International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9, October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848
Autobiographical Elements in Ernest Hemingway’s
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Dinesh Kumar Asstt. Prof. of English, Dyal Singh College, Karnal [email protected]
the learning process is completed in Hemingway’s life was a rich reservoir The Old Man and the Sea where in the from which he drew many characters personality of Santiago both the heroes and heroes for his works. His typical are merged. hero shares one of many of Hemingway’s ideals. He leads a life of Dr. Bhim Singh Dahiya, in a action, has courage and dignity, is very exhaustive study of the nature of wounded, and shows strong points in Hemingway’s heroes, sums up the the hours of distress or tension. existing criticism on it and points out According to Philip Young, who where he differs from it. For him, propounded the theory of two heroes- heroes not agree to the widely accepted “The Hemingway hero”, and “the code- theory of the code-hero, teaching the hero”, the “code-hero”, adds Young, Hemingway hero, for the latter not only alludes to the Hemingway hero who learns from his own experience but lives by the code of manhood, courage, has also the ability to make serious fearlessness, stoicism and “grace commitments in the life which the under pressure”. Philip Young defines former has not. Dr. Dahiya insists the code-hero as “made of the controls that the heroism “is not a matter of of honor and courage which in a life of physical courage nor of personal tension and pain make a man and success in the dangerous situations; it distinguish him from the people who is characterized by his larger concern follow random impulses, let down their for the fate of human society, by his hair, and are generally messy, perhaps complex awareness of life, and by his cowardly, and without inviolable rules mental courage that shows itself in for how to live holding tight”. 1 withstanding stresses and strains of his complex awareness” 2. The code hero has mastery over Hemingway’s hero is an embodiment of his emotions and the Hemingway hero Hemingway’s ideals of manhood and tries to acquire as he progresses. courage, fearlessness, honour and Thus, when the Hemingway hero stoicism, popularly known as the grows through the various works of the Hemingway “code” which tests him in author, he acquires this “code”, and
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International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9, October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 the hours of tension and pressure. All himself, Robert Jordan is also a man these qualities are possessed by of action rather than a man of Hemingway’s hero Robert Jordan, the thought. His high Impractical ideas central figure of For Whom the Bell and a false sense of honour and Tolls. He is the perfect representative dignity, like Hemingway, do not appeal of Hemingway’s philosophy. Like to him. Like Hemingway, he does not Frederic Henry’s commitment to deceive; he “is honest when he acts Catherine and to humanity, and honestly. 4 Perhaps, Hemingway’s Hudson’s to his art of painting, his is philosophy of action has best been with the plight of the loyalists in the presented in For Whom the Bell Tolls , Spanish Civil War. which has been taken from the science of bull-fighting in which, “there is Just as Hemingway in his real certainly much cruelty, there is always life, as a volunteer, joined war, Robert danger, either sought or unlooked for, Jordan as a volunteer, joined the and there is always death. 5” International Brigade to fight against the Fascists, and was assigned the Just as Hemingwaygjru was a duty of blowing up a strategic bridge to firm believer in action rather than in facilitate the Loyalist offensives. His plans, same is the case with Robert assignment in Spain is like that of Jordan who is an artist and having Frederic Henry except that Jordan plans to write, but decides to become a does not bid farewell to arms even bridge-blower and not a thinker. He when he is on the verge of losing the goes on asking himself to stop thinking battle. Since, Hemingway is showing a as he does not want it to interfere with progressive hero, Jordan comes his work. “Turn off thinking,” he somewhere between his early and later reminds himself, “you are a bridge- heroes: “the young man crushed and blower now 6”. A strong believer in the defeated by a world he did not make performance of his duty, he is and cannot understand and the older prepared to sacrifice his life for the battered survival whom many crushing cause. Like other Hemingway’s cannot defeat”. 3 Hemingway himself heroes, he enjoys a good life, like wine was a relentless fighter in his real life. and sex, eating and drinking, but he is not an epicurean, a coward or an Besides, Jordan may be linked escapist. His life of pleasure, including with earlier heroes, too. Like Nick his love-affair with Maria is not Adams, he recalls his fathers’ suicide, allowed to interfere with his work of as also the lynching of a Negro in Ohio, blowing the bridge. Not agreeing with and like Jake Barnes, he has some this view, Alvah Bessive feels that the knowledge of bull-fighting. Being more struggle of the Spanish people for mature than Frederic Henry in similar “survival and decency was situations, he shows the greater and subordinated to an endless episode in more complex awareness of life. He a sleeping bag” 7. It is an important has become strong at places where others were broken. Like Hemingway
