Talk:Lord Sebastian Flyte

This article should probably be revised because it has factually incorrect statements.

1. The first time we see Sebastian in the novel is when he picks up Charles for their first trip to Brideshead. And Charles "knew Sebastian by sight" well before the encounter with the vomiting; and learnt who he was at the barbershop. So the statement that he first appears in the novel in the vomiting episode is false.

Yhinau, January 2010 commented, this dispute has been pending since 2008, so I took action to fix the chronology, tenses and style issues, while retaining most of the existing article. I do not agree that it need to be re-absorbed into the main article. Sebastian is a major and influential fictional character, so it's consistent with other novels' entries that he has his own Wikipedia entry. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yhinau (talk • contribs) 23:23, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

2. The allusion to homosexuality was vague not to ensure publication (most publishers would jump at the chance of publishing a novel by Evelyn Waugh who was a very prominent writer by the time he wrote Brideshead); it is just vague enough because Charles, when he gets older, values the friendship and the spiritual part of the relationship far more than the part that he refers to, and believes to be, sin. The reader is left in absolutely no doubt that Charles and Sebastian were in love.

Sebastion's Final Fate
This section isn't right at all.

"Although Sebastian's final fate is not portrayed in Brideshead Revisited, a conversation between Cordelia (Sebastian's younger sister) and Charles informs the reader that Sebastian frequently attempted to become a monk (typically while drunk), and will probably end up dying of alcoholism one night, in front of the monastery."

The relevant section of the book is several pages of Chapter IV, Book II ("A Twitch Upon the Thread"). According to Cordelia, he had been "... taken in at a monastery near Carthage [in north Africa]." where "They had the idea of making him some sort of under-porter; there are usually a few hangers-on in a religious house, you know; people who don't quite fit in either the world or the monastic rule."

It's an important theme in the book. As with all of the other major characters, Sebastian is brought back in the end to a life of faith and devotion; albeit one lived in his own way.

I would rephrase this as.

"Although Sebastian's final fate is not portrayed in Brideshead Revisited, a conversation between Cordelia (Sebastian's younger sister) and Charles informs the reader that Sebastian became a sort of under-porter at a monastery near Carthage in North Africa. Cordelia explains to Charles that Sebastian is still an episodic alcoholic, and predicts that he will eventually die there having lived, half in, and half out, of the monastic community. As with all the book's characters, Sebastian is brought back, in the end, to a life of faith and devotion; albeit one lived in his own way." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.18.219.101 (talk) 21:44, 23 March 2011 (UTC)