbing his pipe long the side of his nose. ‘Oh, my! The fines there’ll be
after the evening!’” (Decline and Fall 2) This is followed by a expository statement and a
response from Mr. Postlethwaite: “There is some highly prized port in the senior
common-room cellars that is only brought up when the College fines have reached £50.
‘We shall have a week of it at least,’ said Mr. Postlethwaite, ‘a week of Founder’s port.’”
(Decline and Fall 2) This conversation relates to the fact that this night of the novel’s
introduction is “the annual dinner of the Bollinger Club,” an event for which “all over
Europe old members had rallied for the occasion. For two days they had been pouring
into Oxford: epileptic royalty from their villas of exile; uncouth peers from crumbling
country seats; smooth young men of uncertain tastes from embassies and legations…”
(Decline and Fall 1-2) Waugh continues this passage and describes a variety of guests
that will be invading the college. All of the guests share the same characteristics of being
young, vibrant, and somewhat ridiculous. Waugh provides an initial sense of these traits
36
through the aforementioned description when he describes their royalty as “epileptic”,
their peers as “uncouth”, and how they are “smooth young men”.
The chief concern of the college officials on call while this event occurs is not to
facilitate an environment that will accommodate the students, but to make the greatest
financial gains. Instead of protecting their students, Mr. Sniggs and Mr. Postlethwaite sit
back in darkness and allow the drunken destruction of the university to ensue so that they
can collect the fines from the students. There are now two invasive elements at Scone
College: first the selfish economic attitudes of Mr. Sniggs and Mr. Postlethwaite are
being imposed. And now simultaneously, the physical presence of the drunken attendees
of the annual dinner of the Bollinger Club also presents a more literal invasion of the
space. Both of these elements break down the educational realm of the university and
work to an extremely negative effect for the college’s residents.
The night is described as “a lovely evening”:
They broke up Mr. Austen’s grand piano, and stamped Lord Reading’s
cigars into his carpet, and smashed his china, and tore up Mr. Partridge’s sheets,
and threw the Matisse into his water jug; Mr. Sanders had nothing to break except
his windows, but they found the manuscripts at which he had been working for
the Newdigate Prize Poem, and had great fun with that. Sir Alastair Digby-Vaine-
Trumpington felt quite ill with excitement” (Decline and Fall 3-4).
The power of this invasive group is obvious; especially in the way their destruction
targets educational objects at the college. The phase with which the passage begins with
“a lovely evening” again reflects the mentality for the college’s officials who want as
much destruction as possible. These wealthy figures, with satirized names like “Sir
37
Alastair Digby-Vaine-Trumpington” invade the college and destroy various elements of
creative culture, like a “grand piano” and a painting by “Matisse”. When they run out of
things to destroy the group finds a manuscript of poetry, which has little value other than
to the author who is still working on it, which they “had great fun with” destroying.
The destruction moves beyond objects around the college when the group catches
Pennyfeather. Mr. Sniggs and Mr. Postlethwaite continue to watch and describe the
action from their room above the college. Upon their realization and assessment of the
situation, the two men maintain the same self-important attitude. The scene begins with a
rare moment of concern when Mr. Postlethwaite states “‘They appear to have caught
somebody…I hope they don’t do him any serious harm.’” Mr. Sniggs responds asking,
“can it be Lord Rending?” (Decline and Fall 6) Lord Rending represents an insignificant
figure whose only quality is the title ahead of his name. The concern that Mr. Sniggs has
over the safety of this character is simply because of the stature given by the “Lord”
preceding his name. This is evident, when they realize the real identity of the individual
being harassed. “Mr. Sniggs [had] a sigh of relief. ‘But it’s quite all right. It isn’t
Rending. It’s Pennyfeather-some one of no importance.” (Decline and Fall 6) Again the
presiding officials of the college present the idea that the only concern is for the
maintenance of high society and the continued accumulation of wealth. When a common
student like Pennyfeather, without a “Lord” before their name, is haplessly thrown into
the situation, there is a complete disregard for his well-being. Instead, after he is accosted
and his clothes are stolen, the college responds by putting Pennyfeather on trial for
indecent exposure on the campus. At his trial, one potential conclusion is to “fine him
really heavily”, but instead it is decided that since “I very much doubt whether he could
38
pay. I understand he is not well off. Without trousers, indeed! And at that time of night! I
think we should do far better to get rid of him altogether. That sort of young man does the
College no good.” (Decline and Fall 7) The college’s headmaster with language that
condescends Pennyfeather gives the verdict. The facts of the situation are completely
overlooked and instead there is an emphasis on Pennyfeather’s financial situation. The
headmaster expresses a low opinion of his finances because of Paul’s unconventional
physical appearance and because he was up late at night at the time of his incident.
Under the pretense that he does not serve a beneficial purpose to his college, Paul
Pennyfeather is expelled from Oxford. This moral code of the university serves as the
heart for the “social decay and cultural decline”, which Bernard Schweizer describes as
the main theme for Waugh’s early novels, especially Decline and Fall. Waugh
characterizes the role of an educational space in his essay Was Oxford Worth While? as a
world where boys are allowed to grow unrestricted from the outside world. However,
when this space becomes completely corrupt, as is the case with Scone College in
Decline and Fall, Pennyfeather is forced from a corrupt educational space into a
ludicrous world he is unable to handle and which constantly takes advantage of his
innocence. If Oxford were to abide by the ideals of Waugh, then Pennyfeather would
have continued to grow under the guidance of his education and never would have
entered into the world of decline in a state of extreme innocence. Pennyfeather is forced
into a series of spaces, which highlight the necessity for a formative space such as
Oxford.
Pennyfeather’s expulsion from Oxford presents Waugh’s lack of faith in the
system of education. This lack of faith continues to manifest as he moves away from life
39
at university. Upon being released from school, Pennyfeather is disowned by his
“guardian” in a brief scene that concludes when Pennyfeather is told: “I think you ought
to find some work…Just work, good healthy toil. You have led too sheltered a life, Paul.
Perhaps I am to blame. It will do you the world of good to face facts for a bit – look at
life in the raw.” (Decline and Fall 12) This scene also reveals that Pennyfeather is twenty
years old, with eleven months until his twenty-first birthday. His age is a short separation
away from the point Waugh makes that “It is absurd to pretend that a boy of eighteen,
however sound he has been as a school prefect, is a fully grown man.” (A Little Order 17)
His age and the chastisement of his guardian foreshadow the chaos of the action that will
occur. Pennyfeather is again in a position where his fortune is being misguided by an
“irresponsible and hypocritical authority [that] feathers its own nest by encouraging the
disorder it should be suppressing.” (Heath 67) His “guardian” takes on this position
because he forces Paul away from his own home under the pretense, which Waugh
expresses clear disagreement with in his article, Was Oxford Worth While? that he is too
old to rely on others to nurture his development. Mr. Sniggs and Mr. Postlethwaite stood
as the novel’s first irresponsible authority figures, but they will not be the last to
influence the fate of Pennyfeather. Once he leaves Oxford the seminal figures in
Pennyfeather’s life all hold positions of authority and all become increasingly corrupt.
Even tertiary characters like his “guardian” impose onto Paul and represent some form of
misguided authority and influence.
After being disowned, Pennyfeather is assigned a job by “Mr. Levy, of Church
and Gargoyle, scholastic agents.” (Decline and Fall 12) Mr. Levy is yet another corrupt
authority figure. Mr. Levy presents Pennyfeather with a job at Llanabba Castle as a
40
“junior assistant master to teach Classics and English to University Standard with
Subsidiary Mathematics, German, and French. Experience essential; first-class games
essential.” (Decline and Fall 13) He describes the position to Pennyfeather as it “Might
have been made for you” to which Pennyfeather gives the sensible response that “I don’t
know a word of German, I’ve had no experience, I’ve got no testimonials, and I can’t
play cricket.” (Decline and Fall 13)
The commonsense Pennyfeather brings to situations is disregarded until the
nonsense of his universe begins to shape his character. Despite not having the required
experience to teach at an elementary school, Pennyfeather concedes and gets the job
under the reasoning that “It doesn’t do to be too modest…Why, only last term we sent a
man who had never been in a laboratory in his life as senior Science Master to one of our
leading public schools.” (Decline and Fall 13-14) Again the world of education is
degraded to a world that is not founded in reason, but in superfluously filling a position.
Waugh satirizes the quality of teachers, by showing that Pennyfeather is hired under no
pretense and his lack of experience is excused because the school’s headmaster cannot
expect “all that for the salary he’s offering.” (Decline and Fall 14) He is then placed into
“Llanabba Castle, which aspires to all the conventions of the English preparatory
school…the quintessence of sham.” (Carens 72) His mentors, peers, and his own ability
to teach at Llanabba in this system increasingly disillusion Pennyfeather.
The two main figures Pennyfeather interacts with at Llanabba are Captain Grimes
and Mr. Prendergast. As Paul struggles to strike a balance and establish some sort of
order in his life, his two fellow teachers exist on opposite sides of a spectrum of reason.
Their polarizing sense of life confuses Pennyfeather so that he again refuses growth and
41
his character remains static. The introduction of these two characters provides a general
characterization of the men. Captain Grimes interrupts his introduction to Paul because
he has to punish a student who was “whistling when I told you to stop.” The student
responds to Captain Grimes telling him that “‘Every one else was whistling… ‘What’s
that got to do with it?’ said Grimes.” (Decline and Fall 21) Although brief, this
introduction to Grimes shows off a major part of his character because he not only turns
away from Pennyfeather, but he does so in order to punish a student, not simply for
disobedience, but because that disobedience existed in tandem with conformity. In his
book The Picturesque Prison: Evelyn Waugh and His Writing Jeffrey Heath describes
Captain Grimes as a man “who makes it a rule to do exactly what he pleases” (Heath 67).
