A quick hit
If we take what Charles Ryder says at face value, and most critics seem to, we will assume that, for Waugh, Mr. Hooper represents the awful modern world of the "Age of the Common Man" and Sebastian Flyte represents the wonderful, waning aristocratic world that Charles and Waugh supposedly both long for.
Why then is it Sebastian who introduces the motorcar to Oxford thereby helping to render it "submerged now and obliterated, irrecoverable as Lyonesse." It's Sebastian who drives across Oxford's "spacious and quiet streets' nearly running down a clergyman who was quietly pedaling down the wrong side of the street because that was the sort of thing you could do before young hot heads like Sebastian started showing up with cars.
One of the big differences between Brideshead and Waugh's other novels is that it is not satire. Satire pretty much has to traffic in exaggerated contrasts. Brideshead doesn't do that. Again and again, characters who appear to represent opposites turn out to be remarkably alike on closer inspection.
For example, one of the irritating things about Hooper is his generally helplessness when faced with difficult situations. Why are we so willing to not notice or, if we do notice, quickly forgive exactly the same trait in Sebastian?
The first post in the Brideshead series is here.
The next post is here.
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