Movies - For Whom the Bell Tolls

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	Movies - For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a 1940 novel by Ernest Hemingway. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a guerrilla warrior from the United States, during the Spanish Civil War. As an expert in the use of explosives, he is given an assignment to blow up a bridge to accompany a simultaneous attack on the city of Segovia. Behind enemy lines, with the guerrilla band of Pablo, he meets María, whose life has been shattered by the outbreak of the war. It is here that the story develops, as Pablo's unwillingness to commit to the operation clashes with Jordan's strong sense of duty, and even Jordan's sense of duty clashes with his newfound love for life caused by the presence of María. A substantial portion of the novel is told through the thoughts of Robert Jordan, with flashbacks to meetings with Russians in Madrid and some reflections on his father and grandfather. Another character, Pilar, relates events that demonstrate the incredible brutality of civil war, in one case by the actions of a revolutionary mob and in another by those of governmental authorities.

The title

The title is taken from "Meditation XVII" of Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions by John Donne: "No man is an Island, intire of it self;... any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

World events context

The novel also clearly presents an ideological theme, of left versus right, Republican vs. Fascist, with declarations (in Roberto's thoughts) that the Republicans can win, if only the world will support them. The novel also makes very clear the intervention by the USSR (here called simply Russians) in support of the Republican cause and makes mention of Italy's support of the Fascists.

On the Novel

Influence of Hemingway's experiences

Some experiences from the time of World War One have been worked into For Whom the Bell Tolls. According to Anthony Burgess, the farewell at the station on page 434 is the equivalent of Hemingway's departure to the Italian front. An interesting aspect is that Jordan went to school instead, maybe the war represents for Hemingway, as well as for his character Robert Jordan, a part of his education. The last thoughts of Jordan could refer to Ernest's wounding in Fossalta where it seemed to him "more natural to die than to go on living"(Burgess (9.), p. 22). The gray-haired soldier who already appeared (From Boy to Man) might have been the prototype of Anselmo, while Golz's look is that of real life Polish General "Walter", commander of the XIVth International.

Influence of previous novels

To his other fiction, there are parallels, too. María's appearance and her behavior are almost identical to Catherine Barkley's. When Robert first embraces her, she erupts in tears, later she stated she did not care much about herself but wished to do everything for him, and that she was his wife. Like Catherine, she is very preoccupied with death, and even excels her here. It seems as though Hemingway tried to summon the spirit of A Farewell to Arms
once again, but María never was a character as complex as Catherine. In fact, she rarely said or did anything, and at the beginning of the last quarter of the novel Robert even remarked, "I know thee very little from talking"(For Whom (5.), p. 365). She appears to be an imitation of Ms. Barkley, but only the facade is identical, in María's case, there is nothing behind, except for the story about her parents, but anyone could have told that. Pilar will be discussed in greater detail below (Pablo).

Narration

The story is told by a third-person selective-omniscient narrator, direct conversations between the characters, and by extensive back-and-forth mental conversations within the mind of Robert Jordan. This work contains far more inner monologue and remembrances of the various characters than A Farewell to Arms. This, on the one hand, is a necessity, since the book deals with just four days, and on the other hand supports the author's intention to illustrate the diversity and complexity of Spain. By using medieval English (in the form of "thee" and "thou"), he retains the levels of formality used by the characters when speaking in Spanish (the familiar "tu" and "vosotros" pronouns versus the formal "Usted" and "Ustedes").

In the last part of the novel, the plot is split into two parallel actions, the preparations for the attack and the course of Andrés, a guerillero who must take a message across the lines to a Republican general. This is no unusual technique of storytelling, but with Hemingway, who sharply focused on his protagonist in A Farewell to Arms, it is a departure. Some have said that it was a signal of him giving in to the demands of Hollywood directors who wanted books that can be easily used as scripts, while others consider it a signal of him disassociating himself from the protagonist, maybe because of superstition (it brings bad luck to write about one's own end), but more likely because of his inner struggle that will be explained later (Pablo). At the time the novel was published, it seemed as though he separated the narrator from the protagonist to become what he had always wanted to be: A big, omniscient and ubiquitous daddy who tells all the stories and who has got everything under control. The reader often gets the impression that the characters are the narrator's children, especially when he evaluates them ("Anselmo was a very good man"(For Whom (5.), p. 212), "This was the greatest gift that he had, the talent that fitted him for war"(For Whom (5.), p. 421),etc.).

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