The novel’s introduction to Grimes therefore proves Heath’s definition to be true as he
punishes the boy for the main reason that he decided to conform.
Grimes’s unfiltered and headstrong qualities manifest themselves through his
constant resurrection. Many of the characters in Decline and Fall end up taking on other
identities, “Philbrick has at least three identities in the novel, Dr. Fagan has two, and Paul
is eventually resurrected as his own cousin, all of which proves that Waugh’s characters
have learned the fundamental rules of modern secular life: disaster, escape,
metamorphosis, and reappearance.” (Meckier 56) However, Grimes is unique in that his
return to the story is typically characterized by pessimism. He is a “life-force without a
reason for living.” (Meckier 57) Captain Grimes first exits the novel at the end of Part
One when a pile of his clothes are found by the seashore with a note in the pocket
inscribed with the words “Those that live by the flesh shall perish by the flesh.” (Decline
and Fall 148) This suicide comes after his life at Llanabba is ruined when his wife finds
42
him at the school as he is arranged to marry the headmaster’s daughter. It is an inevitable
end to his character and highlighted by the note he leaves, which makes no sense on its
own, but makes an important classical reference. Taken literally the message is
nonsensical because living and dying by the flesh describes the natural process of life. A
person lives in his/her body and then dies in his/her body. However, Waugh’s satire
comes forth when the phrase is placed next to one of two potential references. The first is
the line from Aeschylus’s Agamemnon “By the sword you did your work, and by the
sword you die.” The second is a Biblical reference, “Return your sword to its place, for
all who will take up the sword, will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). Both of these
quotations have a similar message of justice: those who live a life of violence will die at
the hand of violence. Placing these in relation to the quote left by Captain Grimes plays
out the satire. The note makes a clear reference to two of history’s most dramatic text, but
Waugh changes the language so that the statement is now simply a fact of life. This
nonsensical quality is inherent to Grimes, who although characterized by his sense of
indignation, does not make a lot of sense with his actions. His character is never given a
conclusion or a linear narrative to follow through the novel, but instead arrives constantly
at random situations. This attitude can be chiefly attributed to the mentality that he
doesn’t care about his own life.
Grimes returns to the novel after Paul has left Llanabba. His return is
characterized by chance and coincidence. Paul has left Llanabba and now serves as the
private tutor for Peter Beste-Chetwynde at his family’s estate King’s Thursday. His
encounter with the allegedly dead Captain Grimes is written extremely casually:
“Crossing the hall one afternoon a few days later, Paul met a short man with a long red
43
beard stumping along behind the footman towards Margot’s study.” (Decline and Fall
184) Captain Grimes has been absent from the novel so that it is no longer obvious that
he is the unnamed character Paul runs into in his new home. Paul recognizes Grimes as
he exclaims, “Good lord!” upon seeing him, but to the reader it is not explicit that it is
Grimes until the end of the page when the action is described, “A little later they
ambushed him in the drive, and Grimes told them.” (Decline and Fall 184) The
resurrection of Captain Grimes is anticlimactic and he seems to just float back into the
story. Once he, Pennyfeather, and Peter are all alone, Grimes describes the course of
action, which has led him back to this point in the narrative. His story is characteristically
outlandish highlights his relaxed and uncaring nature. He begins his recollection with the
lines “It’s the old story…Grimes has fallen on his feet again.” (Decline and Fall 185)
There is nothing familiar about the content of the story Grimes tells, which means it does
not fall under the idea that it is just the same old story. The only familiarity of the story is
that Grimes has again survived and “fallen on his feet again.” The content of Grimes’s
story is not necessarily important. The significant quality is that he fills his language with
phrases like the two aforementioned. In the midst of telling how he got a job because he
was recognized in a bar, he adds that it was “just good fortune” and that “it was a pure act
of God, our meeting.” (Decline and Fall 185-187) Grimes constantly shows how there is
no sensibility to his character, yet despite this he is always able to land on his feet.
Meckier describes Grimes as a “parodic Christ” (Meckier 57) because despite sharing the
fact of Jesus’ life of death and return, unlike Jesus there was no reason or moral to his
death and resurrection. This quality serves as a negative, recurring example for Paul who
is constantly being knocked down.
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Heath also describes Llanabba’s other main character with the definition he gives
Captain Grimes. He writes that in relation to Grimes, “Mr. Prendergast, maintains the
reverse” (67). Prendergast is a man that is guided by his role within his institution. The
distinction between himself and Grimes in that regard is given by their tenure at Llanabba
as “I’ve been here ten years. Grimes only came this term.” (Decline and Fall 22) This
creates the basic distinction that Captain Grimes is less tied to the school and system,
while despite his expressed hatred for the school, Prendergast is fine with his position.
Prendergast’s introduction to Pennyfeather is also much more formal. After telling
Pennyfeather his name, Prendergast immediately offers him a drink, “‘I’m Prendergast,’
said the newcomer. ‘Have some port?’” (Decline and Fall 21) This again heightens the
distinction between Prendergast and Grimes, who ignored all formality after his brief
introduction. Prendergast’s introduction continues to reveal the overriding negative
quality to his institutionalized behavior. Pennyfeather accepts the invitation to drink, but
“there’s only one glass.” (Decline and Fall 22) Prendergast exudes formality, but
becomes disorganized and his actions always end up being meaningless. In this situation
he offers Paul a drink out of formality sake, yet is not able to fulfill his intention. The
lack of a second glass provides an obstacle, but there is a simple suggestion to solve it,
which is overlooked and reveals the negative side his content character. This quality of
his personality is most closely related to his former role as a church official.
Mr. Prendergast reveals to Paul, “Ten years ago I was a clergyman of the Church
of England.” (Decline and Fall 36) This aspect of his character is described, as “Prendy
is a parody of spiritual man, an example of fervor without faith.” (Meckier 57)
Prendergast’s faith embodies the reality of his character. Just as he engaged in the
45
formality of offering Paul a drink upon their introduction without a true intent to his
action, he is a character that comically lacks substance. He describes his faith as “very
pleasant until my Doubts began.” (Decline and Fall 37) The italicization and
capitalization of the word “doubts” provides emphasis, yet when he explains what his
doubts were his character again falls comically flat. “For no real reason at all”
Prendergast began to doubt, not “the ordinary sort of Doubt about Cain’s wife or the Old
Testament miracles or the consecration of Archbishop Parker. I’d been taught how to
explain all those while I was at college. No, it was something deeper than all that. I
couldn’t understand why God had made the world at all.” (Decline and Fall 38) Waugh
creates two different categories of religious doubt for Prendergast. First, there are the
doubts he describes as “ordinary” like “the Old Testament miracles” or a “consecration”.
Waugh uses this first category to mock the legitimacy of religion, by casting doubts over
things that are so seriously ingrained in the protestant faith. Prendergast’s second
category of doubts are a result of the question “why God had made the world”. The
answer to this question is equally ingrained in the protestant faith, but through Waugh’s
separation, and Prendergast’s ignorance, his loss of faith is ridiculed and its significance
is diminished. As a result of this second category of doubts, which for some reason was
not explained to him while at college, Prendergast abandons his parish and has “not
known an hour’s real happiness since.”
Despite their roles as opposites, Dr. Grimes and Prendergast both serve a negative
role in the life of Paul. However, because they are such polarizing, yet equally absurd
figures their effects on Pennyfeather become neutral. Paul never reaches any sort of
epiphany or salvation while at Llanabba because he is stuck in a world of extremes.
46
Nothing is subtle at the school and he is never allowed to experience independent growth.
He is trapped between a character that unwillingly succeeds and a character that
constantly fails despite feigned intention. He “wavers between Grimes and Prendergast,
disorder and wrong order; he never glimpses the right order.” (Heath 68) Paul
permanently exists in a state of extreme susceptibility, which is why he is so vulnerable
in the chaotic world. Waugh heavily satirizes Paul’s innocence to bring forth the static
nature of his character.
In his book on The Satiric Art of Evelyn Waugh James Carens defines ingénu
satire as the way that “the innocent provides the satirist with a particularly effective
means of exposing vice and folly. Paul Pennyfeather is, in large part, a kind of dummy.”
(Carens 36) Because of the world he is placed in and the people he is surrounded by, Paul
is never able to be anything other than a clueless idiot. Both Captain Grimes and Mr.
Prendergast had this effect on Paul. This type of satire becomes again even more obvious
when Paul leaves Llanabba for King’s Thursday. Aside from forming another space that
surrounds Paul with outlandish and radical figures, restricting his character development,
King’s Thursday provides a clear illustration of a contrasting space to both Oxford and
Llanabba. While Oxford and Castle Llanabba are rooted in a rich, corrupt tradition, the
estate King’s Thursday shows a new, hideously remodeled Tudor as Paul moves further
away from Waugh’s ideal university education.
According to Waugh, “The truth is that Oxford is simply a very beautiful city in
which it is convenient to segregate a certain number of the young of the nation while they
are growing up.” (A Little Order 16-17) King’s Thursday is a complete separation from
Waugh’s idea of Oxford. The house is introduced first through a contrast with Margot
47
Beste-Chetwynde’s other home: “Her London house, built in the reign of William and
Mary, was, by universal consent, the most beautiful building between Bond Street and
Park Lane” (Decline and Fall 151) This brief introduction reflects the class and
distinction of the home by placing her other home in a renowned district of London and
describing how it was built during “the reign of William and Mary”. This provides an
obvious contrast to King’s Thursday. The novel provides a third party’s opinion of the
home with the brief note that: “opinion was divided on the subject of her country house.”
