Journey Of Conversion-Analysis Of The Catholic Elements In Brideshead Revisited From The Perspective Of Narrative Theory

Brideshead Revisited is the masterpiece of modern English writer Evelyn Waugh and it is his first novel with the expression of the serious Catholic thoughts.The novel settles the background of the Two World Wars and describes the fall of a traditional English noble Catholic family and the conversion of different characters through the reminiscence of the narrative protagonist Charles,presenting the Catholic theme of “divine grace” and indicating the guiding significance of the correct faith in the corruptive society.This thesis analyzes the Catholic elements from the perspective of narratology.The theory applied is the narrative voice proposed by Susan Lanser,mainly the authorial narrative voice,the communal narrative voice and the personal narrative voice.Under the guidance of Lanser's theory,the thesis makes research on the guiding function and profound influence of Catholic faith during the conversion process of different characters in the novel Brideshead Revisited.The conversion of the pious Catholics,the half-heathens and the agnostics is analyzed through the methods of close-reading and case study,finding that different characters all accomplish the Catholic transformation and converse to Catholicism through sufferings and punishment under the guidance of Catholic thoughts,which reflects that in the background of the western culture,the religious faith provides the guiding functions of comforting the soul and restricting the moral behaviors in the period of moral corruption and spiritual wasteland.Meanwhile,the analysis of the religious theme would improve the understandings of the Catholic thoughts in the novel Brideshead Revisited and would impulse the researches of the western culture based on the religion.In addition,in China without religious faith,the faith of the socialist core values should be insisted to find the guidance of life.