UNIVERSITY OF GJAKOVA FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY Department of English Language and Literature DIPLOMA THESIS TOPIC: Characters, conflicts, and themes in Ernest Hemingway s For Whom the Bell Tolls Advisor: Prof. Dr. Lirak Karjagdiu Candidate: Arlinda Hoxhaj Gjakovë, 2018
Contents 1. Introduction... 4 1.1 Life and work of the author... 6 a) Life... 6 b) Work... 8 1.2 Relevant information about For Whom the Bell Tolls... 9 2. The principal characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls... 11 2.1 Robert Jordan... 11 2.2 Pablo... 13 2.3 Pilar... 14 2.4 Maria... 15 2.5 Anselmo... 16 2.6 Augustin... 17 3. Main conflicts in For Whom the Bell Tolls... 18 3.1 Internal conflicts of struggling between life and death... 18 3.2 External conflict: Love between Robert Jordan and Maria during the war... 19 4. Themes in For Whom the Bell Tolls... 20 4.1 The loss of innocence in war... 20 4.2 Romantic love as salvation... 21 4.3 Mortality... 22 4.4 Politics... 22 5. Conclusion... 24 6. Reference... 26 2
Declaration I, Arlinda Hoxhaj declare that I worked on my thesis on my own pursuing the Academic Honesty Statement s principles in word and spirit and used the sources mentioned in the Bibliography. 3
1. Introduction Ernest Hemingway is considered one of the greatest American 20 th century novelists. His best works are regarded as classic American literature. With the characteristic style, the themes and the motifs and especially the particular narrative method, he made an extraordinary influence not only on American writers but also on writers around the world. Hemingway utilizes a pure and concise style, with clear themes, the objectivity of the revelation and characters that impress his work will always remain pleasing and an example of innovative and creative originality. Hemingway uses his writing skills to emphasize the true meaning of life during the war, although his work involves criticism he pulled the attention of the majority because his writing is mostly centered on himself and his experiences. So, the quality of his work became him a legend of his own lifetime. Ernest Hemingway was a member of the characteristic generation lost generation a generation of intellectual writers and artists who participated in the War and after coming back they have been injured physically and psychologically so, they could not find peace anywhere. His personal and literary life is entwisted and related so that it is not difficult to identify the person who is the author himself either totally or partially. The boy Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls is actually Ernest Hemingway himself. This novel distinguishes from the others because it is very dignified, focuses on itself, themes and motifs are repeated, it relies on subjective vision often depicted in lyrical emotions. The theme of the novel is a prominent one of our time, often troubled by wars, uprising and revolutions. The greatness of the novel is perceived in a powerful epigraph where with a special emphasis and an ideological purpose deeply thought that no men is an island, entire of himself; every man is a piece of this continent, a part of the main and any man s death diminishes me because I am involved in this mankind, and that is why we never know that for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee (Donne, J. 1964. The Canonization, The Poem of John Donne (ed.) Herbert Grierson London: Oxford University Press, p.14) 4
The author uses this epigraph as a presentation of the theme of brotherhood of involving of all people in an ordinary human. So, this is a characteristic that goes beyond the whole novel. The novel is actually a beautiful and impressive ballad of love and war, for the struggle of the Spanish people for freedom and republic for democracy, as well as for the love between Maria and Robert Jordan deeply beautiful and tragic generally. Thus, the novel is interlaced in two directions, and the author leads the main character to the end of the work: in the epic and lyrical direction, in a dense distance within a total of three days. The hero of the novel Robert Jordan is a young democrat and intellectual American whom the events in the world especially those in Spain worry a lot. He knows and loves Spain as if it is his homeland, also he understands the danger that is treated by humanity and the death of every nobleman feels like removing something from his being and his soul. Although many writers of his time have written voluminous works Hemingway again attracted more attention. (Hemingway and His Critics: An International Anthology. New York: Hill and Wang. 1961 Print.) The reason that I chose this novel to analyze for my diploma thesis is that through this novel Hemingway informs us about the harshness of the war as well as the pride of Spanish Revolutionaries over brigades. Ernest Hemingway throughout the novel depicts the worst of the war as it destroys people because they kill for good intentions the determination of the hero with the spirit of the necessary sacrifice. The novel was written after the robbing of the Republican powers which crushed and swept deep into the soul as a man and writer. Anyone that likes to know deeply the heroism and determination of soldiers who fight bravely should read this novel but the author shows us that war is a human weakness, not a power. War itself is a crime against humanity since it destroys the soul of people. In this diploma thesis, I will be concentrated on the features of the major characters of the novel. I will also talk about the main themes and conflicts that characterize this Hemingway s well known novel. It consists of 5 main parts, in the first part I am going to present the biography of the author and his artistic work. In Hemingway s biography, I am going to mention some interesting facts that characterize his life; his education, the relationship between him and the main characters of his novels. In the 5