(Decline and Fall 151) The building process of her country home is then described as
“No single act in Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde’s eventful and in many ways disgraceful career
had excited quite so much hostile comments as the building, or rather the rebuilding, of
this remarkable house.” (Decline and Fall 151) Finally, another contrast is established
between the houses before and after Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde purchased it: “For three
centuries the poverty and inertia of this noble family had preserved its home unmodified
by any of the succeeding fashions that fell upon domestic architecture. No wing had been
added, no window filled in.” (Decline and Fall 151) This passage refers to the original
owners of the home before Margot Beste-Chetwynde purchased it. Those owners were
righteous in their maintenance of the estate. However, now that Margot Beste-Chetwynde
has bought it, she removes all of the history in place of obscure modernity and the house
becomes a “new-born monster to whose birth ageless and forgotten cultures had been in
travail.” (Decline and Fall 155)
This initial introduction presents an obviously negative portrayal that already
hints towards the resounding lavish and modern features of the house. In Decline and
Fall Waugh does not revel in the setting of Scone College at Oxford or at Castle
48
Llanabba; instead he focuses on the interactions of his characters and the action that
follows. Part Two of the novel begins with the introduction to King’s Thursday and takes
on an obvious shift as Waugh pays particular attention to the various features of the
home. However, after this initial introduction, the description given once the characters
finally reach the house is not as encompassing or sweeping as expected. Instead of going
through a detailed overview of the home, when Paul enters it for the first time he does not
revel in his surroundings, but instead “notice[s] nothing in the room except Mrs. Beste-
Chetwynde.” (Decline and Fall 166) Despite the buildup and attention paid to the
refurbishment of the house, Waugh does not make it the immediate focus. Instead the
details of the house are provided sporadically and subtly. They come forth casually in
moments that allow the frivolous and the ornate to ring out. For example, when during a
conversation the detail is dropped that “The half-finished mosaics at their feet were
covered with planks and sacking; moonlight beyond the polished aluminum balustrade
the park stretched silent and illimitable.” (Decline and Fall 168) Waugh uses this
moment to highlight and ridicule the modernity of the home, especially through the “half-
finished mosaics at their feet”. The mosaic is a modern art technique and both the fact
that it is unfinished and on the floor of the home instead of hanging on the wall reflects
the extreme wealth and natural arrogance of the family. Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde
disregards the actual art and only recognizes its significance in filling space in her home.
This passage is also used to show the power of Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde over Paul. She
becomes another polarizing authority figure and provides a negative influence in his life.
Her character “violates the qualities of endurance and serenity” she is “the novel’s chaos
49
merchant.” (Meckier 58) She is not only responsible for refurbishing a gaudy estate, but
her own beauty supersedes that of the home she has created.
Through the entirety of his time at King’s Thursday, Paul’s attention is on Mrs.
Beste-Chetwynde. She is the first woman he comes in contact with and her beauty
quickly manipulates him. Even before moving to King’s Thursday, the moment Paul first
saw Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde at Llanabba Castle is described as he is head over heels and
smitten upon his first sight of her: “like the first breath of spring in the Champs Élysées
came Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde – two lizard-skin feet, silk legs, chinchilla body” (Decline
and Fall 95). She eventually takes him on a journey that lands him in prison and forces
him to fake his own death to escape. Her beauty is able to take effect because she
provides a sensation Paul is not used to. Through his transition from Oxford to Llanabba
to King’s Thursday, Paul did not come in contact with any beautiful women except for
Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde and again he finds himself floundering in a situation he is not
prepared for. Waugh’s ingénu comes forth in Pennyfeather’s relationship with Mrs.
Beste-Chetwynde. His inexperience and innocence blossoms in situations like the scene
in which he sits with Margot Beste-Chetwynde as she hires new girls for her business in
South America. Paul observes from the background and again his attention is focused on
Margot’s beauty, as he gets lost in her prowess.
Paul sat in the corner – on a chair made in the shape of an inflated Channel
swimmer – enraptured at her business ability. All her vagueness had left her; she
sat upright at the table, which was covered with Balmoral tartan, her pen poised
over an inkpot, which was set in a stuffed grouse, the very embodiment of the
Feminist movement. One by one the girls were shown in. (Decline and Fall 192)
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Carens notes how in scenes like this Waugh’s satire emerges as “Paul himself is made to
seem foolish, but, even more importantly, his innocence provides a sharp contrast to the
brazenness of Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde.” (Carens 37) The satire is not in the face of the
reader with the way it characterizes Paul, but instead places Paul in a situation where the
world around him is overwhelming. He is placed in the corner of the scene and becomes
overwhelmed by the new form of the woman he thought he knew as “all her vagueness
had left her”. He operates as a submissive character through this scene. Paul’s
amazement continues when the business is concluded and he says, “Margot, you’re
wonderful. You ought to have been an empress.” Margot responds with a remark that
revels in this technique of satire and firmly establishes Paul’s position as she responds to
say “Don’t say that you were a Christian slave, dearest.” (Decline and Fall 194-195)
Margot responds to Paul’s compliment by comparing his doting to a slave. This response
shows the contrast between their characters; Paul’s innocence and Margot’s unbridled
harshness come forth in this moment, as well as her negative influence over him. Paul’s
character has again remained unchanged as the actions of those around him shape him
into stagnation. He does not drive the action of the narrative, but instead stands to the side
and watches as other characters like Captain Grimes, Prendergast, and Mrs. Beste-
Chetwynde act in the world around him and drive his character forward for him. It is
because of this stagnation that Paul’s story takes a circular route as he learns nothing, is
reincarnated, and ends up back at Oxford.
Chapter 4 of Part Two is titled “Resurrection” and reveals the reemergence of
Captain Grimes after his supposed suicide. The final chapter of the novel is also titled
“Resurrection”, but instead is concerned with the rebirth of Paul Pennyfeather. The
51
novel’s narrative sees Paul wrongly put in prison for the crimes committed by Margot
Beste-Chetwynde. Margot then makes a plan to remove Paul from jail by faking his death
and giving him a new identity. The plan comes off and Paul finds himself a new man in
the novel’s final chapter. After spending time doing nothing, Paul makes the decision that
“Yes, I’m going back to Oxford again to learn theology.” (Decline and Fall 281) Not
only does he return Oxford, but also theology was the same subject he previously studied
there. This decision solidifies the circular nature of Paul’s journey.
Paul’s lesson “is a sad one, the discovery not of growth but the reincarnation
treadmill.” (Meckier 64) The characters and world he has had to work through have
established his stagnation and his decision to return to Oxford under his new identity has
solidified his mentality. Instead of disconnecting with the flawed system that abandoned
him, he returns “ripe for another unfavorable turn of Fortune’s wheel.” (Meckier 65) The
circular tragedy of Decline and Fall’s narrative is summed up in a metaphor in the final
chapter. Professor Silenus tells Paul that life is like the big wheel at Luna Park: “At first
you sit down and watch the others. They are all trying to sit in the wheel, and they keep
getting flung off, and that makes them laugh, and you laugh too. It’s great fun.” Paul
replies to this metaphor, “I don’t really think that sounds very much like life.” (Decline
and Fall 282) Professor Silenus’ metaphor for life serves as the perfect parallel for the
narrative structure endured by the characters through the novel and the experience had by
the reader. The narrative of Decline and Fall sees its characters act wildly beyond any
sense of reason. Characters attempt to settle, like Paul’s attempt to find stability through a
job or his marriage with Margot Beste-Chetwynde, but the only certainty is the constant
destabilization. Just as the passage notes, the constant destabilization of the characters is
52
where the comedy emerges. Professor Silenus’ name also works to reinforce his
metaphor for life being like the wild ride at Luna Park. In Greek mythology Silenus is a
“creature of the wild, part man part beast, who in Classical times were closely associated
with the god Dionysus.” (Encyclopedia Britannica) Waugh uses this name particularly for
Paul’s new professor because it reflects the inhuman chaos of Oxford, which Paul has
returned to. Paul’s response further sums up his character’s arc. Despite being the center
of this chaos through his own life, Paul is still just as innocent and naïve as he was at the
start of the novel. He will also continue to attempt to find stability, marked by his return
to Oxford.
Paul finally returns to Oxford and “entered his old college once more, wearing a
commoner’s gown and a heavy cavalry moustache. This and his natural diffidence
formed a complete disguise.” (Decline and Fall 284) The facts about his appearance
reflect the lack of growth he has had from the first chapter through to the last. Waugh
provides a mostly physical description of his character, denoted by his moustache and
clothes. His lone emotional characteristic is his “diffidence” but it is qualified as a
“natural” quality. Paul’s diffidence throughout most of the novel was forced as a result of
the constant abuse and manipulation he took from other characters, he was also not
openly diffident during his first tenure at Oxford. At this point in his journey, he has been
conditioned and his diffidence has been solidified as natural, which is why it now appears
as a disguise. The static quality of his character is however still obvious as “After much
doubt and deliberation he retained the name of Pennyfeather.” (Decline and Fall 284) It
is clear that despite the events and variety of characters he encountered throughout the
53
text, Paul floated through the narrative unchanged. Why would Waugh then have his
protagonist return to where he started?
Jerome Meckier states that Waugh inserts a deluge of moral ideas for Paul to
avoid throughout the text to show the unavoidable and circular nature of life. Paul is
resurrected and returns to Oxford “in order to undergo one calamity after another.”
(Meckier 57) Paul’s return to Oxford is however not as senseless as Meckier suggests.
