The tormented hero in the novels of Evelyn Waugh
Date
1977
Authors
Soles, Derek A. J.
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Abstract
In all of his novels, Evelyn Waugh satirized the world in which he lived--a world which, he believed, was slowly but inexorably falling apart. An arch-conservative and a rigid Roman Catholic, Waugh cited the breakdown of the class system and the decay of institutions, especially the Church, as the principal causes for the decline and fall of Western Civilization.
At the center of Waugh's novels is the problem of how the sensitive and intelligent individual survives in this world of change and decay.
Most of Waugh's heroes survive by isolating themselves from the world around them. When circumstances force them to take an active role in society, they tend to become victims of the injustice and corruption endemic to the Waugh world, until the end of the novel when they return, unchanged, to the security of their former isolation.
But three of Waugh's heroes, Tony Last in A Handful of Dust, Charles Ryder in Bride shead Revisited, and Guy Crouchback in the war trilogy collectively entitled Sword of Honour, refuse to allow themselves to be victimized by their society, they refuse to accept the injustice so prevalent in the world in which they live. They are tormented by this society and they try to find something which will allow them to live meaningful lives.
Tony Last travels to the jungles of South America in search of an alternative to the Wasteland which is modern England, but, because his quest is not a religious one, Tony is ultimately unsuccessful. Charles Ryder, profoundly influenced by a Roman Catholic family with which he has a close relationship, attempts to cope with his world by embracing Roman Catholicism. But Ryder learns, at the end of the book, that even the Catholic Church cannot provide all the answers to the individual trapped within a world of change and decay.
With his last hero, Guy Crouchback, Waugh makes his final statement about the individual's relationship to the modern world. Experiencing first-hand the ultimate manifestation of a civilization on the verge of collapse-the Second World War--Guy learns, at the end of Sword of Honour that in order to live a meaningful life, man must isolate himself from public causes and be content with private causes of the soul.