Story background Discuss Main Themes in For Whom the Bell Tolls/ The relevance of Donnes Quotation to the

main theme. Hemingway's choice of a John Donne poem as the source of the novel's title and epigraph emphasizes a major theme of For Whom the Bell Tolls: "No man is an island," that is, no person can exist separate from the lives of others, even others living in far-away countries. The theme is demonstrated by the actions of Robert Jordan. Throughout his participation in the Spanish Civil War, he has fought actively for a cause of antifascism. As the novel progresses, his involvement with the guerrillas and his love for Maria, teach him the value of the individual as he or she affects a larger society. He doesnt believes in the abstract ideology which doesnt represent people. For Jordan, Maria represents human love, the first he has ever known. It is for her that he stays behind to allow the rest of the band to escape, demonstrating his realization that others depend on him as he has depended on them. His decision not to commit suicide at the end of the novel represents his ultimate understanding that he must fight for the people whose lives are affected by the cause. Apart from the relationship of individual and society, death is another theme: "his heart beating against the pine needle floor of the forest." The main topic of the novel is death and violence as effected by war. When Robert Jordan is given the mission to blow up the bridge, he knows that he will not survive it. Pablo also knows that it will lead to their deaths. El Sordo faces that inevitability also. Almost all of the main characters in the book contemplate their own deaths, and it is their reaction to the prospect of death, and what meaning they attach to death, especially in relation to the cause of the Republic, that defines them. Violence haunts the novel, death of Marias parents, Joaquins tragedy and above all, Robert Jordan awaits his death feeling his heat beating on the floor of Spanish land at the end. The war has affected the lives of people physically as in Maria who loses her physical innocence when she is raped by Fascist soldiers and also psychologically as the changed behaviours of characters like Anselmo who has to suppress his aversion to killing human beings, and Lieutenant Berrendo to quell his aversion to cutting heads off of corpses. War even costs the innocence of people who arent involved in it directly as War journalists, writers, and we as readers who abandon innocent expectation. In war, Hemingway shows that morality is subjective and conditional, and that the sides of right and wrong are almost never clear-cut. All these conditions are resulted by fascism which Jordon calls a lie told by rods. Later, he talks of the threat of fascism in his country: many who do not know they are fascists but will find it out when the time comes Thus, salvation lies in romantic love which is another main them of the novel. Even though many of the characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls take a cynical view of human nature and feel fatigued by the war, the novel still holds out hope for romantic love. Even the worldlywise Pilar, in her memories of Finito, reveals traces of a romantic outlook on the world. Robert Jordan and Maria fall in love at first sight, and their love is grand and idealistic. Love endows Robert Jordans life with new meaning and gives him new reasons to fight in the wake of the disillusionment he feels for the Republican cause. He believes in love despite the fact that other people like Karkov entertain purely materialistic outlook. 1

Romantic love is one of the most important ways in which Robert Jordan rejects abstract theories in favor of intuition and action over the course of the novel. Loving her transports him from his intellectual world of ideology to the world of real-life relationships. Maria represents the love that humanizes Jordan, making possible his transition from a political partisan to one who recognizes the worth of the individual. For Maria, Jordan's love is the healing touch she needs to cure the psychic wounds and a moving spirit for Jordon as he declares: I have not found one [woman] that moved me as they say they should move you. The most important theme which is the integral part of Hemingways novel is heroism, especially code-heroism. To be a hero, Hemingway believes that a man must display grace under pressure. Most of his characters put themselves into dangerous situations and then act with remarkable bravery in the face of danger. Robert Jordan is no exception. During the novel, Robert Jordan becomes the true Hemingway Code Hero, displaying a penchant for action and grace under pressure. Even though he realizes the dangerous nature of his mission and questions the orders of General Golz to carry it out in daylight after the offensive has commenced, he never doubts his own ability to accomplish the task. Even after Pablo steals and destroys some of his key equipment, he does not run from the danger. Jordan more clearly displays grace under pressure after he has been injured by fascist gunfire. Paralyzed and unable to easily escape with the others, he insists upon being left behind with a gun. When Maria begs to stay with him, he convinces her to leave by telling her his mission will have been worthwhile if her life is saved. Thus unable to travel to safety, he faces death with bravery, firing his gun at the enemy to give the others time to get away. He exemplifies the Hemingway code because the code heroes also fight to the last bit as he stated: "there is something you can do yet" Finally, there are other themes in Hemingways For Whom the Bell Tolls ranging from the power of superstition and divination as in Pilar, suicide as in Jordons father, the Spanish War and its tragedy and hypocrisy and theme of solidarity as in Robert Jordon. Jordan laid down his life for a cause but the irony of the situation is that he couldnt make a total commitment to his cause for the Fascists to be killed are, also human beings. No man is an island. Thus the novel takes a pure ironical stand in the situation of Spanish War. Key Facts For Whom The Bell Tolls opens in May 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil War. An American man named Robert Jordan, who has left the United States to enlist on the Republican side in the war, travels behind enemy lines to work with Spanish guerrilla fighters, or guerrilleros, hiding in the mountains. The Republican command has assigned Robert Jordan the dangerous and difficult task of blowing up a Fascist-controlled bridge as part of a larger Republican offensive. A peasant named Anselmo guides Robert Jordan to the guerrilla camp, which is hidden in a cave. Along the way, they encounter Pablo, the leader of the camp, who greets Robert Jordan with hostility and opposes the bridge operation because he believes it endangers the guerrilleros safety. Robert Jordan suspects that Pablo may betray or sabotage the mission. 2

At the camp, Robert Jordan meets Pilar, Pablos woman. A large, sturdy part-gypsy, Pilar appears to be the real leader of the band of guerrilleros. A rapport quickly develops between Robert Jordan and Pilar. During the course of the evening, Robert Jordan meets the six other inhabitants of the camp: the unreliable Rafael, feisty and foul-mouthed Agustn, dignified Fernando, old Primitivo, and brothers Andrs and Eladio. The camp also shelters a young woman named Maria, whom a band of Fascists raped not long before. Robert Jordan and Maria are immediately drawn to each other. Robert Jordan and Anselmo leave the camp to scout out the bridge. When they return, Pablo publicly announces that neither he nor his guerrilleros will help blow up the bridge. Pilar and the others disagree, however, so Pablo sullenly gives in. Privately, Rafael urges Robert Jordan to kill Pablo, but Pilar insists that Pablo is not dangerous. That night, Maria comes out to join Robert Jordan as he sleeps outside. They profess love for each other and make love. The next morning, Pilar leads Robert Jordan through the forest to consult with El Sordo, the leader of another band of guerrilleros, about the bridge operation. They take Maria along. El Sordo agrees to help with the mission, but both he and Robert Jordan are troubled by the fact that the bridge must be blown in daylight, which will make their retreat more difficult. On the way back to Pablos camp, Robert Jordan and Maria make love in the forest. When they catch up with Pilar, Maria confesses to Pilar that the earth moved as they made love. Pilar, impressed, says that such a thing happens no more than three times in a persons lifetime. Back at the camp, a drunken Pablo insults Robert Jordan, who tries to provoke Pablo, hoping to find an excuse to kill him. Pablo refuses to be provoked, even when Agustn hits him in the face. When Pablo steps away for a few minutes, the others agree that he is dangerous and must be killed. Robert Jordan volunteers to do it. Suddenly, Pablo returns and announces that he has changed his mind and will help with the bridge. Later that night, Maria comes outside to sleep with Robert Jordan again. They talk about their feeling that they are one person, that they share the same body. In the morning, Robert Jordan wakes up, sees a Fascist cavalryman, and shoots him, awakening the camp. After breakfast, the group hears sounds of a fight in the distance, and Robert Jordan believes that the Fascists are attacking El Sordos camp. Agustn and Primitivo want to aid El Sordo, but Robert Jordan and Pilar know that it likely would be useless. The scene shifts to El Sordos hill, which a group of Fascists is assaulting. El Sordos men play dead and manage to shoot the Fascist captain, but several minutes later, Fascist planes bomb the hilltop and kill everyone in El Sordos band. The ranking Fascist officer orders the beheading of all the corpses of El Sordos men. The guerrilleros at Pablos camp, having heard the planes bomb El Sordos hill, feel glum as they eat lunch. Robert Jordan writes a dispatch to the Republican command recommending that both the bridge operation and the larger offensive be canceled, for the Fascists are aware of the plan and the operation will not succeed. He sends Andrs to deliver the dispatch to the headquarters of General Golz, a Republican leader. Maria again joins Robert Jordan in his sleeping bag that night, and they fantasize about their future life in Madrid. 3