work section, I am going to discuss the main novels that he published during his life. Then in the third chapter, in the main body of the novel, I will concentrate on the major and minor characters of the novel. Their personalities and acts will be followed by taking examples based on the book. After this part, I am going to describe the most essential conflicts throughout the novel mention both the external and the internal ones. In the last part, I will conclude this paper with a personal approach concerning the work. The methodology used in this paper is the deductive one, collecting and using general information about the novel. I would like to express my gratitude to my mentor Lirak Karjagdiu for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, immense knowledge, useful comments and remarks through the process of my research. I have been extremely lucky to have a mentor who cared so much about my work and who responded so promptly to my questions. Also, I would like to thank all the academic staff of this faculty which helped me to have a bright future. 1.1 Life and work of the author a) Life Ernest Hemingway, in full Ernest Miller Hemingway, was born in Oak Park, Illinois on July 21, 1899. He was the second child of six children. He had four sisters and one brother. His father, Clarence Edmond was a physician who taught his son hunting and fishing. His mother exposed him to the arts by taking him to museums and enrolling in piano lessons. Hemingway was educated in public schools and as a young man, he was interested in writing. As a student at Oak Park High School from which Ernest Hemingway graduated in 1917, he was active and outstanding and he contributed to the school newspaper and other publications. After graduation, he realized that he would be somehow drawn into World War I. During the war he worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star. (Baker, C. 1969. Ernest Hemingway: ~ Life Story. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.) 6
He was eager to serve in the war but because of weak eyesight he was rejected from military service and he enlisted as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in 1918 not yet 19 years old were sent to Italy, he was decorated for bravery by the Italian government. He fell in love with a nurse who declined to marry him. He served with heroism, he was hospitalized for an extended period and when he returned to the United States Hemingway was considered a conquering hero and he spoke before civil groups about his experience in the war. He was nineteen years old and the war had matured him beyond his years, living with his parents who never knew what their son had been through, they did not understand the psychical impact that the war had on him. So they began to pressure him to continue education or to find work but Hemingway could not find interest in anything. He spent time reading and after a year Hemingway became a reporter for the Toronto Star and Star Weekly which sent him as a foreign correspondent in 1921 to Europe. In Paris, he met many of the foremost contributors to Europe s avant-garde artistic scene, most significant, Gertrude Stein from her he learned the elements of literary style that later affect his writing. (Harold. B. 1985. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Chelsea House Publishers). In 1920 he met Hadley Richardson and they fell in love immediately so they married in 1921 but in 1927 their marriage came to the end when Hadley discovered his affair with a reporter named Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced, afterward Hemingway married Pauline. In 1937 Hemingway went to Spain as a volunteer to report on the Spanish Civil War a vain conflict between Franco s fascists and governmental Republicans. In Spain, he met the next wife Martha by whom he took inspiration for his finest work, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Other adventure of Ernest Hemingway during the World War II included split with Martha and meeting his next wife, Mary Welsh. He had two children. In 1960s Hemingway suffered from depression and he continued to battle with deteriorating physical and mental health and on July 2, 1961, he shot himself with his favorite gun. At that time, Ernes Hemingway had published seven novels, married four women, fought in three wars, and he was buried in Ketchum Idaho. (Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story. New York: Scribner, 1969) 7
b) Work Ernest Hemingway was an American novelist, reporter, and short story writer. He is considered a master of terse with direct expressions, the 1954 Nobel laureate in literature, had a profound stylistic impact upon most of the foremost authors who followed him, even though his own outfit was not huge. He began to write short stories and in 1923, he published Three Stories and Ten Poems in Paris following the next year by In Our Time, a collection of short stories which was published in 1925 in the United States. In 1926 he published The Torrents of Spring and the novel of the so-called lost generation, The Sun Also Rises, the novel that he scored his first success. It deals with pessimistic and aimless members of the postwar Lost Generation* many of whom suffer physically and psychologically because of the war. A Farewell to Arms (1929); Hemingway developed his experience as a young soldier in Italy, while serving there during World War I the American soldier Frederic Henry falls in love with a nurse Catherine Barley. She became pregnant by him but he must return to his duty. He deserts during the war and the reunited couple leaves Italy and moves to Spain. However, Catherine and their baby die after childbirth, and in this way, Henry is left alone at the miserable of the loss of his beloved. In 1927, the year in which he divorced Hadley and married Pauline he wrote Men without Women. It consist fourteen stories about death, marriage, war etc. In 1929 Hemingway published one of the best novels A Farewell to Arms. The theme of this novel is social, like the most of the others here the author shows the process of disillusionment of the main character Frederic Henry with the death of his beloved and the war. The title of the novel is symbolic; it has two meaning: A farewell to arms and to the Catherine. In September 1952 was published The Old Man and the Sea one of his most famous novels as well. It is the last major work of Hemingway that was published during his lifetime. Santiago the central character is a fisherman who struggles with a giant fish. Other famous works of Ernest Hemingway are: In Our Time, The Garden of Eden, A Movable Feast, The Complete Short Stories, To Have and Have Not, Death in the Afternoon, Islands in the Stream, Across the River and into the Trees, Green Hills of Africa and so on. 8
