Last year I read two works of literature which I quickly added to my list of favorites, and began reading another that I'm still working through and really enjoying. The first two are Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisted: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Charles Ryder, and Francis Thompson's poem "The Hound of Heaven" (featured on my blog here). The one I'm still reading is The Confessions by St Augustine of Hippo. As I was reading all of these things and thinking a lot about each of them, I decided that I would tie all of them together in my semester literature paper. And now I've adapted that paper into more of a blog style, and you can read it below! If you haven't read any of the works I'm talking about in this post, I highly recommend all of them. Be sure to add them to the top of your Summer Reading List!
Before we continue, a little background...
Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited follows Charles Ryder and his best friend Sebastian Flyte, a lost Catholic and miserable “half-heathen” character and the focus of the Brideshead aspect of my thoughts below. The theme of the novel is "the operation of divine grace on a group of diverse but closely connected characters" (Preface). Throughout the book, Sebastian has many struggles, but this is what makes him such a good example of the way God's grace works through the lives of sinners. This is also what made me think of St Augustine, a grace-filled sinner-turned-saint.
Francis Thompson’s poem “The Hound of Heaven” comes into play in it's incredibly beautiful way of showing how God never gives up on a soul. He is always pursuing us, always nudging us, but always doing it gently; not forcing us to come to Him, but calling out to us: "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, / I am He Whom thou seekest! / Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me."
This is exactly how God works in Sebastian's life, and in St Augustine's.
So as I went to write my paper, I decided to highlight the way that both the novel (through many characters, though only Sebastian is in the spotlight here) and the poem are tied together by an Augustinian undertone (Waugh 99). Perhaps this is in part because, as Rev. Fulton J Sheen states in his introduction to St Augustine’s Confessions, Augustine (and his writings) “seems to have been a “modern” in days wont to be called ancient” (Sheen vii), and that “he was the closest to the two greatest realities: God and man. He was close to God because he lived in his presence; he was close to man because he had felt his defects” (xii).
All three illustrate the tendency of fallen humanity to flee from God and seek pleasure outside of Him, as well as the way God is constantly, gently pursuing us.
“I fled Him”; “I hid from Him” (Thompson 1, 5).
These two phrases from “The Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson describe very accurately the state of Sebastian Flyte’s soul when the reader first meets him in Brideshead Revisited, as well as that of the young St Augustine’s. They both tried to fill their inner emptinesses with things other than God, and ignored religion as much as possible. “But with unhurrying chase, / and unperterbèd pace, / deliberate speed, majestic instancy” Our Lord pursued them. As much as Sebastian may have wanted to hide from religion, his Father would not allow it. However, He did not force Sebastian - or Augustine - into faith, but rather never stopped quietly nudging them toward it. Sebastian’s inward struggle becomes more visible to the reader as he keeps bringing up his Catholic faith in conversations with his best friend Charles, only to become annoyed and change the topic as quickly as possible:
“‘You started the subject. I was just getting interested.’
‘I’ll never mention it again…’
But he did mention it again, some ten days later.” (Waugh 96)
This short exchange shows Sebastian dodging anything deeper than surface-level conversation about his faith, not wanting - or perhaps being afraid - to think about it any more than he saw necessary. Considering his growing “need” for alcohol and the many instantaneous pleasures of the world, it is quite possible that, when he looked back on his life in later years, these words from “The Hound of Heaven” would have rung true to him:
For, though I knew His love Who followed,
Yet was I sore adread
Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside. (Thompson 19-21)
Like Augustine, Sebastian’s problem is not that he does not know about Christ; it is that he does not know Christ. If he did, he would have realized that it was okay, and even good, to “have naught beside” Our Lord instead of having a fear of letting go of what he saw to be very good, fun things.
About halfway through Brideshead Revisited, Sebastian gets the chance to participate in a hunt which everyone hopes will be his turning point. His sister Julia comments to Charles that the expectation is that “a day’s hunting will put all that right” (Waugh 186). Thus it is made clear that this experience could be the start of his redemption journey.
This idea of a hunt is the same imagery which Thompson uses in his poem. Unlike the promising hope of the poem, however, Sebastian again rejects the opportunity for a real relationship with God, after fleeing and hiding for so long, and decides to continue following after whatever will currently bring him pleasure.
As Sebastian continues to subconsciously search for some kind of purpose in his life, the empty hole within him only grows, as does his misery. His choices are starting to break him down as he runs further and further from God. Mr Samgrass, a sort of chaperone sent along with Sebastian by his good-intentioned mother, comments to Charles: “it wasn’t at all like olden times. I wonder where the difference lies. The lack of good humor? The lack of companionship? You know I think he must have been drinking by himself today” (Waugh 192).
Sebastian finds himself in the same situation as St Augustine: “but I, poor wretch, foamed like a troubled sea, following the rushing of my own tide, forsaking Thee” (Augustine 25).
Sebastian does not stay in this miserable state forever though. He ends up taking care of another poor soul, Kurt, when he is at a hospital. This gives him a new sense of purpose, which he has been without for quite a while, and from there is able to slowly find God instead of fleeing Him. Evelyn Waugh allows Sebastian to slip out of the picture of the narrative for a time, as he trudges onward in his own pocket of the world toward a relationship with Our Lord, and by the time he re-enters the story he has made a lot of progress, and is living with a group of monks. St Augustine’s words - “Thou drawest out of this horrible gulf the soul that seekest Thee, that thirsteth for Thy pleasures” - have now become much more true of God in Sebastian’s story (Augustine 21). Unfortunately though, Sebastian is still very much an alcoholic, and continues to struggle with temptations of worldly pleasures.
Although Sebastian Flyte does not see complete redemption within the duration of the novel, it closes with him much closer to a full conversion than when he was first introduced to readers. Sebastian is not far behind St Augustine at this point, who beautifully states, “Then I sought a way of obtaining strength sufficient to enjoy Thee; and found it not, until I embraced the Mediator betwixt God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who is over all, God blessed for evermore, calling unto me” (Augustine 138).
Sebastian is still in the stage of seeking his place in God’s Kingdom; still working to follow the Hound of Heaven’s command: “Rise, clasp My hand, and come!” (Thompson 176). Yet he is no longer lost. Now a real sense of hope has made its way into Sebastian’s story, as he strives to overcome the temptations of this world and find true happiness in the glory of life eternal, just as St Augustine did.
The works of literature mentioned above are:
- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
- The Confessions by St Augustine of Hippo
- "The Hound of Heaven" by Francis Thompson