Orphans of the Storm story
Celia's sickness leaves Charles and Julia to become reacquainted, and the two become lovers before reaching Southampton. Back in London, at an exhibition of her husband's latest artwork, Celia implies she knows about his affair with Julia. Anthony Blanche arrives at the gallery late and invites Charles to join him for a drink in a seedy gay bar, where he criticizes his talent and paintings, and informs Charles that his affair with Lady Julia is already widely rumored. Charles and Julia depart for Brideshead, where Rex is awaiting his wife.
20 total · 1 choice · 6 major · 13 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| romantic love | choice | The center point of this story is Charles' love affair with Julia. As a matter of course, they discuss how they had fallen in and then out of love with their respective spouses. |
| coping with a failing marriage | major | Charles and Julia discussed the shortcomings of their respective marriages. |
| extramarital affair | major | Charles began a clandestine affair with his wealthy old friend Julia, that soon became an open secret in the aesthete circles in which they both moved. Charles alleged that Celia, too, had been unfaithful. Julia claimed that Rex had been keeping up with Brenda Champion even after Julia and Rex tied the knot. |
| husband and wife | major | Charles and Celia's marriage was falling apart, as was Julia and Rex's. |
| life in late modern Britain | major | The latter half of the story portrayed life in London for a variety of people across the social strata, in Britain during the interwar period as well as during the Second World War. |
| love triangle | major | Charles and Julia were having an affair under his wife Celia's nose. |
| what it is like on a passenger liner | major | A sizable part of the story took place aboard an ocean liner during a transatlantic crossing. Notably, the passengers and crew coped with lots of rocking about as the vessel passed through some rough seas. |
| absentee father | minor | Charles had been away for two years, didn't know his son's preferred name, and conspicuously preferred to stay in London to see his mistress rather than hurry home and meet his children. |
| art discussion | minor | The Duke of Clarence remarked something to this effect: a certain one of Charles' paintings conveyed the sensation of heat so effectively that it caused the Duke to feel uncomfortably warm in his heavy coat. |
| beards | minor | Much to his bedridden wife's chagrin, Charles marked a pivotal moment in his life by exorcising his hitherto carefully cultivated whiskers. |