Hemingway is undoubtedly one of the greatest writers of our time, he is great a present anywhere, although not always accepted even in some attempts and tendencies he is denied in American Literature. He has been considered as a world writer who across the continent and have admirers and scholars who exacerbate very much, and the others who try to diminish the merits and the level that Ernest Hemingway has. His productive work and life has brought together popular and critical attention and he is mostly regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20 th century. (Harold. B. 1985. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Chelsea House Publishers). 1.2 Relevant information about For Whom the Bell Tolls For Whom the Bell Tolls is considered as a powerful reaction against the soldierly adventure by the foreigners on the Spanish war. Hemingway s passion was Spain, so For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of the most nearly personal works. He always loved Spain mainly for its bullfighting, its ignorance and when the Civil War began in July 1936 Hemingway was a participant there of course. He went there on the side of anti-fascist forces. The novel is written with peculiarity Hemingway tranquility with a very strong feeling of ethic passion of desire and understanding about his characters with all their holes, their ignorance, their savagery and their difficulties. Hemingway does not glorify these guerrillas but he adores them for their energy, directness and empathy. Spanish people were not only killed in major numbers, starving, detract of arms but they were also betrayed. The Spanish Civil War had an important and crucial function in the life of the Ernest Hemingway as a writer. He worked as a reporter during that war and he raised a constant warning and shoved all the Western countries to understand that Spain gave them the last and the fundamental chance to save democracy. The author presented himself during the Spanish war life that he was beaten at the betrayal of Spain from the foreign powers during the Civil War in Spain. The author wrote about the Spanish war: I had no party but a deep interest and love for the Republic In Spain I had and have many friends on the other side. I tried to write truly about them, too. Politically, I was always on the 9
side of the Republic since the day that it was declared and for a long time ago. (Baker, C. 1969. Ernest Hemingway: ~ Life Story. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 222). But Hemingway did not a blind trust in the Republic because he had observed the vandalism of fascist; their raping, gunning. He found out that Spanish people are courageous, with no fear, but also irresponsible. There are no finer and no worse people in the world. No kinder and cruder. (Hemingway. E. 1940. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Charles Scribner s Sons). The author is also a critical of the Spanish leaders. They were also irresponsible and all futility and often as traitor as the nation itself. Jordan, the main protagonist of the novel is very crucial towards Pablo and other leaders as well. The author was influenced very much by the Spanish Civil War, as we can understand from a speech that he delivered to the American writers after coming back: When man fights for the freedom of his country Against a foreign conquest and you know they were Attached and how they fought, a first almost unarmed. You learn how to watch them live and fight and die, that There are worse things than wars. Cowardice is worse, Treachery is worse, and simple selfishness is even worse. Baker writers consider that For Whom the Bell Tolls is not just black and white. It is an analysis of the betrayal of the Spanish nation by both: what lay within them and what has been entered upon them and it is introduced with the specific combination of graceful involvement and pragmatist division which is the sign of the real master Its partisanship is in the cause of humanity. (Baker, C. 1969. Ernest Hemingway: ~ Life Story. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 241). 10
2. Principal characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls All the main characters we meet among the novel, in one way or another, tightly are related with the bridge. The main character of the novel, Robert Jordan is too badge of human liberty and dignity. Pablo is a genuine Judas, a symbol of the cancer of defeatism, the one who is afraid of death, Pilar, even though she had made many mistakes is a sincere and brave woman. Maria represents Spain itself, beautiful, lovely, but divested by the war. 2.1 Robert Jordan Robert Jordan is the protagonist of the novel. He is a static character since his attitudes throughout the novel do not change. A thin and tall boy, he is a young American teacher who comes in Spain to fight against guerillas. He is a modified self-portrait of the author himself. His most significant duty is to blow up a bridge that would be of major operational importance during a loyalist infraction for three days. For him nothing is important in life than his mission to destroy the bridge. In the mind of Robert is always the bridge as he tells himself: And that is not the way to think and there is not you, and there are no people that things must not happen. Neither you nor this old man is anything. You are an instrument to your duty as it can turn on everything that happens this year. You have to do only one thing and you must do it. (Hemingway, 1940, p. 46) Robert Jordan is a victim of his pledge because right or wrong he is set to fulfill the duty- to blow up the bridge- in order to him. According to the critics, Jordan is courageous, confident and he does not let fear to go to him. He is an eighteen boy but thinks as an old and wise man. His sincerity and pledge to a cause that he thinks to be ideal and valuable shows the profound of his moral and the force of his individuality. As we can see he is more than vulnerable to victimization because of his fixation with power and death. How to win the war is Jordan s main disturbance. If he loses in the prosecution everything is lost. He consigns unlimited loyalty and a complete efficiency as he could give while he was serving. Robert is convinced to fight for freedom, merits and rights for all people. 11