Meanwhile, in Madrid, Robert Jordans friend, a Russian journalist named Karkov, learns that the Fascists know about the offensive the Republicans have planned for the next day. Karkov worries about Robert Jordan. At two in the morning, Pilar wakes Robert Jordan and reports that Pablo has fled the camp with some of the explosives that were meant to blow the bridge. Though furious at first, Robert Jordan controls his anger and plans to carry out the operation anyway, with fewer explosives. He wakes up Maria, and as they make love, they feel the earth move again. Pablo suddenly returns just before dawn, claiming that he left in a moment of weakness. He says that he threw the explosives into the river but felt great loneliness after doing so. He has brought back five men with their horses from neighboring guerrilla bands to help. The fighters take their positions. The scene shifts to Andrs, who has been traveling through the night to deliver Robert Jordans dispatch to General Golz. Crossing into Republican territory, Andrs is slowed when several suspicious but apathetic officers question him. When Andrs and his escort finally near Golzs headquarters, a politician named Andr Marty suspects that they are Fascist spies and orders them arrested. Robert Jordans friend Karkov hears about the arrests and uses his influence to free the men. Robert Jordans dispatch finally reaches Golz but arrives too late. The Republican offensive already has begun and can no longer be stopped. As dawn breaks, Robert Jordan and Anselmo descend on the bridge, shoot the Fascist sentries, and plant the explosives. Pilar arrives and says that Eladio has been killed, while Fernando, fatally wounded, must be left behind. When Robert Jordan detonates the explosives, the bridge falls, but shrapnel from the blast strikes Anselmo and kills him. Pablo emerges from below, saying that all five of his men are dead. Agustn accuses Pablo of shooting the men for their horses, and Pablo does not deny it. As the group crosses the road in retreat, a Fascist bullet hits Robert Jordans horse, which tramples on Robert Jordans left leg, breaking it. Knowing that he must be left behind, Robert Jordan says goodbye to Maria, saying that he will be with her even if she goes. Pilar and Pablo lead Maria away. Alone, Robert Jordan contemplates suicide but resolves to stay alive to hold off the Fascists. He is grateful for having lived, in his final few days, a full lifetime. For the first time, he feels integrated, in harmony with the world. As the Fascist lieutenant approaches, Robert Jordan takes aim, feeling his heart beating against the floor of the forest. Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Loss of Innocence in War Each of the characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls loses his or her psychological or physical innocence to the war. Some endure tangible traumas: Joaqun loses both his parents and is forced to grow up quickly, while Maria loses her physical innocence when 4

she is raped by a group of Fascist soldiers. On top of these tangible, physical costs of the war come many psychological costs. Robert Jordan initially came to Spain with idealism about the Republican cause and believed confidently that he was joining the good side. But after fighting in the war, Robert Jordan becomes cynical about the Republican cause and loses much of his initial idealism. The victims of violence in the war are not the only ones to lose their innocencethe perpetrators lose their innocence too. The ruffians in Pablos hometown who participate in the massacre of the town Fascists have to face their inner brutality afterward. Anselmo has to suppress his aversion to killing human beings, and Lieutenant Berrendo has to quell his aversion to cutting heads off of corpses. War even costs the innocence of people who arent involved in it directly. War journalists, writers, and we as readers of novels like For Whom the Bell Tolls have to abandon our innocent expectation that wars involve clean moral choices that distinguish us from the enemy. Hemingway shows in the novel that morality is subjective and conditional, and that the sides of right and wrong are almost never clear-cut. With no definite sides of right and wrong in For Whom the Bell Tolls, there is no sense of glorious victory in battle, no sense of triumph or satisfaction that good prevails and evil is defeated. The Value of Human Life Many characters die during the course of the novel, and we see characters repeatedly question what can possibly justify killing another human being. Anselmo and Pablo represent two extremes with regard to this question. Anselmo hates killing people in all circumstances, although he will do so if he must. Pablo, on the other hand, accepts killing as a part of his life and ultimately demonstrates that he is willing to kill his own men just to take their horses. Robert Jordans position about killing falls somewhere between Anselmos and Pablos positions. Although Robert Jordan doesnt like to think about killing, he has killed many people in the line of duty. His personal struggle with this question ends on a note of compromise. Although war cant fully absolve him of guilt, and he has no right to forget any of it, Robert Jordan knows both that he must kill people as part of his duties in the war, and that dwelling on his guilt during wartime is not productive. The question of when it is justifiable to kill a person becomes complicated when we read that several characters, including Andrs, Agustn, Rafael, and even Robert Jordan, admit to experiencing a rush of excitement while killing. Hemingway does not take a clear moral stance regarding when it is acceptable to take another persons life. At times he even implies that killing can be exhilarating, which makes the morality of the war in For Whom the Bell Tolls even murkier. Romantic Love as Salvation Even though many of the characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls take a cynical view of human nature and feel fatigued by the war, the novel still holds out hope for romantic love. Even the worldly-wise Pilar, in her memories of Finito, reveals traces of a romantic, idealistic outlook on the world. Robert Jordan and Maria fall in love at first sight, and their love is grand and idealistic. Love endows Robert Jordans life with new meaning and gives him new reasons to fight in the wake of the disillusionment he feels for the Republican cause. He believes in love despite the fact that other peoplenotably Karkov, who subscribes to the purely materialistic philosophy fashionable with the Hotel Gaylord set reject its existence. This new acceptance of ideal, romantic love is one of the most 5

important ways in which Robert Jordan rejects abstract theories in favor of intuition and action over the course of the novel. Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the texts major themes. Major Characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1) ROBERT JORDAN A Complicated Character Robert Jordan, a tall and thin young man with sun-streaked fair hair, and a wind-and-sun burned face is the most complicated hero in Hemingways fiction, with perhaps the exception of Colonel Cantwell in Across the River and into the Trees. He is an American volunteer fighting for the cause of the Republic in Spain, a fact which he terms as the cause of humanity. His commitment to his duty has a religious quality about it which is terrifying in its implications, for if not used with discretion it can easily turn into fanaticism. Left to his own resources and judgement he is not sure that his choice to fight under communist discipline against the Fascists is a very correct one. He loved Spain much before the out-break of the Spanish Civil War and he was in Spain when the war broke out and in order to contribute his little bit to the welfare of the country that he loved he joined the war. But he knows that whatever be the outcome of the war in Spain he would like to preserve what he has loved in Spain. He is reluctant to give himself a political label except that of an anti-Fascist because his convictions are so different from those of the Russians who are conducting the war for the Republicans. His Love For Spain He is an instructor in Spanish at a small college in America and that is how he has come to Spain. He has spent most of his vacations in Spain with a view to learning the language well. He is sorry that he was not born in Spain, though he would have loved to be born there. His love is not born of any false sentiment for he knows the Spanish character well enough to be a patriot. He never felt like a foreigner in Spain and they did not really treat him like a foreigner most of the time. His loyalty to the Republic, is absolute but only during the course of the war, for nobody owned his mind, nor his faculties for seeing and hearing, and if he were going to form judgements he would form them afterwards. However, his soliloquy is not to be taken seriously because in the same breath he judges the Spanish character : They [Spaniards] turned on you often but they always turned on everyone. They turned on themselves, too, if you had three together, two would unite against you, and then the two would start to betray each other. Not always, but often enough for you to take enough cases and start to draw it as a conclusion. Accepts A Tough Assignment Karkov, the Russian journalist, thinks that his political education is meagre but the Russian General, Golz,, thinks very highly of him as a partizan dynamiter and, therefore, gives him the most difficult assignment of this Republican offensive. Merely to blow the bridge is a failureTo blow the bridge at a stated time based on the time set for the attack is how it should be done. He is expected to work with strangers and rely on them for the success of his assignment. Neither is the time of the attack certain. But there is no certainty in this war for the General clearly argues What is to guarantee that my orders are not. changed ? What is to guarantee that the attack is not annulled ? What is to guarantee that the attack is not postponed ? What is to guarantee that it starts within six hours of when it should start ? Hans any attack ever been as it should be ? Even when he cannot 6

