paper no - 108

Name: Dhruvita Dhameliya

Roll no : 03

Semester : 2

Year: 2021 to 2023

Subject: The American literature

Topic : For Whom the bell tolls

E-mail ID:

dhameliyadhruvita24@gmail.com

Submitted to: S. B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Introduction of the writer:-

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style - which he termed the iceberg theory - had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and public image brought him admiration from later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two nonfiction works. Three of his novels, four short-story collections, and three nonfiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature. Hemingway served in World War I and worked in journalism before publishing his story collection In Our Time. He was renowned for novels like, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea

 which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. In 1954, He committed suicide on July 2, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho.

Introduction of the Novel:-

The novel is set near Segovia, and tells the story of American teacher Robert Jordan, who has joined the antifascist Loyalist army. Jordan has been sent to make contact with a guerrilla band and blow up a bridge to advance a Loyalist offensive. The action takes place during Jordan’s 72 hours at the guerrilla camp. During this period he falls in love with Maria, who has been raped by fascist soldiers, and befriends the shrewd but cowardly guerrilla leader Pablo and his courageous wife, Pilar. Jordan manages to destroy the bridge; Pablo, Pilar, Maria, and two other guerrillas escape, but Jordan is injured. Proclaiming his love to Maria once more, he awaits the fascist troops and certain death.

Title of the novel:-

The phrase “for whom the bell tolls” comes from a short essay by the seventeenth-century British poet and religious writer John Donne. Hemingway excerpts a portion of the essay in the epigraph to his novel. In Donne’s 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. Donne’s 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.”

Characters of the novel:-

Robert Jordan:-

An American volunteer for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and the protagonist of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Robert Jordan is pragmatic, very good at what he does, and never lets his emotions interfere with his work. He appreciates physical pleasures like smelling pine trees, drinking absinthe, and having sex. At the same time, he is conflicted about his role within the war and within the larger world. Interior dialogues in which he argues with himself about these conflicts constitute a significant part of the novel. Over the course of the novel, he gradually resolves these tensions and learns to integrate his rational, thinking side with his intuitive, feeling side.

Pablo:-

The leader of the guerrilla camp. Pablo is an individualist who feels responsible only to himself. Hemingway often compares him to a bull, a boar, and other burly, stubborn, and unpleasant animals. Pablo used to be a great fighter and a great man but has now started drinking and has “gone bad,” as many characters remark. Tired of the war and attached to his horses, Pablo is ready to betray the Republican cause at the start of the novel. Hemingway uses a variety of unflattering imagery to highlight Pablo’s uncooperative and confrontational nature, often comparing Pablo to a bull, a boar, and other stubborn and unpleasant animals.

Pilar:-

 

Pilar is Arguably the most colorful and likable character in For Whom the Bell Tolls, she embodies the earthiness, strength, and wisdom of the Spanish peasantry. A large, robust, part-gypsy woman, Pilar exercises great influence over the band of guerrilleros - in fact, we quickly become aware that Pablo leads the band in name only. The strong and stable Pilar provides the motivating force behind many of the novel’s events. She supports and appreciates Robert Jordan and Maria’s romance, commands the allegiance of the guerrilla fighters, and organizes the guerrilleros’ brief alliance with El Sordo. She acts as the support structure for the camp as she unites the band of guerrilla fighters into a family, cooks for all, and sews Robert Jordan’s packs. In short, Pilar manipulates the most important characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls and sets in place many of the encounters that drive the plot.

Maria:-

The young, gentle Maria catches Robert Jordan’s eye from the moment he meets her. She exudes a natural, glowing beauty, despite the fact that she has recently suffered a traumatic rape and has had most of her hair shorn off. Though she is vulnerable and lays her emotions bare, she exhibits an inner strength, determination, and resilience that enable her to bear her difficult circumstances. Some critics contend that Hemingway intends Maria to represent the land of Spain itself, ravaged by the warring forces beyond her comprehension, yet always enduring, beautiful, and loving. Indeed, Hemingway frequently uses earth imagery to describe Maria, comparing her hair to the “golden brown of a grain field” and her breasts to “small hills.” In this light, Robert Jordan’s closeness with Maria mirrors his closeness with Spain, his adopted country.

