Between Faith and Society: Re-evaluating Social Identity in Evelyn Waughs Novels

Abstract

This paper will look at the complicated relationship between faith and the social identity in the novels of Evelyn Waugh. Waugh, in his fiction work, though widely regarded as a sharp satire with dark humor, is highly reflective of the moral and spiritual crisis of the twentieth century society of Britain. This paper examines the ways in which religious faith especially the Roman Catholic faith intersected with class, tradition and modernity in articulating individual and group identities through close reading of three highly prominent works; Brideshead Revisited, Decline and Fall and A Handful of Dust. This paper posits that in his depiction of faith, Waugh does not just state what is dogmatical, he states what is existential and displays the stresses of spiritual redemption, as well as social corruption. This paper shows that Waugh criticizes the shallowness of the aristocratic culture at the same time as exploring the way that the notion of social identity enables him to judge his stories once more by underlining the outlived Ness of the importance of faith in a fractured world.