guarantee anything himself Golz expects of Jordan : I must know that nothing will come up, that road. It is the only road on which the Fascists can get up tanks, or artillery, or even move a truck toward the pass which Golz is, going to attack. Jordan is given the option to back out of this but he assures the General that it will be done with certainty. Difficult as the task is, Jordans job becomes all the more risky due to some woman and some environmental factors but Jordan carries out the task and thus justifies the faith placed in him. It is this responsibility and its consciousness that drive Jordan like some mad fury. Perhaps, the roots of this commitment lie elsewhere. Preference For Grandfather Jordan has not been able to forget the cowardice of his father, who had committed suicide. Psychologically, he is ashamed of his father not only for the act of cowardice but also for his having let Jordans mother bully him. He was sentimental to a degree that as a child Jordan had felt superior to him. He remembers clearly the tear-stained face of his father when he had said good-bye to Jordan on his first journey to school. This psychological vacuum in Jordans life had compelled him to invent a father figure whom he could admire unreservedly, and in his memory of his grandfather, Jordan had found his idol. Grandfather was a hell of a good soldierThey said if he had been with Custer that day he never would have let him be sucked in that way His grandfathers participation in the American Civil War provides him with an apt parallel with his own situation in Spain : I wish Grandfather were here instead of me. Well, maybe we will be altogether by tomorrow. If there should be any such damn fool business as hereafterI would certainly like to talk to himBecause there are a lot of things I would like to know. I have a right to ask him now because I have had to do the same sort of things myself. I dont think hed mind my asking now. I had no right to ask before. I understand him not telling me because he didnt know me. But now I think that we would get along all right. Id like to be able to talk to him now and get his advice. Hell, if I didnt get advice Id like to talk to him. Its a shame there is such a jump in time between ones like us. If Jordan and his grandfather could make such swell companions, they would be acutely embarrassed by the presence of his father. He wants to learn from his grandfather for his father could not teach him what he wanted to learn. Has to Wash off His Fathers Shame In this psychological dilemma of Jordan lies the key to an understanding of his character. He is impelled to act to justify his link with his grandfather and not his father for he has little faith in himself unless he has justified his boast : Dont get to referring to food juice and other things until you are through tomorrow. Dont be snotty too soonWell see what sort of juice you have to-morrow. Since he cannot deny his father he would like to prove that his juice has come from his grandfather and he has, consequently, to act like his grandfather who was a warrior. Wants to Fight His Own Battle This interpretation is valid, for he has been obsessed with war since his childhood. He wants to fight for himself rather than somebody else because he has been critical of the way wars have been conducted from Agincourt down. He knows it is going to be a small battle but he wants it to be a good one. I will have to make this a good one. It is going to be small but very select. If I have to do what I think I will have to do it will be very select indeed. Need to Justify Himself Knowing that he will have to do something very special he has pondered on the possibility of his death in the execution of his task. All he expects of these three days in the Guadarrama mountains is a justification of his belief that his juice has come down from his 7

grandfather and that he is not a coward. If he has to lay down his life in the process he will not mind it at all, but that does not mean that he is seeking death. He loves life and the good things of life like Maria, liquor, open air life, bull-fights, etc., etc. When Pilar asks him whether he likes the things of life, he replies, Yes. Very much. But not to interfere with my work. It is here that one suspects that there is a hidden motive in his commitment to work. Life is dear but dearer than life is the need for the justification of his courage which his father lacked. Marias Love is Dream-like Into the life of this committed man comes the complication of love, which coming as it does in this strange place pleasantly surprises him and makes him think of his earlier resolution a little more critically. Marias love had happened to him and most unexpectedly. Maybe, it is a dream, he wonders : Such things dont happen. Maybe it never did happen, he thought. Maybe you dreamed it or made it up and it never did happen. Maybe it is like the dreams you have when someone you have seen in the cinema comes to your bed at night and is so kind and lovely. Hed slept with them all that way when he was asleep in bed. He could remember Garbo still, and Harlow. Yes, Harlow many times. Maybe it was like those dreams. Through Maria Life Reasserts The unreality of the dream vanishes when he can touch Maria beside him but more than the good luck that Maria has been she has shaken his camplacency regarding his devotion to his work. She has revived his love of life which his obsession with cowardice and his. pathetic attempt to refute it had obscured for some time. In his values his work still stands on top but life asserts itself. He would like the Republic to win but he would like to live wit Maria. So far she had not affected his resolution but he would much prefer not to die. He would abandon a heros end gladly. He did not want to make a Thermopylae, nor be Horatius at any bridge. Nor be the Dutch boy with his finger in that dyke. He would like to spend some time with Maria ... He would like to spend a long, long time with her. Love and Duty Become Synthesized Since Maria has been raped by the Falangists who are fighting as Fascists in this Civil War, his love of war and the need to prove his mettle receive an additional fillip. He feels dutybound to be revenged and let loose violence. He does not mind killing if it has to be done but now there is some need for it. His love for Maria and his task of blowing up the bridge become one, in fact. He has to blow up the bridge for the Russian General as well as for the Republic which has been raped, like Maria, by the Fascists. Fighting for the Republic becomes more concrete because in his mind the Republic and Spain and Maria become one. It is this impulse that makes him lie on the pine-needle-covered floor at the end of the novel waiting for the Fascist lieutenant and thus helping Pablo and his band to retreat into the Gredos hills. His loyalty becomes personal loyalty and he is just a husband covering the retreat of his wife whom he loves. Now his search for a genuine cause which had eluded him so far becomes concrete ; slogans give way to his love for Maria and he can lay down his life for her and her people i.e., Pablo and his band. You can do nothing for yourself but perhaps you can do something for another. It is for a person that he has felt that strongly ; the Republic was too vague for him, perhaps : I have fought for what I believed in. for a year now. I we win here we will win everywhere. The world is a fin place and worth the fighting for and I hate to leave it. He is becoming unduly pompous trying to. justify his death for mankind. He is committed to life but not the life of all mankind his commitment is to Maria, now that he has -justified that his juice came from the old man rather than his father. Theyre away. Now if the attack were only a success. It is, significant that he selects the past tense for the future 8