Merely to blow the bridge is a failure. Yes Comrade General. To blow the bridge at a stated hour based on time set About the attack that is how it should be done. This is your right and how it should be done (Hemingway, 1940, p. 7) He is not just a teacher of Spanish and a lover of Spain, but he is also a writer an intellectual a brave man who does not care if he dies just for the cause of the Republic. He lives and dies for it. His own death seems to be completely normal to him his life wastes almost all values before this duty. The reason why he joined the Republic is that he loved Spain and the Spanish people. Robert Jordan considers that if democracy loses in any state the issue of it will suffer throughout; so, it is good to fight for it in any place. But the Spanish Civil War was a primitive war against people who went away from their land, men who had become a machine without values and human identity. The mission he took gave him a role in something he could believe totally and in which he felt a complete brotherhood with the others who participated in the mission. Thus, he felt like it was at his own home or country. During his mission, Robert Jordan falls in love with Maria, a girl violated by fascists. Before he met her he had interest in nothing, but now he loves her and has interest on Maria. His plan is to take Maria to the Madrid after the end of the war, but in the third day of action, blowing up the bridge, he finds out that Maria has no place in his life. In the end, while seeing death overtaking him, he merely says to her: We will not be going to Madrid, (Hemingway, 1940, page 481). He connected his fate with the weak and the modest people; they shared food, lived and struggled together in the Madrid Mountains. His diligence is to destroy the fascist s odor as a disclaimer of life. Victory is safe for him when fondness comes to his salvation and he starts to claim life. But he wills not avoidance from his cause. He does the most of his last minutes and admits death with dare and stoical patience. 12
2.2 Pablo Pablo is the antagonist character in the novel. He is the one to oppose Jordan, a dynamic character since his attitudes throughout the novel change. Pablo, a leader of the guerrilla band, obviously he seems fighting throughout the novel with effective dilution and desperation after two years of time. A broadly and heavy villager, the region is considered his place and he is considered the head of the band. He has chaired many prosperous including blowing up a rival verse and modulating for the massacre of a huge number of fascists. He has lost his patient; he is very scared of dying ad this makes him passive. He is very brutal and justifiable, nobody trusts him. His behavior provokes his men to kill him. He has the patience to remain cosines. Pablo thinks that blowing up the bridge is a danger for them. So, he went away styling explosive. Everyone is angry with him; he is a person who knows a lot about the war He drunkenly challenges Robert Jordan and the others that they think Pablo should be shot. He tries to disunite the plan to blow the bridge by stealing Jordan s explosive. During the night he twists the bags with detonators and went away with them. In the morning he comes back and he is considered a distressing self-abasement. Long-standing in the war has made him a morbid melancholic, discontent by him on ethical grounds is the most remarkable characteristic. Freud notices that in melancholia countless single conflicts in which love and hate wrestle together are fought for the object He also says that traumatic experiences with the object may have been stirred to activity something else that has been suppressed. ( Rickman, J. 1989 A General Selection from the Work of Sigmund Freud p. 138). When his wife, Pilar speaks to him about his crying during the nights she proposes that he has lost all addressing points for his behavior: Nobody understands thee. Neither God nor thy mother Nor I either. (Hemingway, 1940, p. 353) Hemingway depicted killing by guerrillas as follows: Then let us kneel, the first of the civil said, and the four knelt looking very awkward with their heads against the wall and their hands were by their sides, and Pablo went behind them and shot each in turn in the back of the head with the pistol I can hear the pistol still, sharp and yet 13
