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Lady Marchmain
Lord Marchmain, the Marquis of Brideshead, is the estranged husband of Lady Marchmain, and the father of Brideshead, Julia, Sebastian, and Cordelia. He is the lover of Cara, an Italian woman, with whom he shares a house in Venice. Lord Marchmain is described as “Byronic”—someone who is emotionally volatile, misanthropic, and intense. When Charles meets him, he feels that Lord Marchmain pretends to be normal, while underneath he is not conventional at all and is an extremely passionate man. This belief is confirmed when Cara tells Charles that Lord Marchmain is a “volcano of hate,” underneath his reserved façade, and that, although it is believed that Lady Marchmain has turned everyone against him, Lord Marchmain really pushes people away with his bitterness and his cruel behavior. Sebastian idolizes his father and does not see this side of him. Sebastian has inherited Lord Marchmain’s self-destructive tendencies—Cara tells Charles that Lord Marchmain almost became an alcoholic before she met him, and Sebastian gradually falls into alcoholism as the novel progresses. Lord Marchmain’s mean-spirited nature is exacerbated when he returns to Brideshead to die toward the end of the novel. He is bitter and petulant, and likes to see the servants run around after him. Lord Marchmain is also extremely snobbish and refuses to leave Brideshead Castles to his eldest son, Brideshead, because he has married a middle-class woman named Beryl Muspratt whom Lord Marchmain considers “common.” Lord Marchmain has renounced Catholicism but reconverts on his deathbed when his children summon a priest, Father Mackay. He ultimately leaves Brideshead Castle to Julia, who plans to marry Charles.
Lord Marchmain Quotes in Brideshead Revisited
The Brideshead Revisited quotes below are all either spoken by Lord Marchmain or refer to Lord Marchmain. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 1, Chapter 5 Quotes
Mr. Samgrass’s deft editorship had assembled and arranged a curiously homogeneous little body of writing—poetry, letters, scraps of a journal, an unpublished essay or two, which all exhaled the same high-spirited, serious, chivalrous, other-worldly air and the letters from their contemporaries, written after their deaths, all in varying degrees of articulateness, told the same tale of men who were, in all the full flood of academic and athletic success, of popularity and the promise of great rewards ahead, seen somehow as set apart from their fellows, garlanded victims, devoted to the sacrifice.
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Part 2, Chapter 1 Quotes
“Well. I’m fond of him too, in a way, I suppose, only I wish he’d behave like anybody else. I’ve grown up with one family skeleton, you know papa. Not to be talked of before the servants, not to be talked of before us when we were children. If mummy is going to start making a skeleton out of Sebastian, it’s too much. If he wants to be always tight, why doesn’t he go to Kenya or somewhere where it doesn’t matter?”
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Part 2, Chapter 2 Quotes
And Lady Marchmain saw this and added it to her new grief for Sebastian and her old grief for her husband and to the deadly sickness in her body, and took all these sorrows with her daily to church; it seemed her heart was transfixed with the swords of her dolors, a living heart to match the plaster and paint; what comfort she took home with her, God knows.
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Lord Marchmain Character Timeline in Brideshead Revisited
The timeline below shows where the character Lord Marchmain appears in Brideshead Revisited. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 1
...has borrowed a motorcar from a “gloomy” man named Hardcastle, who claims to know his father. Sebastian says that this cannot be true because his father is a “social leper.” The...
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Charles’s father has been no help at all, and has not told him anything about Oxford except...
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...offended by this and snaps at him. The chapel was a wedding present from his father, Lord Marchmain, to his mother, Lady Marchmain.
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Part 1, Chapter 2
...that Sebastian is from a strange family. Sebastian’s parents are wealthy Catholics but are separated. Lord Marchmain left Lady Marchmain when he went to fight in World War I, and never returned....
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...that her governess committed suicide. Lady Marchmain is a very beautiful, almost saintly woman, and Lord Marchmain is aristocratic and “Byronic” but cannot go out in public because of Lady Marchmain.
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In Venice, Anthony says, Lady Marchmain made a show of being very pious and Lord Marchmain could not go out when she was in the city. He left Lady Marchmain for...
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Part 1, Chapter 4
...and will go to waste otherwise, as no one drinks wine in the house since Lord Marchmain left. The boys get very drunk together every evening and then go out and lie...
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Charles asks if Sebastian was upset when his father left home, and Sebastian says yes. He says that he is the only child in...
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...enjoy their journey together through the landscape of Europe. They are met in Venice by Lord Marchmain ’s valet, Plender, and set off along the canal.