indicating thereby that he is not at all hopeful and it would be enough to save a few near and dear ones as Pablo had done. Suspends Thinking Since life is so uncertain Jordan hangs on to a few certainties like his love for Maria, which for him becomes the symbol for Spain. All through the book he has tried to banish uncertainties. Is it justified to kill ? he asks himself and then having justified his killings he is lost in doubt. Is it right to love Maria ? he asks himself. Yes, he argues but then he did not care. Why is he in Spain and why is he fighting ? he reflects ; and he does not really know. He tries to get out of his dilemma by saying : My mind is in suspension until we win the war. He is scared to judge. The first thing was to win the war. If we did not win the war everything was lost. He is working with the communists but he is not a communist. You believe in Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. You believe in Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Dont ever kid, yourself with too much dialectics. They are for some but not for you. You have to know them in order not to be a sucker. You have put many things in abeyance to win a war. If the war is lost all of those things are lost. Why is he postponing the vital answer to these questions ? The truth is that he does not know and if he knows it is too near the bone : he is fighting his personal psychological battles here in Spain. He has seen too much violence and he cannot digest it. He is wounded in the process. And for this reason he cannot let himself reflect on this sordid aspect of his life. Therefore, he must cut off the stream of thought for it is unpleasant. Let us not forget that he is an intellectual basically and he cannot escape from thought. Autobiographical Touches Is it that modern existence has become so painful that one is compelled to refrain from thought, like Jordan ? You better not think at all, lie told himself. Soon you will be with Maria and wont have to think. Thats the best way now ... When you have been concentrating so hard on something you cant stop and your brain gets to racing like a flywheel with the weight gone. Youd better just not think. In this aspect of Jordans character, it is feared, Hemingway has invested some of his own psychology and fears that overwhelmed the author finally. (2) PABLO A Reluctant Ally Pablo, an enigmatic figure, is the guerrilla leader of a small band in the Guadarrama mountains, who are operating behind the Fascist lines. It is to him that Anselmo takes Robert Jordan and it is with his help that lie has to blow up the bridge that is so vital for the success of the attack to be launched by the Republican forces. In their very first meeting Jordan notes that he is hostile to the idea of blowing up the bridge and that he will be a difficult ally, to say the least. Pablo states himself : Here no one commands but me, and then to elaborate his point he adds : You cannot blow bridges close to where you live. You must live in one place and operate in another. Not that he is not loyal to the Republic, he is interested in defending his hide-out. Anselmo accuses him of putting his fox-hole before the interests of humanity. He obeys Anselmo and yet he is not to be relied upon for in him Jordan observes a sort of sadness that comes before the sell-out, a feeling that comes before they quit or before they betray. Loves Horses Though totally illiterate he asks for Jordans papers in a language that he knows best : his knowledge of horses and his love for them. He veers round to Jordans support, apparently at least, when the latter displays a good knowledge of horses. Throughout the book he is called and occasionally taunted as the lover of horses. He kills people indiscriminately if doing so will make him the owner of their horses. He kills the five guerrillas, who helped him in over-running the road-menders hut, at the end of the novel because their 9

elimination gives him additional horses for his journey to the Gredos. When in trouble he considers a horse a better confidante than man : Thou lovely white-faced big beauty ... Thou art no woman nor a fool ... Thou art no woman like a rock that is burning. Thou art no colt of a girl with cropped head and the movement of a foal still wet from its mother. Thou dost not insult nor lie nor not understand. Thou, oh, thee, oh my good big little pony. It is not surprising that he is teased for this un-natural tenderness for horses. Role in the Movement Pablo is no more than the ruins of what he used to be in the beginning of the revolution, and it would be false to judge him on his present condition. He is tired of being hunted for his politics or his guerrilla activities and naturally he is resentful of what Jordan has come to do : I am tired of being hunted. Here we are all right. Now if you blow a bridge here, we will be hunted. If they know we are here and hunt us with planes, they will find us. If they send Moors to hunt us out, they will find us and we must go. I am tired of all this. You hear ?... What right have you, a foreigner, to come to tell me what I must do ? If he is to be judged he must be judged on what he has done for the movement, and even on his present performance he does credit to himself and his convictions, whatsoever they be. Pilar describes for the benefit of Robert Jordan what Pablo achieved in the small town that he took over. He is a master strategist : he captured the barracks of the guardia civil before daylight, cut off telephone wires, got all the Fascists in the town captured simultaneously, made people blood-thirsty for their blood, executed them in the most ruthless fashion and believed that all Fascists should have been destroyed in all the towns in a similar fashion. No Fascist post is safe from him in the dark. He sees from the very start what Jordans mission implies and he is not convinced that the time has come for him to make a move from his fox-hole. An Intelligent Leader He knows that with the present strength of men it will be a very difficult task to achieve, and it might make the place hot for them. He tries a number of tricks in an attempt to persuade Jordan not to be fool-hardy and persist in his stupidity. And when he is convinced that come what may Jordan will blow up the bridge he comes back to help him and lead his band out of danger to safety. His followers might desert him for a time but they cannot deny his genius. He makes a strategic retreat in letting Pilar command because otherwise he knows that he would be destroyed. A shut up. It is thou who commands now and you should continue to look at the pretty pictures. But remember that I am not stupid. He having destroyed Jordans exploder, fuse and the detonators comes back with a solution how to overcome the handicap caused by the loss. It is on him that Jordan depends for their escape to the Gredos. That he has survived and kept the morale of his band intact is ample testimony to his genius. Even Pilar has a soft corner for him, though he had betrayed Jordan, after he had come back. Regards Jordans Project as Foolishness He has become a victim of the prevailing despair and has consequently taken to drinking heavily. He is not afraid to die but he is not going to make a sacrifice of himself. The gypsy remarks philosophically that Pablo has been ruined by the killings for which he is responsible. Now his inactivity has further aggravated his malady ; he wants to live in comfort. He has become a bourgeois, according to Anselmo. Pilar thinks that he wants to sleep with Maria and since Pilar has guarded her well so far it has undermined his determination to go on fighting for the Republic. In spite of his differences with the band, he takes on the responsibility to destroy the Fascist post at the road-menders hut. And he 10

has planned to lead the band to safety, and Jordan knows that if Pablo has agreed to lead there is a definite chance of its success. Reasons For His Desertion It has been frequently asked why he deserted. The simple answer that he was a coward is not convincing for if he were a coward he would not come back, and having come back would not give his loyalty to the band so completely. Throughout the book there is a trend in his thinking that is worth exploring. He hates Jordan for having come to destroy his hide-out, he knows that the project is risky and having disturbed this area they will have to move and there are very few places where they can go. He plans to assess his following in the band, and having discovered that they would destroy him if he opposed, he marks time. After Sardo along with his band has been destroyed by the Fascist planes he thinks that Jordan might give up his stupid idea, for he does not have a sufficient number of men to carry out his orders. At night he steals the vital equipment because without the equipment the task is well-nigh impossible. Reasons For His Return Having deserted he finds that he is lonely and without supporting the group decision there would be no possibility of his rejoining the band of which he is virtually the leader. Maybe in a fit of temper he destroyed the stolen goods but once he has made up his mind to return he ensures that the project succeeds and with this view in mind he rides all night to collect as many men as he can to take over the work that Sardo had to do. He completes the job undertaken by him as successfully as could be expected though Agustin is critical of his having murdered those guerrillas who assisted him in over-running the roadmenders hut. His loyalty is to his own people, as he puts it : others do not matter. After Jordan has been wounded he asks him as a man whether he would be able to travel and when Jordan gives him an unequivocal answer, he does rot indulge in any sentimental leave taking. He must go and sensing the danger he dispenses with the necessity of saying a sentimental goodbye. He was once a man and that manhood shines in its fall glory when old age or discretion permits it to shine forth. A Great Individualist In this respect Pablo is a great individualist for he refuses to become an instrument for some larger purpose. He is the only one to clash with Jordan for he cannot let himself be mainpulated. He does not swallow his flattery nor does he fall to his crusading zeal. He is certainly not a villain who is a kill-joy. He is a wise man disillusioned with high-sounding slogans and his way of life has made him ruthless. He is a man of the earth as Pilar is a woman of this earth, and they are well-matched. (3) PILAR A Dominating Person Pilar, the mujer of Pablo, is a forty-eight year old gypsy woman who dominates the book like a mysterious being. The gypsy calls her barbarous and ugly but this description is highly inept so far her role in the novel is concerned. She has lived a full life and for her zest for life she has been called the soul of the Spanish people. According to Stanley Cooperman : Pilar is a woman of vast strength and personal power. She resembles those huge, virago-like women with the bodies of athletes that one so often finds in monumental or heroic sculptures. Jordans Strongest Ally Since the moment Jordan sets foot in the hills she has supported him. It is inconceivable what Jordan could do without her help. Her loyalty to the Republic is so great that she is prepared to sacrifice her man for it. When Pablo backs out of the project she takes upon herself to lead the band. The guerrillas respect her so much that they are prepared to liquidate Pablo if Pilar decides thus. When Pablo & camps with the exploding device she 11

