Characters Who are Discussed but Not Seen

The most obvious is Beryl, Brideshead's wife.

I find it very interesting that Evelyn Waugh introduces her as a character, but never lets us see her.

One of my favorite scenes in episode 11 is when they are having dinner in Lord Marchmain's bedroom, and he discusses the very common daughter-in-law whom he obviously despises. (He's not especially fond of his elder son, either.)

After she meets Beryl, Julia talks about her sympathetically.

The fact that he doesn't marry until he's almost 40, to a woman older than himself, leads me to wonder if Bridey didn't have some latent homosexual tendencies.

Or was it just that he was English?

Another unseen character is Charles' mother. I can't help but wonder whether her decision to become a nurse during WWI was motivated by a sense of duty, or to get away from the dolt she married. It's difficult to imagine anyone being happily married to Charles' father.

Charles would have been 11 when the war began. An impressionable age at which to lose one's mother. (I think we can assume that after she left England he never saw her again. We are informed that she died in Bosnia.)

Any thoughts on these two unseen characters? Are there others worth mentioning?



Hair today. Goon tomorrow.