The novel Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh, explores the meaning of love and the many incarnations it can take; love of family and friends, romantic love, and love of God. The novel follows Charles Ryder through his youth and into adulthood focusing on his relationships with Sebastian, Celia, Julia, and God. Waugh also contrasts Charles' relationship with Julia to Bridey's relationship with his wife, Beryl. Through these relationships Waugh's idea of ​​the construction of love becomes evident; we learn to love through love and in this way the love of a parent or friend can be a precursor to romantic love. Waugh also believes that God's love is the basis and precursor of all love and without it no other love can be sanctified. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Sebastian is Charles' first love of his young life. Charles received no love due to his macabre relationship with his father, and Charles' friends at Oxford before Sebastian are made to seem intellectual but boring. We define ourselves by our relationships with others, and because Charles neither loves nor receives any love, of which we are aware, he is vulnerable to Sebastian's promise of friendship and with it a sense of belonging. She really falls in love with Sebastian when Sebastian flips through an art theory book and reads "Does anyone feel the same kind of emotion about a butterfly or a flower that they feel about a cathedral or a painting?" and said, “Yes. I do” (Waugh 28). Because their love is so deep and they are almost inseparable, it is easy to mistake Charles and Sebastian for homosexuals, even the prostitutes of the Old Hundredth mistakenly identify them as “Fairies” ( Waugh 116). Cara, Lord Marchmain's lover, addresses this topic when she says to Charles, "I know these romantic friendships of the English... It is the kind of love that comes to children before they know its meaning" (Waugh 102). ) It has long been believed that Waugh was bisexual. In her biography Mad World: Evelyn Waugh And The Secrets of Brideshead, Paula Byrne states that Sebastian is a composite of two of Waugh's three lovers, Alistair Graham and Hugh Lygon, citing the fact that in some manuscripts the name Alistair is written instead of Sebastian (Stephen 1). With this biographical information in mind along with Cara's opinion, it seems that Waugh considers the relationship between Charles and Sebastian to be more than just a friendship I don't think Charles and Sebastian are homosexual, I think their love is a form of romantic love without a physical aspect. Cara also recognizes that Sebastian is stuck in his childhood and predicts his death, saying "He'll be a drunk if someone doesn't come to stop him... I can see it by the way [he] drinks" (103). Despite Sebastian's decline into alcoholism, Charles remains faithful to him, telling Sebastian that he doesn't have to hide his drinks from him and even giving him money to go to the bar. Charles recognizes that trying to pin Sebastian down will only make him more desperate to escape. As Sebastian flees further and further from Brideshead and the bonds of his family, his friendship with Charles fades but that love is not lost, only transferred, Sebastian's to his love of God and Charles's to his eventual love of Julia. Before Julia, however, Charles meets and marries Celia with whom he has two children. We are introduced to Celia's relationship with Charles on her deathbed. Waugh doesn't seem to care that we know if there was ever love between them, when we are allowed into their story all traces of love disappear. Celia teases Charles upon his return from abroad by saying “…You are[in love with someone else in the meantime]” he replies “No. I am not in love” (Waugh 231). Charles really has no love or concern for Celia or her children, although we later learn that their paternity is questionable since Celia was cheating on Charles with the pimply young Robin. This realization, however, only makes Charles feel relieved that he has a legitimate reason to hate Celia. Charles and Celia's relationship fails because they both essentially use each other. Celia uses Charles' talent to push them both to success and Charles uses Celia to replace Sebastian. Neither of them, it seems, has any real attachment to each other. Charles' art also suffers from his lack of love; because he has no love in his relationships, he cannot have love in his art and the result is cold and passionless. When Julia reenters Charles' life it is a welcome change from his old marriage to Celia. When Charles and Julia's lives collide so many years later, they are both different people. Julia has endured her marriage to Rex and a miscarriage, both of which she emerges matured and sadder. Charles also suffered in his marriage to Celia, and remained gray and passionless. When they meet again, the “subtle creak of sexuality” that Charles had felt years earlier turns into an intensely passionate relationship that will last two years (Waugh 76). Charles loves Julia deeply, in part because he learned to love her by first loving his brother. Charles himself says that Sebastian was Julia's precursor, and when Julia accuses Charles of having forgotten him she thinks “I hadn't forgotten Sebastian. He was with me every day in Julia; or rather it was Julia I had known in him” (Waugh 303). By learning to love Sebastian, Charles had learned to love the part of Sebastian that was Julia and was later able to transfer that love to Julia. Charles and Julia's relationship seems destined to bring them the happiness they deserve, but it doesn't last. Charles' lack of religion drives a wedge between them which is exacerbated by Julia's religious crisis. When Bridey accuses Julia of living in sin, this resonates with her own shame and throws her into hysterics that Charles can neither understand nor hope to resolve. Eventually Julia realizes that to mend her relationship with God, she must give up what she loves most; Carlo. Charles says he knew this even before Julia knew this would be necessary, "I hope your heart breaks," he says, "but I understand." (Waugh 341) Despite the lack of passion, Bridey's marriage to Beryl is probably the most successful marriage in the novel. Neither of them marries for love, although Bridey is quick to point out that he is “ardently attracted” (Waugh 285). Beryl marries to provide financial security for her children after her husband's death and goes so far as to lie about her age and exaggerate her piety. Bridey marries not for love or matchboxes, but because he sees a wife as the next logical step in his life, and his father pushed him to marry. This maddeningly logical approach to marriage contrasts with Charles and Julia's relationship, which centers on their unfulfillable passion and emotional need for each other. Yet where Charles and Julia's relationship deteriorates and ends, Bridey and Beryl seem reasonably happy. This seems to suggest that Waugh believes that long-term commitments should be about rationality and logistics rather than just love or passion. Another reasoning, however, is that Charles and Julia's relationship failed only because, unlike Bridey and Beryl, they loved each other before they loved God. Waugh believes that God's love supersedes all other forms.