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Lord Marchmain ’s house is a narrow apartment built alongside the water. The boys are shown up...
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They greet Lord Marchmain on his balcony and Charles is struck by how normal he seems. After a while,...
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Lord Marchmain asks about life in England, and tells Charles and Sebastian that he hates it there...
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...knows some women with daughters who, she can invite for Charles and Sebastian to meet. Lord Marchmain says that the boys are not interested in this and would rather see the sites....
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...and that Charles and Sebastian do not know what their love means. She says that Lord Marchmain fell in love that way with Lady Marchmain and that, although he pretends to be...
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Charles says that Lady Marchmain drove Lord Marchmain out of society, but Cara says that it is not possible for a woman to...
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...to escape, and she believes he will become an alcoholic if he does not stop. Lord Marchmain was nearly an alcoholic when he met her, and Cara says it runs in the...
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Part 2, Chapter 1
...Brenda Champion, for over a year, and everybody (including Julia) knows. Rex planned to visit Lord Marchmain after he’d been to Zurich, to ask his permission to marry Julia, but now that...
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Part 2, Chapter 2
...knows she is from a good family but worries about the scandal that surrounds her father. She is also Catholic, which means she will not marry an “eldest son” or a...
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...to take Sebastian to Zurich and, after he fails at this, Rex goes to see Lord Marchmain and receives his blessing to marry Julia. The couple begin to prepare for the wedding,...
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...young and naïve. Although the family still plotted to stop the wedding, Rex telegrammed her father and received his consent for them to marry in a Protestant church. The wedding took...
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Part 2, Chapter 3
...come home. Still, she says, she loves him “more than anyone.” She tells Charles that Lord Marchmain will sell Brideshead to get out of debt and that it will be replaced by...
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Charles asks Cordelia where she will live, and she says she doesn’t know. Lord Marchmain will not return to England, and Cordelia says they have closed the chapel at Brideshead....
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Part 3, Chapter 1
...ambulance in Spain. Brideshead lives in Brideshead Castle and is a strange, solitary figure there. Lord Marchmain still remains in Venice and Julia visits him often.
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Part 3, Chapter 3
...publicly that they are married, for the sake of the children, but live separate lives. Lord Marchmain knows that Charles and Julia are together and spent a summer with them in Naples,...
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Part 3, Chapter 5
While Charles and Julia finalize their divorces and Brideshead prepares to get married, Lord Marchmain suddenly announces that he will return to Brideshead. This dashes Beryl’s hopes, as she and...
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When Lord Marchmain arrives, Julia and Charles are shocked to find that he has aged drastically and is...
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Lord Marchmain seems pleased that his request has thrown the household into disarray. He complains bitterly about...
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Lord Marchmain complains frequently about Beryl. He does not want her to inherit Brideshead and finds her...
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Lord Marchmain ’s illness is slow but progressive. Some days, he seems like his old self, and...
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...health declines further, and two nurses are brought from London. Brideshead is informed that his father is dying, and comes back to the house without Beryl. Brideshead says his father must...
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...the house. Father Mackay arrives and eats breakfast with them. Afterwards, he asks to see Lord Marchmain .
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...and Cordelia and Brideshead apologize to the priest. Father Mackay is unruffled and says that Lord Marchmain may still have a “beautiful death.” Charles goes upstairs to see Julia and tells her...
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On Brideshead’s last evening, he brings up the subject again and says that, although his father dismissed the priest, he may still change his mind. Charles says that Brideshead is nitpicking...
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Charles says that the priest is not necessary because only God will know if Lord Marchmain truly repents. Brideshead says this is true, but still feels the priest is important. Cara...
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...up at the “war office” so that he will be called up if necessary. As Lord Marchmain ’s illness progresses, he grows more introspective. Lord Marchmain hates to be left alone but...
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As his death approaches, Lord Marchmain talks to himself about his life. He murmurs that he will soon be well and...
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Lord Marchmain is given an oxygen tank to help him breathe. He asks Cordelia what happened to...
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In mid-July, Cordelia goes to London for the day and Lord Marchmain suddenly takes a turn for the worse. Julia says that she will send for the...
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...Julia fetches Father Mackay. Charles tries to persuade the priest not to go in, since Lord Marchmain rejected him the first time, but Father Mackay thinks it possible that Lord Marchmain has...
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Julia leads Father Mackay into Lord Marchmain ’s room and the others follow. He lies with the oxygen mask on, and the...
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...money for his services. The priest takes three pounds for the church and says that Lord Marchmain had a “beautiful” redemption. Lord Marchmain dies that night, and in the confusion, Julia and...
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