offers a genuine regret for her lapse and is prepared to perform the duty that Pablo should have done. She in this manly gesture makes handsome amends for her failure to guard his equipment properly. It is she who negotiates the meeting between Jordan and El Sardo and brings round the other guerrilla leader to helping Jordan, in spite of El Sardos having seen the obstacles as clearly as Pablo. In this deal her role cannot be underestimated. Her Lave For. Maria Her love for Maria is genuine. She had found the girl during .a raid on a train and she was in a bad shape as a result of the atrocities committed by the Fascists on her. Maria was not in a fit condition to walk but Pilar made her walk as far as she could and then she made others carry her under a hail of bullets. She coaxed them, lashed them with the whip of her tongue and finally brought the girl to safety. Since then she has been guarding the girl as if she were her own daughter. Now that the girl has recovered and that she senses that she has been attracted by the American she instructs her to go to the American in his sleeping bag for she has read in his hand that there is not much time to be lost. The girls psychic wounds can be healed by love, she knows, and it is for the good of the girl that she receives love. She almost thrusts her into the bag. She provides as much time to the lovers to be together as the conditions permit. A Born Psychologist Only once do we get a peep into the mind of this mysterious woman ; when they are returning from El Sardos camp she lets her love for Maria whatever be its nature come to the surface. Addressing Jordan she says : You can have her in a little while, Ingles, and then she makes Maria lie in her lap. She says then .that she is jealous of the young girl. There is nothing perverse in her love for Maria, as some critics have suggested for she is not jealous of the girl but is full of regret for the youth that she has lost and the girl possesses yet. She knows that it is normal and it is as it should be. I have never wanted thee, says Pilar to Maria, and one has no reason to doubt her integrity. She is a woman made for men and she has no perversion like lesbianism. In her hands Maria is quite safe when she leaves Jordan on the pine-needle-covered floor of the forest at the end of the novel. On Maria she has performed the therapy of love and thus earned for herself the title of an untutored psychiatrist. A Mother For Jordan Much is made of her power to read peoples future in their palms. She is half-witch, halfwoman in this regard. Having read in Jordans hand that he is to die she buttons up her mouth and does not mention to him what she has seen in his hand. She even calls her knowledge gypsy-nonsense, so that Jordan is not obsessed with the knowledge of his death and thus becomes impotent and cannot complete the task that is very vital for the victory of the Republic in this offensive. In her, Jordan finds the image of a good mother whose love he missed in his childhood. His own mother was a bully and Jordan does not seem to have a pleasant memory of her ; so in this Spanish woman he found his mothers love. She feeds him, supports him when he needs help against Pablo, obtains friends for him, gives him the girl, Maria, to love, and then helps him to blow up the bridge by overrunning the saw-dust-mill Fascist post. It is she, again who educates Jordan on what the movement was like in a small town which Pablo took over. Firm and Tender Simultaneously She is firm where firmness is neededlike showing Pablo that he is isolated and that she commandsand extremely tender like a motherwith Joaquin, for example. She decides at one stage to liquidate Pablo but when he returns after his initial desertion, she does not let Jordan depart without Pablo. She respects Anselmos years and his devotion to the cause of the Republic but is rough with Fernando when he starts speaking like a bureaucrat. Her harsh and ugly exterior hides a gentle mothers heart, even though she 12

does not seem to have borne any children. Jordan reflects She is like a mountain and the boy and the girl are like young trees. The old trees are all cut down and the young trees are growing clean like that. Stanley Cooperman commenting on this aspect of her character adds : A kind of priestess prophet who aids Robert Jordan while remaining essentially alien to him, Pilar is a mother-figure no less mysterious than are the Spanish mountains, among which she dwells. Loyal and Compassionate Her two excursions into narration of Pablos exploits and her description of the smell of death-have been considered by some critics as extrapolations. From a purely structural point of view, there is some justification in this assertion but from a human angle it cannot be said with the same certainty. She makes Jordan realize what Pablo really was and how he deserves compassion and not ridicule. She extends the novel beyond the limited period of three days and gives the reader a wider perspective on the Spanish Civil War. Pilars Obscene Language Pilars use of obscene language serves a dual purpose : on the, one hand it gives her an equal status among men, and on the other she commands respect. Her thundering voice, for example, silences the gypsy, Rafael, who had been talking to Robert Jordan : What are you doing now, you lazy drunken obscene unsayable son of an unnameable unmarried gypsy obscenity. Obviously, the author has moderated her language ; otherwise one can only guess what a colourful personality she must be. Her past life which she narrates later reinforces this impression. But it does not tarnish her basic tenderness, for she is kind, loving and generous like a mother. It is only for discipline that she uses such a language which others will understand and obey. (4) MARIA Marias Original : Martha Marias figure and appearance win over Jordan at their very first meeting, notwithstanding her funny hair-cut. In the novel Hemingway gives a picture of this Spanish beauty in these words : Her teeth were white in her brown face and her skin and her eyes were the same golden tawny brown. She had high cheek-bones, merry eyes, and a straight mouth with full lips. Her hair was the golden brown of a grain field that has been burned dark in the sun, but it was cut short all over her head so that it was but little longer than the fur on a beaver pelt. For the original of this picture he did not have to go far because he painted in Maria certain features of Martha Gellhorn to whom the book is dedicated and who had braved the dangers of a civil war with Hemingway in Spain. While Hemingway wrote the book in Cuba she was with him and later they got married. Her Early Life She was living with her parents at the start of the Civil War in a small town and her father was the Mayor of the town. The Fascists had killed her father and mother, shaved off her head, and later raped her. She was kept as a prisoner in Valladolid and when she was being moved by train to some other place, Pablos hand and El Sardos band had dynamited that train and she had escaped from the clutches of the Fascists. Pilar had rescued her and brought her to safety but she was in a bad shape because of the atrocities that she had suffered at the hands of the Falangists. Living under Pilars shelter she had recovered her former composture and beauty in these past three months. Jordan had seen her at the end of this difficult period and oblivious of her earlier condition fell in love with her, despite the fact that he ought not to be involved with women in this movement. Her Love For Jordan 13

Robert Jordans anti-fascism draws Maria to him because in him she sees the messiah who can avenge her parents death and her suffering. Pilar having seen that Maria is attracted to the young American dynamiter literally pushes her into his sleeping bag for two reasons primarily : if Jordan escapes with his life at the end of his mission she would go with him and lead a normal life ; if on the other hand he is killed his love would make up for what she has suffered from. Jordans love breaks the shell into which Maria had withdrawn after the death of her parents and her rape. She discloses to him what she has suffered from and being a Roman Catholic her confession wipes away the unpleasant memory of those tragic events in her life, in a manner of speaking. Jordans love restores her self-respect and her dignity. In her love for Jordan there is a strong element of worship for the saviour because in giving her love to Jordan she is seeking revenge for what she has suffered. She tells Jordan : I want to go to hold the legs of the gun and while it speaks love thee all in the same moment. She being a woman needs a man who can use violence for which she is thirsty. She wants to make her small contribution to the destruction of the Fascists. A Simple-Minded Creature She does not consider herself very religious because to sleep with a man before marriage is a sin in the eyes of the Church and she does so. She regards herself married to Jordan, like Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms, even though the union is not blessed by the Church. In a time like this they dispense with that luxury. If you wish, she said, but since we no longer have the Church I do not think it carries importance. In her innocence and simplicity she is almost a child. Critics have misinterpreted this simplicity and called her a sort of narcotic for the male protagonist. She is an individual in her own right, in her near madness, her passionate love-making, her devotion to Pilar and her rejection of the advances of other guerrillas. She frantically prays for the safety of her lover when he is engaged in blowing up the bridge, in spite of the fact that she had earlier rejected religion : The Republic is one thing and we must win is another thing. But, Oh, Sweet Blessed Virgin, bring him back to me from the bridge and I will do anything thou sayest ever. Because I am not here. There isnt any me. I am only with him. Take care of him for me and that will be me and then I will do the things for thee and he will not mind. Nor will it be against the Republic. Oh, please forgive me for I am very confused. I am too confused now. But if thou takest care of him I will do what ever is right. I will do what he says and what you say. With the two of me I will do it. But this now not knowing I cannot endure. Maria as a Drug Again, some critics have accused Hemingway of introducing a girl like Maria in a serious novel of a political nature and in their opinion it is a flaw in the novel. They feel that she is an easy escape for Jordan out of the complicated situation in-which he finds himself and he refuses to face the implications of his actions. He abstains from thought like all Hemingways heroes, and Maria is at hand to take his mind away from the inner turmoil. Perhaps Marias role is more sophisticated than that. She as a woman is not needed when Jordan is seriously engaged in planning his assault on the bridge on which the future of mankind may eventually depend. He allows himself to become involved with her only as long as there are no more urgent tasks to pursue. She as the victim of the Fascists atrocities becomes a symbol of the cause that Jordan has decided to espouse. A Symbol For Spain On a personal plane she becomes for him not only his beloved but also his sister and his daughterboth of whom he is not destined to have. On the political plane she becomes a symbol of the war-ravaged Spain which Jordan loves : I love thee as I love all that we have fought for. I love thee as I love liberty and dignity and the rights of all men to work and not be hungry. I love thee as l love Madrid that we have defended and as I love all my comraces that have died. Many. Many. Thou canst 14

