Coming to Age as a Skeptic and Believer

    Christ Church, one of Oxford's thirty-eight  different colleges,is a college heavily influenced by prestige. In fact, this college's students have been among the extremely economically, politically, and religiously privileged elite. An education at Christ Church provides not only class privilege, but also an association with powerful and upcoming influential individuals: thirteen prime ministers have come from this college. Sebastian Marchmain, continuing the legacy of his father, attends Christ Church. Christ Church is a college centered around the idea of Noblesse Oblige: with great wealth, power, and prestige come responsibilities. 

"It needs a very strong faith to stand entirely alone and Sebastian's isn't strong" ( ch.5, part 1). 

Christ Church was originally founded by the Catholic Cardinal Wolsey; however, the college was refounded by King Henry VIII as part of the re-organization of the Church of England. King Henry VIII's counter reformation pursued to make the Catholic Church behave and established that aristocrats were Protestants.  Charles Ryder does not view religion through a Protestant perspective, but instead identifies himself as agnostic. As the Protestant religion grew, it was a challenging time to be a Catholic. 

"Loved buildings that grew silently with the centuries, catching and keeping the best of each generation" (ch. 1, Part II).    In 1930, the newly wealthy Stephen and Virginia Courtauld bought the previously unoccupied Eltham Palace and turned it into their very own Art Deco mansion. The Eltham Palace has both historical architectural elements and modern high fashion 1930s architecture. The Courtaulds, a "new money" family wished to preserve certain historical elements of the palace, such as the medieval era mote or the restored Great Hall, in order for them to create personal connections with the aristocratic past of the palace. The Courtaulds sought a position in high class. The interior design of the house reflects a mixture of historical representation, high fashion modern luxuries of the 1930s, and a strong pursuit in demonstrating power and wealth through travel experiences and education. The Eltham Palace is a reflection of the Courtauld's identity as they acknowledge the historical legitimacy of old values, yet declare who they are today as the modern, cutting edge elite.  

    " In the center, dominating the whole splendid space rose the fountain; such a fountain as one might expect to find in a piazza of southern Italy; such a fountain as was, indeed, found there a century ago by one of Sebastian's ancestors"(ch. 4, part 1). The fountain represents belief in originality, returning to the old, the religion of the ancestry: Roman Catholicism. 

 Hampton Court Palace:  The 16th century Italian Baroque architecture emulating the absolute estate and triumph of the Catholic, infused with England's Protestant flavor. This image portrays, through symbolism, the defeat of  Roman Catholic James II by the Protestant William III. This confirms in fact Protestant is here to stay and that is would be the religion of the state- the national identity of England. This time period was a time of change and skepticism as the values of a nation, beliefs in God, and control shifted away from the traditional Catholicism.