Brideshead Castle Chapel - Shea Delehaunty

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In Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited (1945), to live at Brideshead Castle is “an aesthetic education” (88). Jennie-Rebecca Falcetta argues that “Waugh embeds his protagonist’s gradual embrace of faith in the language of aesthetic valuation” (52). In short, as Charles learns to appreciate different types of aesthetics, he also learns to embrace religion. If aesthetics are a symbol for faith in the novel, then Brideshead Chapel, as the center of religious life in the story, must be the ultimate representation of Catholicism, though each character has a different relationship with it. Sebastian and Julia Flyte were raised Catholic by their pious mother, but Lady Marchmain’s oppressive Catholicism leads her children into spiritual turmoil. Charles was raised without any religion, but ends the story standing at the altar as if he has converted. If Brideshead Chapel is a symbol of Catholicism, how might the complicated and evolving relationship the characters have with their faith be reflected in its design?