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Stream of Consciousness
Key Examples in Brideshead Revisited
Epilogue
Explanation and Analysis:
The writing style Waugh uses in Brideshead Revisited is intended to reflect the narrator's education and upbringing. Charles speaks like an Oxford graduate, using rare or antiquated English words and complicated metaphors. Note the following example of this elevated speech, taken from the epilogue:
The builders did not know the uses to which their work would descend; they made a new house with the stones of the old castle; year by year, generation after generation, they enriched and extended it; year by year the great harvest of timber in the park grew to ripeness; until, in sudden frost, came the age of Hooper; the place was desolate and the work all brought to nothing; Quomodo sedet sola civitas. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