muffled, and see the barrel jerk and the head of the man drops beforehand. One held his head forward and pressed his forehead against the stone. One twitched in his whole body and his head was shaking. Only one put his hands in front of his eyes, and he was the last one, and the four bodies were fallen against the wall when Pablo turned away from them and come towards us with the pistol still in his hand. (Hemingway, 1940, p. 107) 2.3 Pilar Pilar is considered as a round character and as a protagonist of the novel. Her aim is always fighting for the good of Spain and somehow she represents the voice of people who live there. Pilar s character is wealthy in complication. She is a heroine without any doubt even she is scared and has insecurity. Pilar is a member of guerrilla band and Pablo s wife. They have lived together for too many years. She is dinky to Pablo and faithful to the Republican cause. She is always the optimist that they will blow up the bridge. She is like a burner for the author. Through her we as readers could precede information for Pablo s movements. Her story about the carnage of the fascists in Pablo s town depicted an awful picture of the perpetrator of war. She believes that she can predict the future, perusing Jordan s hand but does not to tell him what she has seen. Understanding risk she named the rival airplanes the bad luck birds. When Hemingway mentions Pilar, he says that she is great, extensive, serious, viscous, or powerful. She is not afraid to fight or die, and when Pablo appears to have deserted the mission of Jordan she persists upon reception of his place. She is the most active character of the novel. She loves Maria too much, protects her always and when Robert Jordan appears she insists in love between them. She advises Robert to treat Maria gently because she has had a hard life in the past. She always comforts their relationship in order that Robert Jordan has more reason for life. About her personal life she is not only a confidante to the others, she also narrates about her ex-beloved, Finito, the one who reveals her real character. She is considered as a fatness that is too often neglected because she is ugly and maybe she has a gypsy blood. Even though she had a difficult life since she was a wartime massacre witness as the leader of the band in the name of anti-fascist cause, still her heart is soft and beats for humanity. She orders, but she also follows Jordan when it is necessary. She helps Maria and Robert Jordan on their relationship even though 14
she is jealous of what they are experiencing. She is one the most intelligent person in the novel as Robert tells her: To make war all you need is intelligence. But to win all you need is talent (Hemingway, 1940, p. 93) It is difficult to understand all aspects of Pilar, somehow, she presents many of its political, romantic and religious conflicts: Pilar says to Maria: We are nothing against such a kind of machines (Hemingway, 1940, p. 86) 2.4 Maria Maria is considered the main protagonist female character in the novel. She is Roberto s short time girlfriend. She was a victim of war raped by a group of bandits. The war had traumatized her (parents killed, herself raped). She was at once cramp amongst experiences that have left her fundamentally hurt; physically and spiritually. Although, she has been raped by a lot of men Jordan is her first and true love and according to this she is considered as a static character. So, she is left alone, but then finds Robert Jordan and they have a happy life. Their love goes beyond a realistic, sociological level, she is a Spanish girl and he an American soldier, she frees him from his enslavement to work, teaches him to relax. She wants to learn from him how to be a right woman. She gives Robert Jordan all the time and the love she possesses. She is the one who renews energy and strength, and believes to Jordan for the cause and according to this she is considered as a static character. (Halliday, E. M. 1951. Critiques of Four Major Novels, ed. Carlos Baker. New York: Scribers, p. 174-241.) The most beautiful description of their love: As long as there is one of us there is both of us. (Hemingway, 1940, p. 481) She is as her daughter to Pilar, who has saved the girl and protected her. A pure love, even though they know very much each other. Hemingway presents her often in animal images. At the beginning he writes about her and her hair was but little longer than the fur on a beaver pelt (Hemingway, 1940, p. 22) Rabbit suits woman, whose only task is to stay close to the men who protect them. Hemingway established Maria as out of his most 15
positive imperishable woman in the novel. She is the most attractive and interesting woman character. Maria is depicted as Spain itself, from the fact that she is so physically and psychologically unequipped for the terror that she has experienced; she should exposit the strength and stability of women. Her self-steam grows when she is in companion by Jordan. He describes her: Maria is my only true love and my future wife. I never had a true love. I never had a wife (Hemingway, 1940, p. 333) Maria is the life force and motivates Robert Jordan s will force to successfully blow up the bridge. 2.5 Anselmo An innocent old Spanish man, which is considered more than a static character with no home no wife, who is against the war and killing people: All that I am sorry for is the killing. But of course there would be an opportunity to expiate for that because for a sin of that sort of many bears, certainly, some just relief will be fabricate. (Hemingway, 1940, p.206) Anselmo is another protagonist of the novel who hates killing, he is really a good man, he does not believe in God because he thinks it does not make sense how God could let the war happen. He knows that in killing in some cases is inevitable but it is harmful to the human being. He is a very good person when he is alone always turning back to this problem; he is killed during the war. Hunting animals is his passion; seeing the difference between killing animals and people. He respects his duty as a member of Pablo s band. Anselmo and Jordan share the same opinion towards war but when it comes to orders Anselmo respects them unlike Robert basically they are best friend close enough to each other. He is a kind of fatherly figure and a religious as well as guidelines for Robert Jordan to whom Anselmo provides the deep belief in the saintliness of the human being. His heart believes in the brotherhood of all women. But he takes commands and somehow he is depended on the Americans, learns techniques of the observing movements of soldiers and blowing the bridges. When the night comes he always feels lonely, he does not pray to God anymore he is not repented for killing and all the movements he did because all were for the best of Republic: I am alone in the day when I am working when the dark comes it is a time 16