Instead he returns to Oxford for a second chance to avoid the narrative he has just
experienced. Jeffery Heath provides a slightly more agreeable reading of Waugh, as he
says “Waugh’s plots are circular and bring the reader, but not the protagonist, to the point
where (to use Northrop Frye’s phrase), he can ‘escape from an incorrect procedure.’
Waugh advances his narratives through repetition with variation” (Heath 123). Heath’s
reading of Waugh agrees with Meckier’s idea of the circular narrative, but Heath extends
the idea by suggesting the course of events that occur after the novel is over. The reader
is able to learn from the narrative and proceed, while as seen with Paul Pennyfeather, the
protagonist continues to enter the flawed cycle throughout the narrative. However,
Waugh’s Epilogue suggests that Paul’s return to Oxford will also allow him some sort of
growth despite the recurring corruption of his environment.
The Epilogue of Decline and Fall provides a moment of reflection between Paul
and his former student at Llanabba, Peter. The action coincidentally takes place on the
equivalent day to the prologue, the night of the Bollinger Club dinner. Paul comments
that “The Bollinger seem to be enjoying themselves…Whose rooms are they in this
time?” (Decline and Fall 289) Instead of unwillingly falling into the action, Paul is now
in a position where he can observe the drunken acts of those at the dinner. The action
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does eventually come to Paul, as “Peter Pastmaster came into the room. He was dressed
in the bottle-green and white evening coat of the Bollinger Club. His face was flushed
and his dark hair slightly disordered” (Decline and Fall 290). Unlike in the Prelude, Paul
is now able to handle himself. Despite Peter’s drunkenness and involvement with the
dinner that once got Paul kicked out of school, the two men engage in a solemn
conversation, which reflects on the fate of Paul. Peter makes the honest accusation that
“You know, Paul, I think it was a mistake you ever got mixed up with us; don’t you?
We’re different somehow. Don’t quite know how. Don’t think that’s rude, do you, Paul?”
(Decline and Fall 291) This moment proves to be the sole instance of change in the
character of Paul Pennyfeather throughout the text. Instead of responding indignantly or
with quiet reserve, Paul makes an honest and succinct point, which sums up his character,
as he responds, “No, I know exactly what you mean. You’re dynamic, and I’m static.”
(Decline and Fall 291) Paul does not expand on this point and Peter responds saying, “Is
that it?” Through his succinct response Paul Pennyfeather is able to make a point, which
not only hits the truth of the division between Paul and the rest of the novel’s universe,
but also shows some signs of growth as he admits how he is “static”.
The novel ends as Paul finally recognizes his deficiencies. There is no obvious
sign that he will move forward from this point, but Waugh ends the novel with the final
sentence “Then he turned out the light and went into his bedroom to sleep.” (Decline and
Fall 293) As Heath suggests in his book, the characters in Waugh’s novels are trapped
through the duration of the narrative. However, now that the novel is over and the
Epilogue has shown some signs of development for Paul Pennyfeather, the suggestion is
that he will be able to break from the narrative structure. This is why Paul returns to
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Oxford so that he can finally be afforded this opportunity for growth. The ominous
ending of the novel suggests hope for Paul. Both turning off the light and falling asleep
disengage him from the reader and the narrative, which consequently removes him from
the chaotic world he has struggled through. He can now experience Oxford for its true
value, which is being able to grow in an environment separated from the chaos of the
outside world. Or as Waugh puts it “It gives [him] another four years in which to grow up
gradually. It puts [him] out of the way of [his] fellow-citizens.” (A Little Order 17)
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IV. The Bright Young Things of Vile Bodies
The world Waugh creates in his second novel Vile Bodies stands as the antithesis
to the world of Oxford, established in his essay “Was Oxford Worth It”. Waugh’s Oxford
is a “a very beautiful city in which it is convenient to segregate a certain number of the
young of the nation while they are growing up.” (A Little Order 16-17) The universe of
Vile Bodies shares the similarity with Oxford in the way that both see young people get
drunk and act recklessly, but instead of affording the characters with the opportunity to
learn and grow from their experiences, there is no consequence to the actions and
lifestyles in Vile Bodies. Brideshead Revisited shows the dichotomy between life at
Oxford and life beyond the university. Vile Bodies does not work to this effect because
there is no alternative world within its universe. Once Adam Fenwick-Symes gets off the
boat from France and steps foot onto England he enters a harried, unruly world of chaos.
Waugh uses the universe of Vile Bodies to show the negative side to a young aristocracy
that have not been afforded the necessary opportunities for growth.
Vile Bodies is described as “a scene of disorientation and moral decay” (Doyle
14), “too wholly fantastic for any question of sympathy or antipathy to arise” (Hollis 8), a
“portrait of the last fling of the Bright Young People – the frivolous and frantic young set
that characterized the Roaring Twenties in England” (Phillips 15), and with “little
direction or consistency in any of the activities.” (Cook 83) The descriptions given by
critics and scholars of the novel all agree on the chaos of the world Waugh creates; it is
fundamentally without order. Waugh creates this world to show his frustration and to
highlight the necessity for the type of education he describes in “Was Oxford Worth It”.
In Brideshead Revisited and Decline and Fall, the characters face chaotic worlds and
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disillusioned trials, but there are periods of growth because when they fall out of these
worlds they transition into environments that allow them to make sense of the chaos.
William J. Cook draws a line between Vile Bodies and Decline and Fall because “Adam,
although functioning in the central capacity like Paul, is obviously less important to the
making of the story, and the plot lacks the unified thrust characteristic of Decline and
Fall.” (84) Adam never makes sense of his chaos in Vile Bodies, which is why he
bounces from one ridiculous situation to another as an outsider without any resolution,
until Waugh provides an extremely pessimistic conclusion.
Cook describes how in Vile Bodies “Adam is the only character who enters every
major social area of the novel and who is associated with all of the other characters…Yet,
the character of Adam is constantly overshadowed by the events themselves; it is as
though he is merely a part of the fantastic panorama.” (Cook 85) The attention of the
narrative is never focused on Adam and he becomes a peculiar protagonist because he
does not stand as a clear point of identification. Instead the narrative focuses on the
action, which surrounds and overwhelms his character. For example, the marriage of
Adam to Nina Blount is a continuous struggle, which is maintained throughout the text.
Despite the repetitive hardships Adam faces that prevent him from solidifying his
marriage, his character and the effects of the action are never the focus. He does not learn
from one instance to the next, but instead continues to act in the same manner, until
eventually his marriage is called off. Waugh places the action at the forefront of these
scenes. The action controls Adam, instead of Adam controlling the action.
In the novel’s first scene, which introduces Adam’s engagement, he does not push
anything forward despite initiating the scene’s conversation. Instead he is forced into a
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passive position, where he is unable to impose himself. The introductory remarks of the
conversation reflects Adam’s position, when despite knowing whom he is talking to, he
chooses to act otherwise. Adam calls his fiancé Nina and asks, “May I speak to Miss
Blount, please?” (Vile Bodies 37) He receives the following response: “‘I’ll just see if
she’s in,’ said Miss Blount’s voice. ‘Who’s speaking, please?’ She was always rather
snobbish about the fiction of having someone to answer the telephone.” (Vile Bodies 37)
The narrator makes an implication that Adam recognizes the voice on the other end of the
phone as Nina, by denoting the speaker as “Miss Blount’s voice”. Despite this
recognition that he is talking to his fiancé already, Adam does not immediately interject,
but instead allows Nina to proceed with her charade, under the reason that she is “rather
snobbish about the fiction of having someone to answer the telephone”. This recognition
places Adam in a role beneath his fiancé when he responds to the question about who is
speaking, with the simple response “Mr. Fenwick-Symes”. Despite being engaged to
Nina, Adam allows her to play this game. Adam eventually, passively breaks the charade
in a moment Waugh uses to introduce Nina’s true character into the novel.
After indirectly addressing Adam on the phone, Nina responds to him telling her
his name with the singular remark “Oh.” (Vile Bodies 37) The brevity of the retort is clear
in the way it shows Nina’s disappoint in receiving a call from her fiancé. Nina is young
and this response is definitive of the characterization of not only her, but also her peers,
which Waugh characterizes as “The Bright Young Things”. These characters are
constantly underwhelmed and unappreciative, despite the fantastic world they sit at the
head of. For example at a party where Adam falls asleep, he wakes up to see that “There
were about a dozen people left at the party; that hard kernel of gaiety that never breaks. It
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was about three o’clock.” (Vile Bodies 66) The “hard kernel of gaiety” that The Bright
Young Things possess is consistently unwavering, ignores time, and exceeds Adam’s
ability to keep up.
Adam’s next response finally breaks from Nina’s act when he says, “Adam, you
know…How are you Nina?” This statement finally directly addresses her despite the fact
he knew it was Nina the moment she picked up the phone. The conversation continues
and shows how the impositions of others dictate the actions of Adam. The dialogue
continues when Nina tells him that “‘Well, I’ve got rather a pain just at present.’ ‘Poor
Nina. Shall I come round and see you?’ ‘No, don’t do that, darling, because I’m just
going to have a bath. Why don’t we dine together?’” (Vile Bodies 37) Adam very rarely
dictates his own actions and is instead thrown around in a whirlwind of the wishes and
actions of those around him. For example, Adam’s struggle to acquire the money to
marry Nina is never a direct result of his own actions, but is stopped for various reasons
throughout the novel by customs officers, an old Major drinking in a hotel, Colonel
Blount, and that same Major except in a different incident at a horse race.
