Brideshead Notes/Quotations -Annotated

Brideshead Notes/Quotations -Annotated 

Through these notes (although it might be long winded) I am going to go through each key quote in the novel (in chronological order) and explain all different interpretations/themes that it links with in the novel and what Waugh is trying to portray. 

Prologue- (Feb/March 1943)

Overview: The prologue is full of a nostalgic ambience, both Ryder's yerning for the past golden days of his youth and Waugh's nostalgia for the golden days of the countryside and a time when rich upper class people were better off with traditional values, opposed to this 'modern england'.

'Here love had died between me and the army' and 'here my last love died'- portrays the idea of loss of love right from the start of the novel. Ryder's love for the army has obviously died (making him uncontent) and 'my last love' suggests that there was other love in his past (Julia, perhaps Celia, Sebastian, Brideshead/Arcadia) which have now all been lost.

'Mutilated old trees' - portrays the destruction of the countryside by war which later on contrasts with the summery beautiful imagery of Brideshead before the war in the time of arcadia.

'The place had been marked for destruction' and 'now the huts where we wintered waited their turn for destruction' - portray the inevitablitiy for war and destruction of the countryside…