I loved your post. I don't necessarily agree with you on every point, but the fact I can't dispute many of your conclusions says a lot. I don't think Cecil is gay. I do think Mr. Beebe is gay, and I think it is THAT element that gives him the insight to feel for Lucy and the life of restrictions and inhibitions she is marrying into. I don't think it's because Beebe knows Cecil is gay (although I cannot dispute your conclusion with any specific facts). He knows Cecil is frigid. He has probably experienced loving proper Victorian gentlemen himself, and feels for Lucy and the life she'd lead with the unresponsive Cecil.
Because homosexual behavior was so outlawed and repressed in that time, I think the author was carefully describing Beebe to the readers/audience. Hence the extra scenes on the subject. It's his way of educating people on why Beebe knows about sexual repression.
Here is my take on the pond scene--I had not seen it before, and watched it without preconceptions or trying to analyze it.... First, it's Freddy and George who first jump into the water without clothing. We know Freddy has been doing this his entire life. It's an exhuberant kid thing--we aren't to draw more from it. George loves Freddy's sister, Freddy is awfully young to actually have a sexual encounter, so I believe this is the author's signal that it's innocent. George joins him--because George is the one who would fit into the family. It's another way we learn George would be the perfect mate for Lucy. She swam in the pond as long as she could, and we can see her back at the pond one day with her husband, maybe some kids, leaping about uninhibitedly. It's the happiness she has waiting for her if she makes the right decision. And it shows how George will fit right into her family in a way Cecil could not. When Cecil watched Lucy and her siblings tussling outdoors in play, he never took notice of the siblings (I guess another reason to think he isn't gay--Freddy is too cute not to appreciate)--Cecil sees only his fiance. But not in a sexual sense, tho you can see his attraction. His mind takes over and he starts talking about raising their children with this zest for life, yet with the right education... with her mother. He pulls the scene right back into proper Victorian family-raising, fitting in...
Back to the pond....I was not even thinking about anyone being gay, but the way Beebe looks at the younger men...there was lust in his heart! ;) He could not get his clothing off quickly enough once invited. He went for the water fight, and the physical horsing around--no inhibitions. He understands this family, and their comparative love for fun. But he was getting a sexual thrill as well.
And when Cecil, Lucy and her mom arrived at the pond, he was guilty, not just hiding his body from the women's view/ shocked sensibilities, but trying to hide his face in the water/reeds, as well. That displayed an element of guilt. Not that he was trying to seduce the guys into a homesexual affair there in the open, but he was enjoying it too much, in the wrong sense? Beebe just got few--if any--opportunities to engage in sexual encounters in Victorian England, and if he could be included in any fun that may happen, that might lead to sex or just be titillatingtly sexy...he was thrilled to be there! He threw off those clothes and jumped in the water, and right back out again, to chase the others around on dry land, spanking each other or whatever they were doing...
As for the soaking and worse of their clothes, I saw it as their reckless and uninhibited willingness to throw off their class strictures--clothing always was used to identify people's place in society, from Britain to France to the Middle East to India. It showed what we knew of the younger men--a new generation who gave no thought to class or social restriction and rules. And Beebe shared that libertine attitude because his homosexuality separated him from society's stringent rules, and while he did not originate the fun, he was gladly pulled into it, and was not angry or regretful when it became less fleeting with the clothes wet and ruined.
We also learned more about Cecil from the pond scene. He was not brought into the action with the guys who threw off their inhibitions just to have fun on a hot summer day. He wouldn't, they He arrived with the women, on his arm and in front of him--his fiance and her mother...so appropriate...and so led. Once there, Cecil is suitably shocked! He is only concerned for the women's sensibilities--he steps up to protect them.
Significantly, there is not so much as a sideways glance of longing, neither childish envy (wishing he too could play in the water--a feeling most men probably would feel), nor sexual attraction (and this is the place to telegraph that emotion to the audience). I feel if Cecil were gay, we would have seen at least a sideways glance toward a nude male, or to a place between 2 of them, to signify a potential encounter as opposed to a specific attraction toward one of these men. Instead Cecil is all about duty as a Victorian gentlemen. The author's way of reminding us he is too shackled by Victorian society to feel anything but his social obligation....lest anyone read more into the encounter...whether sexual between adult men (and nothing need be done or said, their relationships could have remained unchanged, but a single look could have allerted us to his sexual desires if he had any!) or an innocent play as tho between 5 year olds (but Cecil lacks even the emotional freedom to feel the wish to have fun). Cecil's prim and proper clothing remains unaltered. As does his place in Victorian society.
I did not analyze this scene when I saw it, these feelings were my 1st impressions. I really felt Beebe was like someone who was never included but was very attracted to these guys. His sexuality seemed overt--it was HE who was chasing the younger guys once they were out of the water. Not easy to trade roles....he went from "Wow, I get a chance to play!" to a bit of a lecher chasing the guys, tho interrupted quickly. Cecil's total lack of participation was a definite purposeful element, and the clothing destruction was a separate element...a statement on class identification and crumbling.
I never saw Beebe as romantically attracted to Lucy. And he LIKED Lucy. Her playing of Beethoven became freer as she loosened up in Italy--we saw her hair do a Beethoven thing itself in one scene! Cracked me up! I was afraid blindness would follow... But Beebe loved and more, he respected that side of Lucy. And wanted it to be nurtured, not repressed. He knew men like Cecil, that could not love anyone. If you have ever loved someone incapable of sensuality, you will recognize that in Cecil. His heart thought it loved, but it did not even feel. He would not even allow his lips to FEEL Lucy's lips in a kiss. When she responded to his touch, he jumped away, frightened. And never worked up the courage to try again. Beebe must have fallen in love with a Cecil or 2 in his life. He did not want Lucy to lose that passion she showed at the piano... We saw how repressed Maggie Smith's character was...the passive aggressive anger. That was what Lucy could become...her cousin was a mirror into the future...
Re Cecil and Lucy, I don't see him as gay, but I agree he saw her as part of a masquerade...he had to pretend he was "all that." He had to fake sexual attraction toward his fiance/soon-to-be-wife---he was too repressed to feel anything for anyone. Men of that era set records at the brothels because they could not integrate a healthy sexual passion into their marriages. Gays are not non-sexual--even married to women (tho painful for them both), Cecil is non-sexual. Different. And he is very insecure. He looks everywhere for validation...he tells her mother his elaborate plans for raising their children...she's unimpressed...he tells men how he is not planning to hold a job...not getting that they are not impressed in his lack of any interests besides having to earn a living. He is proud of the era's practice of not requiring men of class to work for a living, but he carries it too far by not being learned at all. He has nothing to excite his physical or mental passions! And no one respects him...a cold empty fish, nothing but a pricy ticket to the upper class. He feels the lack of response from those with whom he talks, and it makes him uneasy. He hopes Lucy, whom the world loves, will bring that approval with her that he cannot earn on his own. And he hoped it was in the way her family were raised, planning to follow the same rules with their own children, to imbue(?) them with the passion he lacked. So in that sense she could provide the masquerade for a happy life he did not have.
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