The conversation between Adam and Nina moves on and the first instance of their
marriage being unavoidably postponed is presented. The passage reveals again the way
Adam is subject to the actions of his universe and it also shows the division between his
character and the characters of the Bright Young Things like Nina:
Oh, I say, Nina, there’s one thing – I don’t think I shall be able to marry
you after all.
Oh, Adam, you are a bore. Why not?
They burned my book.
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Beasts. Who did?
I’ll tell you about it tonight.
Yes, do. Good-bye, darling
Good-bye, my sweet.
He hung up the receiver and left the telephone box. (Vile Bodies 38)
Adam refers in this passage to an instance, which occurs at the start of the second chapter
when he arrives at England and faces customs officers as he gets off a boat from France.
The customs officers force the unfavorable and unreasonable situation onto Adam when
they tell him:
You can take these books on architecture and the dictionary, and I don’t
mind stretching a point for once and letting you have the history books, too. But
this book on Economics comes under Subversive Propaganda. That you leaves
behind. And this here Purgatorio doesn’t look right to me, so that stays behind,
pending inquiries. But as for this autobiography, that’s just downright dirt, and we
burns that straight away, see. (Vile Bodies 26)
The books confiscated by the customs officers show the decline in sensible society. They
nonsensically allow Adam to keep his books on architecture, history, and his dictionary,
but confiscate books on economics, propaganda, Dante’s Purgatorio, and his own
autobiography, which was going to serve as Adam’s primary source of income upon
publication. The confiscated books all represent higher learning. Architecture, history,
and the dictionary are all necessary and educational, but they are much more standard in
contrast to the other subjects. All of these are static, unchanging fields that revolve
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around the nation’s past and preconceived ideas. Economics and propaganda present
more subversive subjects that given a serious understanding could be useful in shifting
the status quo. Dante’s Purgatorio clearly represents higher learning and his
autobiography stands as a subjective, creative text. The division in what is confiscated
represents the general population of the world Adam is entering. It is a population filled
with The Bright Young Things that Waugh despises and Adam does not fit in with. It is a
content population ruled by the nation’s aristocratic elites, which is why more subversive
texts are rejected. This is a group that wants to avoid learning given the fear that their
comfortable world would change. The point that he is arriving on the boat from France
sets up a further division of the class systems and the point that England has moved away
from an exploratory learning and education. France shows how devolution into the
contemporary world of England that Waugh despises and is filled with young characters
like Nina. The reference Adam makes back to this moment again makes the point that the
novel’s universe is nonsensical and Adam’s fate is not in his hands, but in the trivial
hands of those around him.
This conversation also shows the divide between Adam and Nina, which
consequently highlights the difference between Adam and the entire universe of The
Bright Young Things. The most telling point of the conversation is Nina’s response, “you
are a bore” when he tells her they can no longer be married. Archie Loss describes the
way Vile Bodies is a novel of dynamism: “motion gives way to stasis…a feeling of
restlessness alternating with calm is conveyed in the structure of Waugh’s novel.” (159)
In this passage and throughout the text, Adam is in a state of stasis, while the artificial
dynamism of Nina is revealed. Vile Bodies is a world of see and be seen and when Adam
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removes himself from the action and the drama of the world, like when he calls off his
marriage, Nina’s reaction isn’t forlorn because she is no longer able to get married, but
frustration because his actions will harm her image by slowing her down in this dynamic
universe. Waugh uses the restlessness of his characters to criticize the ultimately futile
and doomed nature of their lives, which is realized at the end of the novel when their
world is broken down.
The novel’s dynamism is also reflected in the literal duration of the scenes. Loss
describes this effect and the way that “the scenes, some only a few lines long, carry out
the theme of restlessness struck at the very beginning of the book. They also bring to
mind the…technique of montage that in the 1920s became such a prominent feature in
film.” (Loss 160) This first scene between Adam and Nina takes place over a page and a
half. The final lines of their phone conversation, which ends the scene defines the
succinct quality of the novel as the dialogue transitions back and forth, quickly between
the two characters until it concludes with “‘Good-bye, my sweet.’ He hung up the
receiver and left the telephone box.” Adam concluding the conversation with “my sweet”
also shows his extreme affection and reliance on Nina, which is rarely returned. Both the
dialogue and the action are short and driven to the point and then transition immediately
out and into another scene. Once the phone is hung up, the moment between him and
Nina is over and the novel transitions swiftly into the next sentence, which reads, “People
had crowded into the Underground station for shelter from the rain, and were shaking
their umbrellas and reading their evening papers.” (Vile Bodies 38) Just as Loss
describes, the novel’s scenes mimic the quick cuts of a fast paced film. The back and
forth nature of the telephone conversation works to the same structure of a shot-reverse-
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shot technique. The aforementioned sentence of the people in the Underground also
works like an establishing shot, laying out the setting before diving into the action.
Cook defines the role of Adam in the novel as being one of “irregular circularity;
the narrative wheel has a flat side upon which it comes to rest momentarily before
beginning to move again. The narrator returns to Adam, his reference point, each time
before setting out to plumb other social areas.” (86-87) As Cook states, Adam is the
novel’s fulcrum, but because of the constant action, he is afforded very little growth. For
this reason, he engages in repetitive scenes, such as the delay of his engagement. The
action within the scenes and the motivational forces change, but the conversations and
Adam’s reactions are largely the same. Throughout the novel, Adam is faced with
ridiculous challenges and obstructions to his marriage that he is never able to get around
and approaches with the same tepid mentality.
In a scene where his marriage is again put on hold, it is clear how he is the passive
observer to the chaotic and nonsensical action. The scene takes place a third of the way
through the novel and mirrors the earlier scene where Adam and Nina discuss their
engagement. The passage is introduced as “Before Nina was properly awake Adam
dressed and went out into the rain to get a shave. He came back bringing two
toothbrushes and a bright red celluloid comb. Nina sat up in bed and combed her hair.
She put Adam’s coat over her back.” (Vile Bodies 100) All of the elements of the passage
work towards the positive union of the couple. Adam brings back “two toothbrushes and
a bright red celluloid comb,” which Nina then uses before putting on “Adam’s coat over
her back.” However, the narrative characteristically transitions out of this passage of brief
tranquility and falls back into its chaotic world:
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She threw off the coat and jumped out of bed, and he told her that she
looked like a fashion drawing without the clothes. Nina was rather pleased about
that, but she said that it was cold and that she still had a pain, only not so bad as it
was. Then she dressed and they went downstairs. (Vile Bodies 100)
Nina makes an obvious transition out of the content state she was in only moments
before. Taking off Adam’s coat serves as a metaphor for her reentrance into the world of
the novel. Once the jacket is off she admits to being cold and having a pain. Being cold
contrasts the fact that she just removed Adam’s jacket, which would have served as a
clear source of warmth. This reflects the nonsensical elements of the world of the Bright
Young Things. It also parallels the structure of their first conversation, which before
getting into the heart of the dialogue, there is a brief period of nonsensical introduction.
Nina’s pain also reappears in this scene and recurs constantly. The annoying ache is
never given a purpose and flows in and out of the novel quickly and without reason. After
this introduction to the scene, the couple begins a conversation over breakfast, which is
similarly characterized by the short, choppy dialogue. The conversation quickly gets to a
point and then transitions away to a different scene of action. Adam again initiates the
conversation:
‘By the way’ said Adam. ‘You said there was something you wanted to
say.’
‘Oh, yes, so there is. My dear, something quite awful.’
‘Do tell me.’
‘Well, its about the check papa gave you. I’m afraid it wont help us as
much as you thought.’ (Vile Bodies 100)
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Adam again serves as the point for moving the action of the novel forward. He reminds
Nina of the drama, which once stated, sets off the next series of events. Again the
conversation starts almost as an aside. In the previously referenced passage about their
engagement, Adam starts the conversation with “there’s one thing –” and here it begins
as Adam reminds Nina of “something you wanted to say.” Both of these phrases reduce
the significance of what is said by making it seem as if it was almost forgotten. This
allows the proceeding action to happen faster. This new incident, halting the marriage of
Adam and Nina is as she states because the money her father gave Adam for the wedding
is illegitimate. The reason for the check’s illegitimacy is the signature. Adam finally
recognizes how “the old idiot’s signed it ‘Charlie Chaplin’” (Vile Bodies 101). This
situation again reflects the nonsense of the novel’s universe. His character quickly moves
through a series of ridiculous situations, like the inexplicable confiscation of his
autobiography, or how his would be father in law decides to sign a check with the name
Charlie Chaplin.
After Adam and Nina discuss their predicament they agree on the fact that as a
result of the false check they “shan’t be able to get married after all.” (Vile Bodies 102)
Despite this somewhat momentous occasion in the narrative, the scene immediately falls
back into the aforementioned style of rapid transition as it cuts away quickly from the
action, disregarding space and time, much as a film would. After the affirmation that they
will not be able to get married, the dialogue ends with Adam saying, “It is a bore, isn’t
it?” (Vile Bodies 102) In this moment Adam reaffirms Nina’s mentality by repeating the
phrase “It is a bore”, which she used when Adam first told her that their marriage was
going to have to be postponed. Waugh uses the repetition of this statement to show
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Adam’s regrettable acceptance of his universe. The narrator does not provide the reader
with a moment of reflection or a break in the narrative, but instead the next lines are:
“Later he said, ‘I expect that parson thought I was dotty too.’ And later. ‘As a matter of
fact, it’s rather a good joke, don’t you think?’” (Vile Bodies 102) Both of these lines
disconnect from the sullen sentiments of the marriage being again put on hold and instead
use Adam as a point of transition by providing a series of unrelated thoughts, which then
allows Nina the space to provide her own unrelated explication. Adam is merely a device
used by characters like Nina and the other Bright Young Things of the novel as means of
finding constant action.