of great loneliness. But neither one thing I have that neither man nor any God can take from me is that i have worked for the Republic. I have been working hard for the good that we will share later. I have done my best from the first of the movement and I have done nothing that I am ashamed of. (Hemingway, 1940, p. 206) 2.6 Augustin Augustin is a protagonist of the novel, a dynamic character is one of Pablo s bands, who is ready to fight and to die for the cause of the Republic, he does whatever he should do assisting Robert Jordan in the accomplishment of his task. He is brave and firm in disposition to perform whatever duty requires. Robert Jordan learn from Pilar that Augustin is someone who can be without any hesitation trusted, also he can count on him to be courageous in the fight. Augustin is a smart boy; he is the only boy who seems to recognize that they need Pablo in order to succeed in blowing up the bridge. He is an honest and trusted boy, even though he has feelings for Maria he never shows them, respecting her. When Robert Jordan appears with his intention towards Maria Augustin checks if he really loves her otherwise he would kill Robert. At the end of the novel Robert Jordan considers him as a brother he never had, he is an excellent guide for Jordan. Fear has an important role in the novel, besides Robert, all other characters have shown their moments of weakness, so do Augustin. He says, Pilar: To make war all you need is your intelligence. But to win you need your talent and material. (Hemingway, 1940, p. 93) 17
3. Main conflicts in For Whom the Bell Tolls 3.1 Internal conflicts of struggling between life and death In Hemingway s novels, relationship between life and death becomes a significant issue which is a contrast pairs off life. According to him life receives the real meaning when it is in front of death. Modern Literature explains death as a periodic theme occupying the writer s consciousness. So, the main motif of the author s works has been the subject of death. To continue the life, to have a deep meaning the death experience must be repeated again and again. According to Thomas Cash: It would be difficult to find an author who has written of death as often and as consistently as Hemingway. (Weeks, Robert P. 1962. (ed). Hemingway: A collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey). In For Whom the Bell Tolls Robert Jordan repeatedly confronts death, reflecting on the negro he has seen murdered when he was a child ad still thinking about being hand over the arms with which his father had committed suicide. The tragedy of Spanish people is that they face death every single day. Women were raped, disfigured and exploited by the destructive society. Jordan, for example dies and lives every moment. Besides him, the other characters are also shown as living the moment as it was the last one. Pablo has his moment of fragility, so does Augustin. But in the end, we find out that the whole band overcomes its fear and set up a bravery fight at the bridge. Jordan overcomes his fears, braces himself and he dies heroically for a cause that he knows it is not a good one. Pablo all the time knows that the cause is not the wright one but he was destructed over the years. Most of the characters do not fear death, except Pablo, though they hate giving up the bliss of life. Robert Jordan considers that since life is short and death certain, people must make the best they can while they are alive. For the author life is a tragedy; men owe one other, they owe everything including their lives. At the end of the novel the main protagonist Robert Jordan struggles between life and death, he is ready to die, he knows he must, giving himself the 18
courage and not to shoot himself. So, his death is more significant by his true desire to live. He dies happy because he wins the game. ( Breathing of Critics. 2008. Journal of Narrate University of Education 247 58). 3.2 External conflict: Love between Robert Jordan and Maria during the war The reason why Hemingway wrote about the war had seen much war in his lifetime: murderous, crime and so on. Love is always an inspiration and gives energy for the characters of Hemingway. Robert and Maria are in love with each other and their love and mission to blow up the bridge go parallel. She is a beautiful and graceful, a source of strength and inspiration for him. Her only purpose in life is to keep Robert Jordan happy and she does everything just to satisfy him. She expresses: I will keep everything clean and I will pour thy whisky and put the water in it at it was done at Sardo s. I will obtain olives and salted codfish and hazelnuts for thee to eat while thou drunkest and we will stay in the room for a month and never leave it. (Hemingway, E. p.330) Jordan meditates about her even when he is blowing up the bridge, he believes on her love, he does not care about her past he loves her pure spirit. They joy together every moment in three days. Robert Jordan considers these seventy-two hours as seventy-two years: I suppose it is possible to live a life in seventy hours as in seventy years; granted that your life has been full up to the time that seventy hours start and that you have reached a certain age. (Hemingway. E. 1940. For Whom the Bell Tolls p. 178) Maria s only goal is that Jordan to reach the height of happiness. They have reached the top stage where they feel one and one means one, since she was raped by Fascists, she was emotionally destroyed but now she is almost completely heal. The idea of Hemingway is that every man needs support and company of woman to accomplish a mission, in this case blowing up the bridge. Maria might not be able to assist him but she can keep his soul of elation alive and burning. Above all, love the main reason that teaches him that he with another person could do everything. (Hemingway. E. 1969. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Charles Scribner s Sons). 19