not think how many. But 1 love thee as I love what I love most in the world and I love thee more. And when she expresses her fears that he having known that she might not bear him any children may not like to marry her he assures her : My pride is in thee. And she carries on this fight against the Fascists beyond their generation I would like to bear thy son and thy daughter ... And how can the world be made better if there are no children of us who fight against the Fascists ? A Concrete Reality That she becomes a symbol of Spain is supported by the fact that her hair is compared to a field of grain on a hill-slope. She is a daughter of the soil that Jordan is fighting for. If Pilar is the mountain, then she is the young tree that grows on the hillside, which after the storm is over will survive the storm. When Jordan dialectics becomes confused, Maria is there to make his thinking more concrete. In his hour of death he is just a devoted husband covering the retreat of his wife. She brings him back to earth and thus reminds him that behind all the polemics and even beyond them there are men for whose future he is fighting. Maria is a symbol of this vast humanity for which Jordan lays down his life, so that they may have a dignified and good life. It is in this context that Marias dream-like appearance gains its proper perspective because Jordans dream for the human race is highly elusive. It is she as a symbol who sanctifies the participation of a large number of intellectuals as Lincoln Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Plot overview For Whom The Bell Tolls opens in May 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil War. An American man named Robert Jordan, who has left the United States to enlist on the Republican side in the war, travels behind enemy lines to work with Spanish guerrilla fighters, or guerrilleros, hiding in the mountains. The Republican command has assigned Robert Jordan the dangerous and difficult task of blowing up a Fascist-controlled bridge as part of a larger Republican offensive. A peasant named Anselmo guides Robert Jordan to the guerrilla camp, which is hidden in a cave. Along the way, they encounter Pablo, the leader of the camp, who greets Robert Jordan with hostility and opposes the bridge operation because he believes it endangers the guerrilleros safety. Robert Jordan suspects that Pablo may betray or sabotage the mission. At the camp, Robert Jordan meets Pilar, Pablos woman. A large, sturdy part-gypsy, Pilar appears to be the real leader of the band of guerrilleros. A rapport quickly develops between Robert Jordan and Pilar. During the course of the evening, Robert Jordan meets the six other inhabitants of the camp: the unreliable Rafael, feisty and foul-mouthed Agustn, dignified Fernando, old Primitivo, and brothers Andrs and Eladio. The camp also shelters a young woman named Maria, whom a band of Fascists raped not long before. Robert Jordan and Maria are immediately drawn to each other. Robert Jordan and Anselmo leave the camp to scout out the bridge. When they return, Pablo publicly announces that neither he nor his guerrilleros will help blow up the bridge. Pilar and the others disagree, however, so Pablo sullenly gives in. Privately, Rafael urges Robert Jordan to kill Pablo, but Pilar insists that Pablo is not dangerous. That night, Maria comes out to join Robert Jordan as he sleeps outside. They profess love for each other and make love. 15

The next morning, Pilar leads Robert Jordan through the forest to consult with El Sordo, the leader of another band of guerrilleros, about the bridge operation. They take Maria along. El Sordo agrees to help with the mission, but both he and Robert Jordan are troubled by the fact that the bridge must be blown in daylight, which will make their retreat more difficult. On the way back to Pablos camp, Robert Jordan and Maria make love in the forest. When they catch up with Pilar, Maria confesses to Pilar that the earth moved as they made love. Pilar, impressed, says that such a thing happens no more than three times in a persons lifetime. Back at the camp, a drunken Pablo insults Robert Jordan, who tries to provoke Pablo, hoping to find an excuse to kill him. Pablo refuses to be provoked, even when Agustn hits him in the face. When Pablo steps away for a few minutes, the others agree that he is dangerous and must be killed. Robert Jordan volunteers to do it. Suddenly, Pablo returns and announces that he has changed his mind and will help with the bridge. Later that night, Maria comes outside to sleep with Robert Jordan again. They talk about their feeling that they are one person, that they share the same body. In the morning, Robert Jordan wakes up, sees a Fascist cavalryman, and shoots him, awakening the camp. After breakfast, the group hears sounds of a fight in the distance, and Robert Jordan believes that the Fascists are attacking El Sordos camp. Agustn and Primitivo want to aid El Sordo, but Robert Jordan and Pilar know that it likely would be useless. The scene shifts to El Sordos hill, which a group of Fascists is assaulting. El Sordos men play dead and manage to shoot the Fascist captain, but several minutes later, Fascist planes bomb the hilltop and kill everyone in El Sordos band. The ranking Fascist officer orders the beheading of all the corpses of El Sordos men. The guerrilleros at Pablos camp, having heard the planes bomb El Sordos hill, feel glum as they eat lunch. Robert Jordan writes a dispatch to the Republican command recommending that both the bridge operation and the larger offensive be canceled, for the Fascists are aware of the plan and the operation will not succeed. He sends Andrs to deliver the dispatch to the headquarters of General Golz, a Republican leader. Maria again joins Robert Jordan in his sleeping bag that night, and they fantasize about their future life in Madrid. Meanwhile, in Madrid, Robert Jordans friend, a Russian journalist named Karkov, learns that the Fascists know about the offensive the Republicans have planned for the next day. Karkov worries about Robert Jordan. At two in the morning, Pilar wakes Robert Jordan and reports that Pablo has fled the camp with some of the explosives that were meant to blow the bridge. Though furious at first, Robert Jordan controls his anger and plans to carry out the operation anyway, with fewer explosives. He wakes up Maria, and as they make love, they feel the earth move again. Pablo suddenly returns just before dawn, claiming that he left in a moment of weakness. He says that he threw the explosives into the river but felt great loneliness after doing so. He has brought back five men with their horses from neighboring guerrilla bands to help. The fighters take their positions.

