Order and disorder : Roman Catholicism in Evelyn Waugh

Abstract

'The trouble with the world today is that there is not enough religion in it. There's nothing to stop young people doing whatever they feel like doing at the moment'. Evelyn Waugh made this claim to his brother, Alec, in 1929, a year before he converted to the Catholic faith. This statement seems to reflect a chief concern of his, which emerges in all of his novels. One could say that Waugh upheld the view that his 'crazy and sterile generation' was void of any spirituality, values and faith, resulting in a chaotic society made up of hollow men. All his novels, whether written prior to or after his conversion deal with (some implicitly and others explicitly) a human being's need for some kind of discipline in order to lead a fulfilled life. The solution he offers in his later novels is religion and since his earlier characters are portrayed as lacking any spiritual depth, they end up unchanged and flat as ever or meet a disastrous end. Evelyn Waugh joined the Roman Catholic Church at the age of 27. However his own views and opinions seem to have been in keeping with those of the Church for some time prior to his conversion, although as an adolescent and young adult Waugh did not always speak favourably of Catholicism and religion in general. David Wykes maintains, 'the Catholic Church was a new spiritual home for Waugh, but his social, political and historical address did not have to be changed'. In spite of this, his Catholic beliefs were questioned by co-religionists such as Earnest Oldmeadow of the Tablet, who wrote disparaging, highly critical reviews on his early novels. In the novels preceding Brideshead Revisited the religious theme is suggested and not overt, and because of this they have been subject to various interpretations.