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Celia
Mr. Ryder is Charles’s father. His wife, Charles’s mother, was killed abroad while working with a Red Cross missionary group during World War I. Mr. Ryder never remarried and lives, quite happily, alone in his house in London. Mr. Ryder is an extremely passive-aggressive man and hates to have his solitude interrupted. He studies history and is happiest when he is left alone with his books. Charles observes that he seems much older than he is and that he despises anything modern: he is like a person from another time. Although Mr. Ryder never openly dismisses anyone from spending time with him, he is so unpleasant that no one wants to do so. When Charles runs out of money, after his first term at Oxford, and must spend the summer at home, Mr. Ryder engages in a subtle “battle” with him to try and make him leave. He avoids Charles during the day and deliberately irritates him at dinner in the evenings. When Charles invites a friend named Jorkins for dinner, Mr. Ryder pretends to think that Jorkins is American and teases the poor, confused young man all night long. He then arranges his own dinner party for Charles and invites a group of young people whom he knows that Charles will hate. During Charles’s childhood, after the death of his mother, Mr. Ryder’s aunt came to live with them for a time and grew close to Charles. Although it made Charles happy to have her in the house, Mr. Ryder proudly explains to Charles that he soon “got her out” and seems pleased that she never came back to see them.
Mr. Ryder Quotes in Brideshead Revisited
The Brideshead Revisited quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Ryder or refer to Mr. Ryder. 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 3 Quotes
Strife was internecine during the next fortnight, but I suffered the more, for my father had greater reserves to draw on and a wider territory for maneuver […] He never declared his war aims, and I do not to this day know whether they were purely punitive—whether he had really at the back of his mind some geopolitical idea of getting me out of the country, as my Aunt Philippa had been driven to Bordighera and cousin Melchior to Darwin, or whether, as seems most likely, he fought for the sheer love of a battle in which indeed he shone.
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Mr. Ryder Character Timeline in Brideshead Revisited
The timeline below shows where the character Mr. Ryder appears in Brideshead Revisited. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 3
Charles’s father , Mr. Ryder, seems surprised to have him home and insists that students must spend...
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Charles sees little of his father during the days and is very bored at home. He only sees his father at...
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Mr. Ryder says that he only eats a large dinner because, after his wife’s death, his sister,...
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The next evening, Charles invites an old school friend, named Jorkins, to dinner. Mr. Ryder confuses Jorkins throughout the meal by pretending that he thinks Jorkins is an American. Mr....
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A few nights later, Mr. Ryder launches his “counter-attack” on Charles and announces that he will give a dinner party. When...
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Over the next few weeks, things do not improve at home, and Charles wonders if his father really wants to drive him away, or if he just likes to irritate people. Charles...
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Part 1, Chapter 5
...is the problem, and agrees when Sebastian asks if they can go to stay with Charles’s father , who seems to like Sebastian a lot.
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...says that he is going to London. He asks Charles if he can stay with Mr. Ryder , and Charles says yes but that he wants to say goodbye to Lady Marchmain...
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...English society, and viewed their deaths as sacrifices to a cause. When Charles arrives at his father ’s house, Sebastian already there, and is in a good mood. He asks Charles if...
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...the room, however, and goes away forlornly. Not long after this, Charles goes to see his father and tells him that he wants to leave Oxford and become a painter instead. Charles’s...
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