Adam is similar to Decline and Fall’s Paul Pennyfeather in this regard. Both men
serve as passive protagonists. They themselves engage in very little spontaneous, self-
derived action and instead rely on the motivations of the surrounding universe to progress
their narratives. The key difference is that despite being thrown around by the wills of
others, Paul lies at the center of his universe. Adam is not at the center of his universe and
instead most of his actions progress or influence the lives of others rather than his own.
For example, when Adam suggests to his party: “Let’s go to Lottie Crump’s and have a
drink.” (Vile Bodies 66) The result of this series of events has little significance for
Adam. The lone outcome for him is that the next morning he “woke up feeling terribly
ill.” (Vile Bodies 73) However, the other members of his party have a wild night of
drinking and end up at the Prime Minister’s home. Adam is not mentioned once in the
scenes following his suggestion that they go out and drink. If Paul Pennyfeather had
made a similar suggestion in Decline and Fall, he would have ended up in a situation
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beyond his control, but still would have been the focus of the scene and center of the
action.
Nina and her peers are given an obviously negative portrayal by Waugh. As
shown by the previous depictions of Nina, Waugh generalizes the aristocratic youth of his
novel as the Bright Young Things and characterizes them as vapid, attention seeking
creatures with no moral compass. Paul Doyle describes the world and the characters in
the novel as a “scene of disorientation and moral decay. Obligations are not taken
seriously; people hurt one another emotionally, mentally, and physically, and usually do
not have the depth or sensitivity to realize their deficiencies. As long as they can pass
time pleasurably and gratify their personal desires, the Bright Young Things dispense
with moral standards and responsibilities.” (14) This is why Nina’s reaction to Adam’s
difficulty in trying to marry her is boredom and disregard for his feelings. Doyle’s point
is extremely true, the world of The Bright Young Things is emotionally vapid and the
primary concern of the characters is not to connect with one another, but to maintain their
shallow personas. Nina never makes any legitimate attempt to love Adam and instead
only becomes openly invested in their relationship when it is convenient for her. When
Adam experiences a brief stint of fame and popularity writing under the pseudonym Mr.
Chatterbox, Nina becomes far more invested in his life. However, when he loses this
position she again distances herself. This is also why Adam struggles to grow because he
is in a world shaped by these beings that do not truly care for him. Waugh uses his novel
to criticize this generation of emotionally gaunt, flippant youths. Neil Johnson describes a
scene from the novel when the character Mrs. Ape openly criticizes the attendees of her
party asking, “Just you look at yourselves” (Vile Bodies 136) Johnson writes how the
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effect for the Bright Young Things is that they for a short time exit their catered universe
and become “trapped in the gaze of Mrs Ape, and whom do they see in that gaze if not
themselves? This act of seeing themselves in Mrs Ape’s gaze produces emotions of both
shame and guilt, but shame is clearly dominant.” (10) Johnson appropriately points out
how when The Bright Young Things are occasionally forced to look at their lives, they
are faced with nothing, but the reality of shame and judgment.
Waugh uses Vile Bodies to show what would potentially happen to the young,
wealthy population of England if their education were removed. Symbolically shown
through the removal of Adam’s educational texts by the customs agents as he crosses into
England, the world of the novel is one that lacks a concrete educational influence. The
experience Waugh calls for in his essay Was Oxford Worth While? is completely
removed from the novel’s universe. The outcome is a population that has not been
afforded the opportunity for an emotional growth and a gradual integration into society,
which is why the Bright Young Things are so deplorable and the novel avoids any sort of
emotional sympathy and instead follows a constant stream of outlandish acts. Aside from
Adam the population is economically sound, which again backs up Waugh’s point that
school is a necessity not because of the money that will accompany earning a degree, but
because of the experiences that will grant some emotional growth and help students avoid
turning into The Bright Young Things of Vile Bodies.
Waugh completely deconstructs the world of the novel, with the ironically named
final chapter “Happy Ending”. The final line of the chapter preceding “Happy Ending” is:
War has been declared.” (Vile Bodies 282) After this declaration the novel finally shifts
away from the hectic pace and outlandish narrative, into the final chapter. The final
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chapter uses a temporal gap and sees Adam on the battlefield. The scenes are no longer
being employed rapidly and the tone is not as playful. Waugh has taken the characters of
Vile Bodies out of their fantastical setting and placed them in a world rooted in reality. It
is a rude awakening and summed up in a moment when one of the girls from earlier in the
novel is placed on the battlefield and is given the description of “The woebegone
fragment of womanhood in the corner looked a little less terrified when she saw the wine.
She recognized it as the symbol of international goodwill.” (Vile Bodies 287) This
description shows both her removal from the world of chaotic comfort and her inability to
handle her current reality, which is now firmly rooted in Waugh’s realistic depiction of
war. The wine represents a forlorn symbol of comfort and reflects the priorities of the
novel’s former world. After this initial description, the girl presents a monologue, which
Waugh uses to unapologetically criticize her character. In her monologue, she reveals her
name to be “Chastity”, which Waugh again places ironically to mock the despicable
quality of the old world. The rest of her monologue is wayward as Chastity attempts to
assemble the narrative of her life and how she ended up wandering the battlefield. There
is no logic to her series of events, she was sent to Buenos Aires, “then when the war came
she brought me back again”, and then the “lorry I was in got stuck in the ditch so I got in
with some other foreigners” (Vile Bodies 287). Her monologue makes little to no sense
and reinforces Waugh’s point that when faced with a harsh reality such as war, The
Bright Young Things will be completely ill equipped.
Waugh ends this brief final chapter with the line: “And presently, like a circling
typhoon, the sounds of battle began to return.” (Vile Bodies 289) This final statement
again ironically parallels the rest of the novel. Adam moves through a circular narrative
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as he is confronted by a number of social situations and characters that all lead him
nowhere. For example, he is unable to marry Nina at the beginning of the novel, he
continues to struggle to honor their engagement through the middle, and by the end he is
still unable to find enough money to marry her. The irony here is that the circularity of
the old world presented very little actual significance; all of the characters were
completely content to float through their repetitive lives. However, in this new world of
the final chapter the repetition hold all of the consequence as it leads them back into “the
sounds of battle”, which they are completely unable to handle.
The final chapter is a “Happy Ending” for Waugh because despite war breaking
out, it finally presents the reality of the characters and separates them from the bullshit
world they previously ruled. Unlike Brideshead Revisited and Decline and Fall there is
only one world for the characters of Vile Bodies to live in, which restricts their growth.
Unlike Charles and Sebastian, Adam Fenwick-Symes cannot leave his world temporarily
and return having learned a lesson from the variety of his experiences. When Waugh
finally does give the characters a new world in the final chapter, they are completely ill
equipped and flounder as they are thrown into the deep end of a more realistic reality.
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V. The Reaffirming Power of Evelyn Waugh Through Film and Television
The film and television adaptations of Brideshead Revisited, Decline and Fall,
and Vile Bodies all work to reinforce the themes and ideas of their source material.
Despite occasional liberties and diversions within their narratives, the themes are
maintained and presented clearly to the viewer. All of the adaptations reinforce the point
Waugh makes on education in his article Was Oxford Worth While? because they
illustrate a clear division in space and the effects on the protagonists are all largely the
same. The film adaptation of Decline and Fall, Decline and Fall of a Birdwatcher (Krish
1969), takes the greatest liberties when adapting the novel, yet despite its obvious
differences, the film makes the same conclusion as Waugh’s novel. Unlike Decline and
Fall of a Birdwatcher, the television series Brideshead Revisited (Sturridge & Lindsay-
Hogg 1981) and film adaptation of Vile Bodies, Bright Young Things (Fry 2003) stick
closely to their source material.
The Brideshead Revisited television miniseries distinguishes space through its
cinematography. The themes taken on by the miniseries mimic the effects of the book.
There are very few, if any digressions from its source. The voice of the series is that of
Waugh. Most of the language is taken verbatim from its source material. Sticking so
closely to the original is neither a good nor bad quality; it creates a piece of work that is
ineffective in creating any new or revelatory thought that cannot be found in the book.
The greatest effects are cultural as a reflective article by the New York Times titled “30
Years Later, Revisiting ‘Brideshead’” makes the point that “It made stars of Jeremy
Irons, who played the moody, disillusioned painter Charles Ryder, and Anthony Andrews
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as the outwardly insouciant but desperately dissolute aristocracy Sebastian Flyte. It
popularized such English fashions as Oxford bags and terms like ‘spiffing’” (Lyall)
The Brideshead Revisited miniseries most effectively worked to expose a large
audience to Waugh’s work and to operate on a visual level that a novel can obviously not
achieve. In her essay Hollywood Convention and Film Adaptation, Debra Fried states that
films change their source material through three conventions, “the style in which
dialogue was edited, the status of filmed objects, and the star system.” (Fried 294) Given
the aforementioned details that the dialogue is strikingly literal in its adaptation from the
book and that the series main actors, Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews did not emerge
as stars until after the release of the series, the only convention in Fried’s essay operating
in this adaptation is “the status of filmed objects”. Fried describes the “status of filmed
objects” as the way that a film can take an object from a book and through the larger
scope of the medium, achieve something greater. A film can use the manipulation of the
camera, setting, and sound to create a clearer image for its audience than what Waugh
was able to do through the limitations of his novel. A reader is forced to derive meaning
based on his or her own understanding of the language. For example, when Waugh
writes, “Oxford, in those days, was still a city of aquatint.” (Brideshead Revisited 21) the
meaning of this sentence heavily depends on whether or not a reader is familiar with the
world “aquatint”. When Irons delivers the same line from the opening monologue of
Chapter One, the words are given more obvious meaning as the camera pans over a
medium shot of a building at Oxford, while at the same time a bird can be heard chirping
as the accompanying orchestra begins to swell. Just like in the novel, “aquatint” is a
peculiar word that would have been lost on the average person watching the show.
