“There is a snake in Eden; corruption in paradise.” To what extent do you agree that the Brideshead estate embodies a corrupted paradise in the novel? June 2010 Within the context of pastoral literature, change is typically seen as a destructive force, intrinsic with the movement away from a harmony with the natural world towards modernisation and corruption. In ‘Brideshead Revisited’ the same pattern appears to be followed; moving from the peaceful harmony of Sebastian and Charles’ life in Oxford into corruption and turmoil or the shifting power balance between the social classes, from the nobility to the lower classes. However, change is not exclusively a negative force in the novel.
The title of book one ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’ suggests that even in paradise there is corruption or more accurately, death. The slightly morbid dorm room décor of Charles’ in book one which includes a skull as an ornament suggests that there is more to than meets the eye in reference to appearances in Brideshead revisited. Although Oxford appears to have been one of the places Charles remembers most fondly, there still is evidence of corruption/sinister events to come.
Another places which exposes this paradise/death dichotomy is in the two passages from book one when Charles and Sebastian are picnicking and Sebastian states, ‘Just the place to bury a crock of gold…I should like to bury something precious in every place where I’ve been happy and then, when I was old and miserable I could come back and dig it up and remember.’ Early into his narration Charles presents happiness and memories being corrupted by age and its subsequent effect on the mind and body. Sebastian refers to needing reminded of his happy memories which illustrates how the mind is corrupted and damaged with age and even though they are having a wonderful day they are aware that it will not last forever.
Charles’