4. Themes in For Whom the Bell Tolls 4.1 The loss of innocence in war Each of the characters in the novel loses his or her psychological or physical innocence to the war. Some tolerate vulnerable traumas: loses of their parents, forced to grow up quickly, Maria loses her physical sincerity when she is raped by a group of Fascist soldiers. Robert Jordan firstly came to Spain with idealism for the Republican cause and believed confidently that he was entering the good side. But he loses his primary idealism, after fighting in the war and he becomes cynical about the Republican. The victims of violence in the war are not only ones to lose their sincerity the perpetrators lose their sincerity too. The villain in Pablo s town who take part in the massacre of the place Fascists have to face their internal barbarity afterwards. Anselmo, has to oppress his abomination to killing people, war costs the sincerity of people who are not included in it directly. Writers and journalists of the novel From Whom the Bell Tolls have to drop out our guiltless expectation that war involves clean moral selection that differ us from the opponent. Hemingway shows in the novel that moral is hypothetic, and the sides of right and wrong are almost nevermore clear out. Hemingway s (Reading, 1910-1940: An Inventory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1980.) Hemingway goes beyond the Spanish War and this imparts an important place to his works in the top of English Literature. He depicted death war and violence of bad people with the drastic effects of war is the themes on which he spent a lot of time as the writer. He connects war with the loss of innocence; for example the case of Maria, who is raped by Fascists soldiers. Another character who suffers from the loss of innocence is Robert Jordan. He is between two sides: his idealism about the Republican cause and later on his cynicism about its cause. He blindly believes and stays truthful to his duty: I come only for my duty I come under orders from those who are conducting the war. If I have ask you to help me, you can refuse and I could find others who will help me. I have to do what I am obliged to do and I can promise you of its importance. Because I am a foreigner is not my fault. (Hemingway, 1940, p. 18) 20
4.2 Romantic love as salvation The theme of love is an important concern of Hemingway works. It was romance as a notion of individual courage and heroism. Love between Robert Jordan and Maria is one of the significant themes. Even though Maria experienced first-hand, brutality of war; she saw the death of her parents and was herself raped. This hard experience makes her somehow crazy, so she is very young at the age and her traumatizing war experience makes her wanting and desire need of protection. Her naivety makes her worships Robert and does not want to challenge him. Hemingway depicted her as soft, helpless animals (Hemingway. E. 1940. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Charles Scribner s Sons. p. 188). Their romantic love emphasizes its unreality, their plans for the future emphasizing its inevitable abdication. It is love that made characters more vulnerable, love becomes a salvation that can exceed the instant moment and even dying. Disappointment in love is boundary become psychically important but the author depicted Maria as one of the most positive woman in For Whom the Bell Tolls, no other woman could attain the level of individuality that she does. She always is on the side of her beloved one, Robert Jordan. Love gives them a different perspective towards life. Pilar pushes Maria to Robert Jordan telling her that actually loving someone that person could heal her from the damaged of raping. Love enters even between Pilar and Pablo, although they hate each other; Pilar always insults him, he drinks almost all the time, but when he is crying she is on his side, protecting and encouraging him. He feels lonely and abandoned, fears death. 21
4.3 Mortality The most painful irony emphasized in this novel is mortality. All people who fight justify killing in the name of cause, ignoring the truth that regardless of the cause of killing people it is something disgusting. Every character is facing mortality and is forced to come to their own death, also the death of their beloved. They paralyze fear and despair. It is interesting how the author introduced death as a re-evolution of their priorities. The attitude towards mortality changes the value he gives what he has experienced during his life that is explain within the novel. The smell of death is a symbolic meaning of the human body; it is also a representing of Jordan s inner conflict by raising his memories of his grandfather and father. Some of the characters committed suicide such as Robert Jordan s father. (Weeks, Robert P. 1962. (ed). Hemingway: A collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.) 4.4 Politics The novel is considered as Hemingway s most overtly political novel from scholars. Ernest Hemingway himself was an active participant in the Second World War. Cooper points out that most of the critics assert that this novel is not political, or the main issue is not about the war because its referring is about propagandizing. The conflict between these two interpretations of the work as a novel that is the definition of political or politics tends to focus on a specific set of political institutions. (Baker, C. 1969. Ernest Hemingway: ~ Life Story. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.) The main protagonist Robert Jordan represents a transparent and coherent ideology that describes the manner how Republican Loyalist won the war. Hemingway supports the Republican cause but he also exposes the brutality on the part of Republican. The novel does not support the Communist leaders, there it is exposes the brutality on the part of the Republican fighters. So, it 22
describes the Republican struggle during the war and deep down depicts the impact of politics in defining people s life. The author himself did not have a blind faith in the Republic. All the time he had noticed the barbarism of fascists, their raping and barbarism, he also saw that Spanish people are brave, fearless, barbarous and irresponsible. There are no finer and no worse people in the world. No kinder and cruder (Hemingway, 1940, p. 365) 23