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However, given the onscreen reinforcement of beautiful imagery and sound, the meaning
is forced and the viewer is prescribed a definition. The definition for the viewer is now an
association with the variety and beauty of Oxford’s campus.
In the novel the first chapter’s introduction continues to the line, “In her spacious
and quiet streets men walked and spoke as they had done in Newman’s day; her autumnal
mists, her gray springtime, and the rare glory of her summer days – such as that day – ”
(Brideshead Revisited 21) However, the miniseries skips this passage and Irons continues
straight into the following lines, which begins with “when the chestnut was in flower and
the bells rang out high and clear” and proceeds from there. The adaptation is able to skip
this passage and nothing is lost for the viewer because of the idea of onscreen objects.
The series writer’s made the conscious decision to leave out this detail describing the
exact day because the viewer is literally looking at that day on screen. The audience does
not need to have the continued beauty of Oxford compared to the day being talked about
because they are presently immersed in an image of a beautiful Oxford day, through the
series’ establishing shot of the college. This presents a literal translation of the text not
simply through the words being used, but the imagery on screen.
The camera cuts from the initial establishing shots of the Oxford building, later
revealed through dialogue to be the college Charles inhabited, to a long shot straight
down a hallway, which again paired with the voiceover narration can be assumed to be a
college at Oxford. The scene’s setting is paired with an unspoken line from the novel.
The long shot of the hallway shows the “palms and azaleas [that] were banked round the
porter’s lodge.” (Brideshead Revisited 22) This scene however sees the series taking
another liberty that the novel is incapable of achieving. The line spoken by Irons from the
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text “Echoes of the intruders penetrated every corner, and in my own college was no
echo, but an original fount of the grossest disturbance.” (Brideshead Revisited 22) This
line possesses little significance and is confusing for a first time reader of the book. The
idea of an intruder is only mentioned here and then dropped immediately; the effect of
foreshadowing in any sense is lost without a greater context of the entire work. Nothing
has yet been said of the novel’s ultimate intruder, Sebastian Flyte, yet the miniseries
places him as the focal point of this brief shot in the hallway. As Charles’ voiceover
narration utters this line the camera begins to zoom on a figure dressed in all white,
holding a teddy bear that has stepped from the sunlight, into the shadows of the hallway.
When Charles begins to say the end of the line, a dresser being moved across the screen
obstructs the viewer’s image of the figure and the camera cuts. In hindsight, Waugh’s
intention to use the word intruder to mark the coming introduction of Sebastian is
obvious. However, it is an easily missed and ignored detail. The congruent scene from
the series takes the liberty of making this foreshadow obvious.
Although lacking original substance, the television series provided a visual lens,
which works to magnify in particular the physical settings seen in the novel, especially at
Oxford. Through this visual lens, the series is able to enhance Waugh’s positive
characterization of Oxford and the formative effects of the space. Oxford is cast primarily
through the expressive use of light and the natural quality of the setting. Just like the
novel, the series opens with the prologue, showing scenes of war and the eventual
transition into Brideshead. The first episode transitions from the prologue into a shot of
the university through a dissolve, which goes from the face of an older Charles into a shot
of the University. As mentioned, this first shot of the university is accompanied by
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Charles’ introductory monologue as the screen extends the images being discussed. The
effect of using imagery to provide further exposition and highlight the emotion provided
in the text extends beyond Oxford and is obvious throughout a number of episodes.
For example, in episode three “The Bleak Light of Day” when Sebastian and
Charles go drinking in London the scenes are lit brightly without any noticeable shadows.
The scenes also set the individuals on screen in medium close-ups and as the focal point
of the frame, forcing the gaze of the viewer directly onto the individual being shot. The
direct nature of these shots allows the viewer to engage with the positive emotions of
their drinking. The camera makes it seem as though the viewer is at the table drinking
and relies on a series of quick, cross cuts to again force the attention onto the obvious
emotions within the scene. This contrasts heavily with the scenes later in the episode
where the boys are put in prison. Here the camera pulls away providing a longer shot and
instead of using quick, cross cutting the scenes linger. Charles is shown sitting in the
corner of the frame on the floor of his cell. Instead of cutting to the hapless yells of Rex
and Sebastian it remains on Charles. The lighting is dimmer and the shadows surrounding
Charles are obvious and accentuated, highlighting the quality of his grief. The series cuts
from this scene to a dark, empty hallway in the prison. The boys begin speaking to each
other from their separate cells and again instead of cross cutting to the individual
speaking, the shot of the hallway is maintained, showing the separation and hopelessness
of their situation.
Both the miniseries and the novel utilize the divisions in space to show the effects
of the university and how an Oxford education shapes Charles and Sebastian. In the
novel, Waugh shows the way Charles begins to develop once he enters the university and
76
how he is able to learn from the interactions within the college and the contrasting nature
of the outside world. The miniseries works to all of the exact same effects, but utilizes the
objects onscreen to highlight and provide more obvious and engaging emotions for the
viewer to connect with. Stephen Fry’s film adaptation of Waugh’s Vile Bodies works to
an almost identical effect as the miniseries. The film, Bright Young Things, uses an over
stylized technique to illustrate the frantic pace of the novel and the outlandishness of its
characters.
For example, in a scene where Adam Fenwick-Symes loses the money he was
going to use to marry his fiancée, the scene preemptively transitions. The film moves into
an unrelated scene, which immediately starts into a different, unrelated series of action.
As Adam looks into a mirror, forlorn at having lost his fortune, an up-tempo jazz clarinet
begins to play. The tempo and festive style of the song contrast Adam’s somber state, but
the shot soon transitions through an upward, vertical wipe. The vertical wipe is an
unconventional transition and mimics the peculiar nature of the music. If these techniques
were used in a different film, or even in the Brideshead Revisited miniseries they would
appear ridiculous. However, given his subject matter Fry incorporates them seamlessly
into the film. He uses them alongside Waugh’s narrative and language to enhance the
sense of ridiculousness, which is upheld throughout the entire film.
The scene proceeding the vertical wipe provides an example of the over the top
style of the film’s cinematography. As the wipe starts an audible scream is heard from a
woman. By the time the wipe ends the screaming woman becomes visible on the screen
and given her outfit and dancing movements the scream is quickly interpreted as a festive
cry as she dance at one of the film’s many parties. The transitions of the film are never
77
gentle and no scene or situation is ever gently eased into the narrative, instead the film
jumps rapidly through the story. After the wipe and shot of the woman, the party is then
introduced as the camera weaves quickly through the crowd and is then followed by a
series of rapid jump cuts. The fast camera movement and the quick cuts serve to reflect
the pace of the story and the detestably frantic lives of the characters. The conversations
of the film are all constructed through a series of short, quick cuts, which revolve around
the action. Similarly the camera constantly weaves through the action as Fry takes the
viewer on a twisted journey through the world of Waugh’s.
The other aspect of this scene is that it shows the way Fry uses intense color
patterns. In the film it is as though every party is themed by a color. The party shown
during the opening credits is distinctly red. It achieves this color patter through the
lighting, set design and costumes. The party in this scene with the screaming woman is
distinctly blue; again Fry uses the lighting, set, and costumes to construct a scene that is
definitively one color. This over stylization through color reflects the shallow,
superficiality of the characters and the overpowering, encompassing effect of their
universe. The particularity to which the sets and costumes are constructed parallels the
vapid quality of the characters and their interactions, as well as the search for constant
action despite their everlasting dissatisfaction.
Bright Young Things parallels the effects of the Brideshead Revisited miniseries
because they both work to construct worlds, which adhere to the original images created
by Waugh in his novels. They subsequently serve to reinforce the point that Waugh
makes on the necessity for a formative, educational space for his characters to grow and
how the world of Bright Young Things neglects to provide this for Adam. Decline and
78
Fall of a Birdwatcher eventually reinforces this point, but takes greater liberties in
conveying its source material. The greatest distinction between the other adaptations and
Decline and Fall of a Bird Watcher is the period of time that each film presents. The
Brideshead miniseries and Bright Young Things are firmly rooted in maintaining the
purity of their time periods. The scenes of the series try to make the viewer feel as if they
are immersed in a series shot in the 1920s, while Bright Young Things creates the frantic,
swinging world of London during the 1930s. The series and film are entirely concerned
with upholding the realism of its subject matter. Decline and Fall of a Bird Watcher
reflects a period of time more in line with when the movie was created rather than when
its subject matter was set. The music, color patterns, and set designs all work
appropriately with the chaos of the text it is drawing from, but unlike the other
adaptations, it also reflects the fact that it was a film made in England during 1968, rather
than the 1920s, which is when the novel was set.
The introductory credit sequence presents a series of images accompanied by the
film’s theme tune. Both are entirely definitive of the late 1960s. The art movement of the
1960s is defined as the period moving out of abstract expressionism. The period of
Abstract Expressionism “was an art of introspection largely, although not exclusively,
induced by the war.” (Polcari 490) It served as the predecessor to surrealism and the style
is largely defined by its spontaneous and abstract elements. Jackson Pollock, a renowned
artist from this period developed the technique of drip painting, in which paint was
simply dripped onto a canvas and allowed to work actively on its own. For example in his
painting Blue Poles the image is not distinct, but instead the viewer is forced to create an
experience from the colors, which have been sprayed on the canvas in front of them.