16

The scene shifts to Andrs, who has been traveling through the night to deliver Robert Jordans dispatch to General Golz. Crossing into Republican territory, Andrs is slowed when several suspicious but apathetic officers question him. When Andrs and his escort finally near Golzs headquarters, a politician named Andr Marty suspects that they are Fascist spies and orders them arrested. Robert Jordans friend Karkov hears about the arrests and uses his influence to free the men. Robert Jordans dispatch finally reaches Golz but arrives too late. The Republican offensive already has begun and can no longer be stopped. As dawn breaks, Robert Jordan and Anselmo descend on the bridge, shoot the Fascist sentries, and plant the explosives. Pilar arrives and says that Eladio has been killed, while Fernando, fatally wounded, must be left behind. When Robert Jordan detonates the explosives, the bridge falls, but shrapnel from the blast strikes Anselmo and kills him. Pablo emerges from below, saying that all five of his men are dead. Agustn accuses Pablo of shooting the men for their horses, and Pablo does not deny it. As the group crosses the road in retreat, a Fascist bullet hits Robert Jordans horse, which tramples on Robert Jordans left leg, breaking it. Knowing that he must be left behind, Robert Jordan says goodbye to Maria, saying that he will be with her even if she goes. Pilar and Pablo lead Maria away. Alone, Robert Jordan contemplates suicide but resolves to stay alive to hold off the Fascists. He is grateful for having lived, in his final few days, a full lifetime. For the first time, he feels integrated, in harmony with the world. As the Fascist lieutenant approaches, Robert Jordan takes aim, feeling his heart beating against the floor of the forest. Quotations 1. For him it was a dark passage which led to nowhere, then to nowhere, then again to nowhere, once again to nowhere, always and forever to nowhere . . . 2. . . . [Y]ou felt that you were taking part in a crusade. . . . [It] would be as difficult and embarrassing to speak about as a religious experience and yet it was authentic. . . . It gave you a part in something that you could believe in wholly and completely and in which you felt an absolute brotherhood with the others who were engaged in it. Explanation for Quotation 2 >> This passage, from Chapter Eighteen, is an interior monologue in which Robert Jordan describes his earlier idealism about the war, which the realities of warfare have long since crushed. The passage gives us a glimpse of what may have caused Robert Jordan to leave his life and job in the states to volunteer to fight in a foreign war: he sought something to believe in wholly and completely and also sought communion, an absolute brotherhood with other people. But his disillusionment with the bureaucracy and inefficiency and party strife he sees in the Republican cause and its leaders foreshadows his current opinion that the leaders have betrayed their people. The religious vocabulary Hemingway uses, such as crusade, communion, consecration, emphasizes the depth of Robert Jordans feelings and suggests that, for many people, the Republican cause became a substitute religion. But Robert Jordans use of religious language is accompanied by a touch of irony, since he immediately distances himself from using religious metaphors, which he characterizes 17

as embarrassing. This constant qualification of exactly what he means is typical of Robert Jordans monologues. Although Robert Jordan is jaded and cynical at the start of the novel, he comes to realize both his goalshis desire for something to believe in wholly and his desire for communionby the end of the novel. Through his relationship with Maria, Robert Jordan finds love in which he can believe fully, love that he can integrate into his life. He also feels as if he has found familyan absolute brotherhoodwith the guerrilleros: I have been all my life in these hills. . . . Anselmo is my oldest friend. . . . Agustn . . . is my brother. . . . Maria is my true love and my wife. . . . She is also my sister . . . and my daughter. 3 3. We do it coldly but they do not, nor ever have. It is their extra sacrament. . . . They are the people of the Auto de F; the act of faith. Killing is something one must do, but ours are different from theirs. Explanation for Quotation 3 >> After the guerrilleros hide from four passing Fascist cavalrymen in Chapter Twentythree, Agustn reveals that the anxiety he experienced was caused not only by fear, but also by a thirst for the kill. In this passage, which comes directly afterward, Robert Jordan reflects on the particular nature of Spaniards. He believes that, as a race, they have an innate, pre-Christian, visceral desire to kill that has surfaced periodically throughout history. He references the Spanish Inquisition, the state-sponsored brutal persecution of Jews and other non-Catholics that was practiced in Spain from the Renaissance through the beginning of the nineteenth century. Robert Jordan ends by forcing himself to face up to the fact that he, too, has felt the urge and excitement of killing. In several instances throughout the novel, most notably in the language that he uses to describe Andrss memories of bull-baiting in his hometown in Chapter Thirtyfour, Hemingway draws parallels between the drive to kill and the desire for sex. Through this parallel, Hemingway establishes yet another connection between death and sex, a major motif in the novel. 4 4. Pasionaria says Better to die on thy Joaqun was saying to himself as the drone came nearer them. Then he shifted suddenly into Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. . . . Explanation for Quotation 4 >> This excerpt comes from Chapter Twenty-seven, El Sordos last stand on his hill. The quotation, spoken by El Sordos young companion Joaqun, starkly illustrates the inadequacies of the Republican government and its leadership in the war. The Republican government outlawed religion when it came to power six years earlier, and the teenage Joaqun came of age under its propaganda. He clings to Republican rhetoric throughout the attack on the hill, despite the laughter of his older and more cynical comrades. The Republicans empty words prove to be cold comfort as Joaqun faces death. Hemingway views this empty rhetoric as a betrayal of the true needs of the Spanish peasants, who had grown up with religion and see it as a comfort. Indeed, as Joaqun faces death, he remembers his Catholic childhoodhis beliefs before the Republicans outlawed religionand prays to the Virgin Mary. Likewise, Anselmo turns to prayer as he beholds the beheaded Joaqun and his comrades not long after. Ultimately, although most of the protagonists of Hemingways novels, including Robert 18

Jordan, do not believe in God, Hemingway does not criticize the need to rely on religion for support. Close 5 5. He was completely integrated now and he took a good long look at everything. Then he looked up at the sky. There were big white clouds in it. He touched the palm of his hand against the pine needles where he lay and he touched the bark of the pine trunk that he lay behind. Explanation for Quotation 5 >> This passage from the last chapter of the novel describes Robert Jordan at the moment when, wounded and alone, he realizes that he will be able to stay alive long enough to ambush the approaching Fascist cavalry, thereby buying the guerrilleros some time to escape. The passage, especially its first phrase, provides a climactic resolution of one of the novels themesRobert Jordans continual struggle with himself to figure out his motives and his purpose. For the first time, he feels completely integrated with his world. Having rejected Communism sometime before the start of the novel, Robert Jordan now embraces not some abstract idea of a brotherhood of men but the concrete human relationships he has forged with a specific group of guerrilleros. After long proclaiming that he does not believe in Pilars signs and omens, he now accepts the possibility that [the gypsies] see something. Or they feel something. Having spent much of the novel arguing with himself about abstractions, Robert Jordan is now at peace simply to appreciate and say goodbye to his physical surroundings with his concrete, physical senses. The style of this passage is classic Hemingway. The phrase structures are the simplest possiblethere are no commas. The sentence structures only complexity, the tendency toward run-ons, gives the sentences a concrete, physical shape, like a flowing river. Also typical of Hemingway, the simplicity of the grammar hides the depth of feeling just below the surface: Robert Jordan touches the elements of his physical world, one by one, including the ever-present pines, in a gesture of final farewell. He knows he is about to die. Hemingways language, with its deep feeling simmering below unadorned stoicism, is an echo of his hero. 1. What does the novels title mean? For whom does the bell toll? What bell? Answer for Study Question 1 >> The phrase for whom the bell tolls comes from a short essay by the seventeenthcentury British poet and religious writer John Donne. Hemingway excerpts a portion of the essay in the epigraph to his novel. In Donnes essay, For whom does the bell toll? is the imaginary question of a man who hears a funeral bell and asks about the person who has died. Donnes answer to this question is that, because none of us stands alone in the world, each human death affects all of us. Every funeral bell, therefore, tolls for thee. Thematically, the title For Whom the Bell Tolls emphasizes the importance of community and fellow-feelingthe values that initially incited Robert Jordan to leave his home country to fight a foreign war. Over time, however, Robert Jordan has seen 19