5. Conclusion The novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is the most powerful and well known literary work of Ernest Hemingway. It describes the Spanish Civil War and its influence on the world. Many young man from the United States joined Spanish loyalist forces on the cause protecting ideals in war. The novel is a mission of finding equality, liberty and it pursuit happiness in the Lost Generation. Hemingway was an eagerly participant in the Spanish Civil War; he spent all his money, time and capability for the Spanish nation. Hemingway take a personal interest in his characters as people could live and have perspective on their own, minds of main characters are given a great deal of importance. He identifies himself through of the protagonist of Robert Jordan. He shows us that whether his dedication, energy for freedom of human beings was the right thing. So, we as readers have no trouble in identifying him with Robert Jordan. Hemingway recognizes that if Democracy lost in Spain it would lose in many countries. For Whom the Bell Tolls in general is about the fate of Republic and its people during civil war. The novel Hemingway has transformed the novel into a parable of the main character and his survival in a fascist world. The issue of the bridge becomes a tragedy of the Spanish land and its nation. The main conflict is between love and war; for Hemingway, the concept of love determines stories of War. War is terrible because it shifts people to the most cruel and savage toward each other. I concluded that the mission of this novel is to figure out: liberty, equality and brotherhood and to find happiness than to live peacefully. But peace cannot be always reached by tranquil manners. Somebody has to sacrifice to win the peace. Even though the novel is full with thinking of tying and character s minds is preparation for the death. Hemingway is realist, he could not believe in the future for Jordan because he is in war. Inner monologue and retrospections of Robert Jordan are key points of this novel. Most of the characters retrospect and represent the past events. This way, from the beginning of the novel there was a feeling of death. Love is used by the author as an abstraction of manipulating the innocence to the meaningless institutions of modern life, so the characters are almost biblical and mythic. Maria represents one of the only values of worth living for in the author hero; but war and death can destroy even the most innocent and beautiful woman.. Love is that enables Maria recover from suffering of raping of the brutal fascists. 24
Women play a subordinate role in the works of Ernest Hemingway as they do in actual life, but in the novel Hemingway gives equal importance to the men. A woman is capable of doing great deeds; she can have the capacity to face tough situations with fortitude. It was Martha (Hemingway s wife) who inspired Hemingway to create the character of Pilar. Pilar is neither wicked, nor ignorant but she author s dream of an ideal woman in all ways. She loves her man through hard and easy situations even after she knows his flaws and has the ability to face and deal with life and reality. The character of Maria is symbolic; she is an image of home, she stands there to support his man. She is the one who renews the energy, confidence and strength of Robert Jordan for the cause. Maria represents suffering of Spain, raping of her is an act of supreme brutality, cutting of her hair is a symbol of her loss girlhood or womanhood but love is a source of inspiration and joy for her and other characters of Hemingway. Pablo is a fictional character, he is insane, cynical, frustrated and he has a mania for shooting people. Anselmo is a kind of spiritual figure as geographical guide for Jordan; he impacts on his deep belief in the humanity and the problematic nature of taking that life, the old man who influences Roberto less than women do. In general For Whom the Bells Tolls is not about Spanish politics but it is fate of the Republican people caught up in war. The author has transformed the novel about the Spanish Civil War into a fascist world and the virgin Spanish land has been exploited and ravaged by the virgin industrial and also war machines. 25
6. Reference Hemingway, E. (1940). For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Charles Scribner s Sons. (Baker, C. Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story. New York: Scribner, 1969) Baker, C. 1969. Ernest Hemingway: ~ Life Story. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Weeks, Robert P. 1962 (ed). Hemingway: A collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Halliday, E.M. 1951. Hemingway s Narrative Perspective, Ernest Hemingway: Critiques of Four Major Novels, ed. Carlos Baker. New York: Scribers, p.174-241. Hemingway s Reading, 1910-1940: An Inventory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1980. Bloom. H. 1985. Ernest Hemingway. New York, NY: Chelsea House Publishers. Hemingway s West: Another Country of the Heart. Blowing the Bridge: Essays on Hemingway and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Rena Sanderson. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992. p. 27-35. Fleming, R. E. 1977. Hemingway s Treatment of Suicide: Fathers and Sons and For Whom the Bell Tolls. p. 131-32. Breathing of Critics. 2008. Journal of Narrate University of Education 23: 247 58. Beach, Joseph Warren. 1960. American Fiction 1920-1940. New York: Russell and Russell. Print. Hemingway and His Critics: An international Anthology. New York: Hill and Wang. 1961 Print. John M. D. Rickman 1953. A general Selection from the Works of Sigmund Freud London: Cambridge Rare Books UK. Donne, J. The Canonization. 1964. The Poem of John Donne (ed.) Herbert Grierson (London: Oxford University Press,) p.14 Harold. B. 1985. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. 26