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Polcari asks the question, which establishes the movement in which Decline and Fall of a
Birdwatcher was made: “Abstract Expressionism had been absorbed by British artists
during the second half of the 1950s, the problem – for those who believed in a linear,
progressive model of modern art – became ‘What next?’
Following this period and moving into the period in which the film was made,
British artists continued to work within forms of abstract expressionism, but were also
introduced to American Pop Art. For many artists, these two periods collided to form the
distinct, surreal, hypnotic and trippy art distinct to the late 1960s. American Pop Art
introduced a new, vibrant and defined color palette for artists to work with, which
combined with the spontaneity of abstract expressionism. Artists were making
“surrealist-style collages and abstract paintings with rainbow like bands of colour.”
(Walker 95) This style takes over the introductory credit sequence of Decline and Fall of
a Birdwatcher. The opening credit sequence shows a collection of colors as they
continuously kaleidoscope behind the titles. They work to create the surreal, vibrant art,
which was popular for the time period. The style of art that is evident on screen, does not
relate in any way to when Waugh’s novel was published in 1928. In contrast, the opening
credit sequence of Bright Young Things works to the sole purpose of rooting the film in
its time period. As the credits role, Fry’s film shows a party with outfits and music
obviously related to the culture of the late 1920s and early 30s. The sequence precedes
the start of the narrative and is included as a means of providing a distinct orientation for
the viewer. Decline and Fall of a Birdwatcher instead elects to create an adaptation that
is more concerned with connecting its audience to the immediate present rather than
trying to immerse them with the past and the period of its source material.
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The film’s theme song simultaneously works to reflect its modernity. The theme
recurs throughout the film and was done by British composer Ron Goodwin. Goodwin’s
most notable film score was the post war nostalgia documentary Battle of Britain
(Hamilton, 1969). Battle of Britain was made as a propaganda documentary to reflect
Britain’s dominance over the world and the outstanding effect of the nation’s culture. The
style of the song is very much in line with the music made by popular British artists and
serves as a reflection of contemporary culture. The theme for Decline and Fall of a
Birdwatcher presents a certain sense of camp, which plays to the satirized nature of its
subject matter. However, it again reflects the late 1960s. Goodwin’s theme is
instrumental, but mimics the style of contemporary British pop artists like Sandie Shaw,
The Fortunes, and Gerry and the Pacemakers, with upbeat drums, an organ and strings
section, with the occasional flute solo accentuating the staccato bass.
The insertion of modernity produces a definitively British film for audiences.
British culture of the 1960s was expanding across the globe with The British Invasion
and films especially began to try and achieve a definitively British aesthetic. The British
Invasion saw “in the 1960s, a confluence of new stylistic strategies gradually made its
way into Hollywood filmmaking practices.” (Beck 11) Decline and Fall of a Bird
Watcher was made during this period and despite being made outside of Hollywood, it
attempts to achieve the aesthetic. This is the most obvious reason why Krish changes the
time period of his film. It both reflects its status as a British made film and achieves an
extremely popular aesthetic. In terms of how his decisions to change the film affect
Waugh’s themes and narrative, they remain largely the same. By changing the time
period of the narrative, Krish shows the timelessness and continued relevancy of
81
Waugh’s points. This works to enhance the themes of the novel because Krish
demonstrates through his film how despite obvious changes to the time period, his
characters are still engaged in the same trials and prove the necessity for a formative
educational space several decades after Waugh’s novel was first published. The fact that
this adaptation was made several decades after Waugh originally published his novel
highlights the strength of the author and its shows his continued connection to a
contemporary audience.
Decline and Fall of a Birdwatcher takes another shift away from Waugh’s novel
with its ending. In Waugh’s novel the story concludes when Paul Pennyfeather escapes
prison when he fakes his death. After this, he spends some time in Margot’s Villa in the
final chapter and then heads back to Oxford in the epilogue. Decline and Fall of a
Birdwatcher follows a nearly identical narrative to the book, until it’s ending. Instead of
Paul completing his circular trajectory and enrolling back at Oxford, the ending is slightly
more ambiguous. The film’s final scene shows Paul as he sheds a layer of his former self
and runs into a somewhat different future than what is seen in the novel.
After attending his own funeral in a completely outlandish disguise (he wears a
long false beard and a winter coat), Paul exits the funeral home. There is an initial long
shot upon his exit from the funeral home, which immediately cuts in tandem with Paul’s
action. As he leaves he turns to a fire pit which stands on either side of the entrance to the
funeral home and he drops a piece of paper into it. As the paper enters the flames the
camera cuts to a close-up of the document burning. The close up of the document burning
is maintained for six seconds, which provides time and focus to read the name “Paul
Pennyfeather” through the flames. The shot then has a reverse cut to a low angle close up
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of Paul starring down on his name as it burns. This shot both illustrates a period of
reflection for the character, but also for the viewer as it shows the immediate perspective
that the viewer just held looking down on the fire. The shot then cuts back to the paper,
which has now turned black and shriveled in the flames. As the paper begins to
deteriorate, the camera quickly zooms in. The zoom provides emphasis of the scene’s
action, but also is jarring given its speed. The jarring nature of the zoom reflects the
unconventional world of Paul, which is quickly being erased. The camera then cuts back
to the same reverse shot of Paul looking down, however the flames have grown higher
and encompass his face. The camera cuts back to a now completely blackened, pulp of a
piece of paper and then again quickly back to Paul. In this final reverse shot of Paul, he
lingers over the fire, but quickly turns and walks out of the shot. The way the flames
begin to take up the space between the camera and Paul’s face, make it look as though he
is literally being engulfed by flames and provides an even clearer image of his old
character being disposed of. The way he then turns and exits the shot serves as a
metaphor for the resurrected Paul, which can now move on since his old person has been
burned and forgotten through the faking of his death.
The camera then pulls away from this series of shot reverse shot and cuts to an
establishing long shot, which shows the funeral home. In front of the funeral home there
is a driveway where an absurd purple car and its valet, who is wearing a matching purple
suit stands over shining the car’s exterior. Paul then walks into this long shot. The shot
cuts to a medium shot with the valet in the foreground and Paul in the background. Paul
turns and starts to walk towards the valet and the camera reveals that the valet is Captain
Grimes. Paul walks in front of Captain Grimes, the camera zooms in to a close-up of the
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two men and once the zoom ends, Paul states “Not a word old boy”. Captain Grimes
served as one of Paul’s primary sources of control throughout the film and in this scene,
Paul is finally able to assert his authority and conclude his circular narrative. Walking in
front of the captain after having taken up a space in the background of the shot reflects
this, but so too does the phrase Paul says. Grimes had previously said the same exact
phrase to Paul earlier in the film, when he himself was wearing a disguise after his own
faked death. Now the roles have been reversed and Paul solidifies his position by saying
this to Captain Grimes and paralleling his actions. Paul walks away from Captain Grimes,
imitating his limp and the film cuts to the final shot in the direction opposite the funeral
home.
The final shot sees Paul walk into the frame, skip over a barrier in the path, turn
around and while facing the camera, he jumps gleefully into the air. Paul then turns back
around and begins to run off the path and into the distance of the shot. As he is running
he begins to take off layers of his clothing and toss them haphazardly into the air. There
is a brief cut back to an astonished Captain Grimes, before cutting back to Paul still
running off into the distance, while taking more of his clothes off. The film’s theme
begins to play and the credits roll. This final sequence parallels the burning of Paul’s
name in the way that it again shows him shed his former self. This is most obviously
done in the way that he starts to remove the various layers of his clothes. The way he runs
away from the camera makes it seem as though he is finally leaving the destructive world
of the film, however it is made slightly ambiguous when the theme song returns. Had the
theme not recurred it would have been obvious that Paul had broken free from the story,
especially in the way that Captain Grimes looks on in astonishment. However, the return
84
of the song, which played consistently throughout the film, muddies the clarity of the
ending.
The ambiguity of the song raises the question that despite Paul shedding his
former self there is a chance that his new identity is just going to reenter a world of
unavoidable chaos. No matter what changes Paul is able to make, the film seems to say
with its ending that the fortunes of Paul were less a result of his character and more a
result of the world that he was forced to live in. The film’s theme is used during the
introductory credits and its placement at the very end, just before the credits role signifies
a return to the initial reality. Krish changed the narrative, by excluding the final chapter
and epilogue of Decline and Fall, but he maintains the idea of Paul’s circular trajectory.
The film does so less obviously and unlike the novel is more explicit about Paul’s
potential change at the end, but it eventually falls back into a similar trajectory and
reaffirms the novel’s theme.
The adaptations back up and prove the point of Waugh’s essay Was Oxford Worth
While? Attending Oxford is indeed worthwhile because it allowed Charles to meet
Sebastian and experience a new world that challenged all his preconceptions and
eventually shaped him into a well-rounded adult. Paul’s return to Oxford in the novel
signifies his happy ending and his potential for a life beyond the chaotic world the novel
traps him within. The Bright Young Things of Vile Bodies and Bright Young Things are
unfortunately unable to attend Oxford and through their lack of education they become
completely intolerable and create an abysmal world that can only be saved by war. The
constant theme across all of Waugh’s novels, which the adaptations bring appropriately
into their contemporary worlds, years after Waugh’s initial publication, shows how the
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idea that students need to attend university in order to have “another four years in which
to grow up gradually” because “It puts them out of the way of their fellow-citizens while
they are making fools of themselves.” (A Little Order 17) resonates timelessly as an
undeniable truth.
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