these values become complicated by war-won cynicism and a lack of moral clarity in the corrupt and inept Republican leaders. Yet by the end of the novel, Robert Jordan learns to embrace these same values again, through the deep connections he establishes with the guerrilla fighters during his short time with them. Robert Jordan undertakes his very last living effortto hold off the approaching Fascist cavalrymen not because he subscribes to a particular ideology but because he wishes to aid the escape of a group of people whom he has grown to love. More literally, the novels title helps focus our interpretations of the scenes of brutality and killing that Hemingway portrays. The cruelty of the executions in Pablos village left a moral scar on all those who witnessed or participatedPilar, Pablo, and his mob. Likewise, Lieutenant Berrendo feels the effects not only of his friends death but of the slaughter of El Sordos men as well. Even Robert Jordan, who kills out of duty because he must, is unable to emerge unscathed. Hemingway neither judges the murderer not justifies the murder. Rather, the moral scars these murders leave are simply the necessary toll of a difficult war. Politically, the title reflects Hemingways stance, which, like Robert Jordans, is antiFascist as opposed to pro-Communist. Like many western intellectuals at the time, Hemingway saw the Spanish Civil War as a symbolic struggle between authoritarianism and a more humanist and liberal alternative. In this light, the title underscores Hemingways and his characters sympathies in the war. 2 2. The earth moves four times during the course of the noveltwice at moments of destruction and twice during Robert Jordan and Marias lovemaking. What connects these different moments? What does the connection say about human nature according to Hemingway? Answer for Study Question 2 >> Characters mention that the earth moves four times in For Whom the Bell Tollstwice in moments connected with sex and twice in moments connected with violence and death. In addition to the two times the earth moves when Robert Jordan and Maria make love, Rafael recalls the moment during the train operation with Kashkin when the train exploded and all of the earth seemed to rise in a great cloud of blackness. Likewise, when El Sordos hill is bombed, Joaqun feels the earth roll under his knees and then wave up to hit him in the face, then roll under him with a roar, and finally lurch under his belly. The similar imagery used in these four instances establishes a strong connection between sex and death. This connection between sex and death runs both ways. On the one hand, orgasm is a moment of sensory obliteration akin to dying. Maria gives voice to this experience when she tells Robert Jordan that she die[s] each time they make love. The word nowhere, which Hemingway uses repeatedly in describing Robert Jordan and Marias sexual encounter after visiting El Sordo, recalls the nothingness against which the Hemingway code hero struggles. Hemingway further supports the connection between death and sex through several other metaphors. After seething over Pablos betrayal, Robert Jordan feels his red, black, blinding, killing anger die, leaving him as quiet . . . sharp, [and] cold-seeing as a man is after he has had sexual intercourse with a woman that he does not love. 20

In the opposite direction, several characters express the idea that the excitement of killing is akin to sexual pleasure. Rafael, Agustn, and Robert Jordan all admit to feeling excitement or thirst for the kill. After the mass executions of the Fascists that Pablo stages in his hometown, he tells Pilar that he does not want to have sexthe excitement of the kill has used up his sexual charge. The most vivid description of the connection between bloodlust and sexual lust comes in Andrss memories of his bullbaiting days in Chapter Thirty-four. Andrs explicitly makes a connection between the euphoria of bull-baiting and the sensation aroused by killing people, and the language he uses to describe his struggle with the bull has undeniable sexual connotations. Together, these parallels Hemingway draws between death and sex form a strong statement about human nature. But in recounting Andrss and Robert Jordans experiences, Hemingway offers a partial solution. Unlike Pablo, those who have had the opportunity to experience the thirst for blood in a controlled setting (like Andrs) can admit to these impulses and control them. Likewise, those who engage in enough introspection about their past violent deeds (like Robert Jordan) can notice the pattern and control their urges as well. The courage of the Hemingway code hero lies not in never experiencing fear, but in acting bravely despite the fear. Likewise, Hemingway implies that the full human being does not deny his bloodthirstiness but recognizes it and learns to live with honor and self-awareness. 3. Robert Jordan, a foreigner in Spain, fights for a cause that he claims not to believe in. What does he believe in? What is he fighting for? Answer for Study Question 3 >> Robert Jordan went to Spain voluntarily to fight because of his love of the Spanish land and its culture. He believed in pragmatism, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which he thought would be impossible under a Fascist regime. Accordingly, he decided to fight against the Fascists, which meant he joins the Republican side. Initially, he experienced something like a religious faith in the Republican cause and felt an absolute brotherhood with his comrades-in-arms. As the war drags on, however, Robert Jordan realizes that he does not necessarily believe in or espouse the values of the Republicanshe realizes that he joined their side simply because they were the ones fighting against the Fascists. Because he fights for a side whose causes he does not necessarily support, Robert Jordan experiences a great deal of internal conflict. Disillusioned with the Republican cause and its leaders, he wonders what difference there is between the Fascist and Republican sidesif there is any difference at all. The other major factor motivating Robert Jordan to fight is that his grandfather, whom he admires very much, fought in the American Civil War. Robert Jordan is embarrassed by his weak father, who committed suicide. In this light, fighting in a war provides a way for Robert Jordan to link himself to his grandfather. Like a number of other characters in the novelsuch as Maria, who must work to overcome the traumatic memories of her rapeRobert Jordan must work actively to overcome the burden of his past. Only by enlisting in a war does he believe he can exorcise his embarrassment about his fathers cowardice and match the bravery of his grandfather. Close you can answer these 1. One of the most frequent criticisms of for whom the bell tolls is that Hemingway portrays Maria as too submissive and eager to please to be a believable character. Do you agree with this critique? What is the role of women in the novel? 21

2. The novel ends with Robert Jordan near death but still alive, feeling his heart beating against the pine needle floor of the forest. What is the effect of this ending? How would the novel be different if it ended after his death? Which ending do you prefer? 3. Some have criticized Hemingway for romanticizing the Spanish peasantry, especially in passages such as They are wonderful when they are good, he thought. There are no people like them when they are good, and when they go bad there is no people that is worse. Find at least one other passage that takes a similar tone. Do you agree with this criticism of Hemingway? If so, does his romantic portrayal of the peasants detract from the novel? If not, why not? 4. Robert Jordan projects a jaded, seen-it-all attitude throughout much of the novel, yet he also believes that one thing done well . . . may make all the difference. Is Robert Jordan a cynic or an idealist? Does his view of the world change during the course of the novel? How does his attitude differ from the narrators? 5. Many characters in for whom the bell tolls remember or tell stories about their pasts. Pilar remembers her life with the toreador Finito and tells a long story about the brutal beginning of the war in Pablos home town. Robert Jordan remembers his father and grandfather and meeting his friend Karkov in Madrid. Maria talks about the day the Fascists killed her parents and cut off her hair. Andrs remembers baiting bulls in his village. In a novel in which the action happens over a scant three days, what is the role of the past? How does it affect the present? www.azharmaqsud.webs.com aliliterature.wapath.com azka.com 03346566365- 03336349221- 03007272463 work for

"Divine Meditation 14" by John Donne Or "Holy Sonnet 14" It is a very physical poem; I read it as about the poet's body more than about the poet's mind/heart/soul. The imagery of the poem can be fit into three distinct parts. Lines 1-4: "Batter my heart, three-personed God; for, you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, seek to mend; That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new." Here is the violent imagery: the poet is asking God to forcibly enter him. It is in these four stanzas that we get so many strong action verbs: batter, knock, breathe, shine, seek, rise, 22

stand, o'erthrow, bend, break, blow, burn, make. Direct, powerful language. Even choppy to connote the power and violence ("break, blow, burn"). Lines 5-8 "I, like an usurped town, to another due, Labour to admit you, but oh, to no end, Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captivated, and proves weak or untrue," Here is the weakest part of the poem, right in the heart: the metaphor of the poet as a besieged city working to let God in. It fits thematically (and the image is consistent with the first part), but it is not as strong as the first and last parts of the poem. Lines 9-14 "Yet dearly'I love you, and would be loved fain, But am betrothed unto your enemy, Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again, Take me to you, imprison me, for I Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me." The imagery shifts to marriage and sex. The poet is married to the devil, and wishes for God to "divorce" him from the devil in order to take him for himself. We end with paradox: to be free from sin, God must forcibly enter the poet (a metaphor for grace: humans are helpless without it), and to be chaste, God must "ravish" him. Metaphysical poets seemed untroubled using sexual imagery when describing their relationship with God. Why is "imprison" me in the love/marriage metaphor rather than the broader violence metaphor or the seige metaphor? Perhaps it simply brings unity to the sections of the poem. We might also look at Donne's "Confined Love," where the poet suggests laws of marriage were caused by patriarchy and confine true love (real love needs to spread itself around). To be married to the devil, then, is to be imprisoned; if God marries (or "imprisons") the poet, he is paradoxically made free. Donne is a masterful poet for his ability to use physical language to describe what is a spiritual experience. It is not abstract--Donne makes this a poem about "action." The imagery isn't based on nouns, but on verbs; reading this poem, we know something is happening.

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