These all are major characters of the novel, there are many other characters who helped the team in the blow up the bridge. Like, Anselmo, El Sordo, Rapael, General Gloz or many others.

In the novel we can see themes like, 

1)The Loss of Innocence in War

2)The Value of Human Life

3)Romantic Love as Salvation

1)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: Joaquin loses both his parents and is forced to grow up quickly, while Maria loses her physical innocence when 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 innocence - the perpetrators lose their innocence too. The ruffians in Pablo’s ho-metown who participate in the massacre of the town Fascists have to face their inner brutality afterward. An-selmo 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 aren’t 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. Through the efforts to achieve a kind of balance of nature and man, man and woman, universal harmony between people, Hemingway told us that this kind of harmony is the most difficult thing to struggle to feel consciousness, know ourselves and the nature of the relationships.

2)Value of human life:-

In the novel we can see that how every character has different values of human life, our protagonist Robert Jordan who believes in fighting for the Spanish cause and the other loyalists 

who were engaged in resisting fascist aggression against the democratic setup. Whereas the novelist was out and out enemy of the fascist regime and their policies because of their dictatorial mindset, he was also critical of the loyalists mindless killing of fascists for their barbaric atrocity; the antifascist hero was facing deep conflict about whether they should exterminate the fascist for their atrocities or avoid killing the human beings. They wanted to save humanity from the hands of fascists but at the same time were hesitant of committing the same acts of savagery for which they hated the fascists. They believed, "All mankind is one volume; any man's 

death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." Hemingway was 

definitely divided in his views and political stance. However, Hemingway's political stance depicted in the novel was the consequence of his deep concern for his humanity. On the one hand, he denounced the untold atrocities committed by fascists and saw the necessity of killing the fascists in order to win the war; on the other hand, being sensitive and democratic-republican, he considered 

murdering a person sin against whole humanity, therefore, he stood divided about exterminating fascist. The close reading of the novel reveals that Hemingway did not favor the loyalist and criticized both sides for their lack of humanitarian as well as democratic vision. His vision of war and warring 

factions is that neither of them was absolutely good or absolutely evil; that is why he did not consider either of them fully justified in their actions. He was, first and foremost, a humanist and a democrat, and this is the reason why he raised his voice against any form of aggression and violence against democracy and humanity anywhere in the world.

3)Romantic Love as Salvation:-

In the novel there are two couples but both have a paradoxical relationship, Pilar and Pablo both are husband- wife but we never saw them together even when Pablo cheats on Jordan . At that time Pilar got ready to kill Pablo so both the characters didn't have love. On the other hand, Jordan and Maria fall in love at first sight and both are dreaming of a future together at Marinda. But both are separated at the end of the novel as Robert Jordan is injured during a fight.

"IF YOU DON'T LOVE ME, SHE TELLS HIM!!, I WILL LOVE YOU ENOUGH TO BOTH OF US". Maria to Jordan

Conclusion:-

This novel, which we can see is not only a fictional novel, but also a different understanding about Spanish culture and the effect of war on individuals. The character he portrays in the novel owns their unique features, especially Pilar. Hemingway’s depiction about the imagery also makes a deep impression on the reader which is full of symbolic meaning. This work is worthy to be read thoroughly. 

Word count:-1858

Reference:-

“For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/For-Whom-the-Bell-Tolls-novel-by-Hemingway.

SparkNote Editor. “SparkNote.” Sparknotes, SparkNotes, 2005, https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/belltolls/themes/.

Wow Essay. “Research Papers about Ernest Hemingway's for Whom the Bell Tolls: Wow Essays.” WOWEssays.com, 31 Mar. 2021, https://www.wowessays.com/free-samples/ernest-hemingways-for-whom-the-bell-tolls-research-papers-example/.

Zuo, Yue. “(PDF) Analysis of the Themes and Artistic Features of for Whom the Bell Tolls.” ResearchGate, Scientific Research Publishing, 1 Jan. 2015, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276499774_Analysis_of_the_Themes_and_Artistic_Features_of_For_Whom_the_Bell_Tolls.