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International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9, October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 part of Hemingway’s autobiographical The two passages can be made mode. to look antithetical to each other. Actually, both assertions are The difference between Frederic essentially the same. and Jordan, who is the most perfect representative of Hemingway himself, In any case, his love for Maria is not, as the critics have argued, does not come as an obstacle in the between the one, who is self centered way of his work as it was also in case and nihilistic, and the other, who is of Hemingway. Having her with him committed to certain abstract values. only in his idle time, Jordan carefully What the critics generally contrast for balances between his duties and his proving the supposed opposition recreation which is also a popular between Henry and Jordan are the notion of Hemingway’s philosophy. following utterances of the two And by doing so, he shows his protagonists: Frederic Henry’s: maturity and responsibility. Frederic Henry shows his capacity for pleasure I was always embarrassed by while acting under pressure and the words sacred stress, but it does not mean as utter Glorious, and sacrifice and the disregard to duty. His love for expression in Catherine does not come in the way of Vain…I had seen nothing his larger concerns for humanity. sacred, and the things The role of Renata in Across the That were glorious had no glory River and into the Trees is also and the sacrifices symbolic in the fact that she represents life in the midst of death. Were like the stockyard at Holding her in his arms, Cantwell feels Chicago if nothing was as if he were embracing the very life Done with the meat except to itself, while with her, he forgets all the bury it. 8 bitter memories of war or other unpleasant emotions. And Robert Jordan’s Thomas Hudson, though You are not a real Marxist and devoted to art, loved many women, you know it welcomed them for a while, and “liked You believe in Liberty, Equality having them there, sometimes for quite and Fraternity. a long time. But in the end, he was ….you have put many things in always glad. When they had gone, abeyance to even when he was very fond of them” 9. Thus, the greatest pleasure for the win a war. If this war is lost all hero comes from the performance of of those things his duty and his involvement in are lost. mankind. His enjoyment of life can only strengthen the faith in life and contribute to a larger cause of
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International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9, October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 humanity. There is an inexplicable Like Hemingway, Robert sense of pleasure that Jordan feels in Jordan, too, respects the ritual of his doing his duty. Here also, he shares action. He refuses to kill Pablo some ground with Hemingway who without provoking him to fight, for that was also of the same notion. would mean assassinating him in cold blood. It is against his morality to kill But, it does not mean, however, an unarmed man. Hemingway was that Jordan is all happy with the war, also a strong believer of such kind of (as it was also the case with ideas in his real life. Like Hemingway, Hemingway himself) particularly with Jordan also thinks that he is not a the loyalists as well as his own professional soldier and his fighting participation in it. In the same way, with the loyalist forces is only for the creator of Jordan, i.e. Hemingway, safeguarding humanity, democracy wanted to join army but he never and the freedom of individual glorified war in his novels Like Henry, threatened seriously by fascism. By Jordan has the moments of depression killing Pablo, he would be acting of disillusionment and against that very individuality. disenchantment, which deceives Pablo Frederic Henry, too, warns the and other Spanish guerrillas. But to sergeant before killing him. Santiago the Hemingway hero, his wounds or in The Old Man and the Sea , considers depressions do not make him abandon it a sin to kill fish only for pleasure; the cause. His heroism lies in rising but he is a fisherman by profession, above these for the betterment of and he fishes to keep himself alive. He, humanity. Frederick’s wound and however, observes, the code of fishing Jordan’s disillusionment do not hinder because he does not want to give the them from their noble pursuits. fish any unnecessary pain and treats it According to Hemingway, each with dignity. This is the code of the profession has some rites and rituals, hero that critics call“ a new morality in which the “code-hero” respects and action.” 11 obeys. Most of these rituals have come To the Hemingway hero, the from big games which Hemingway has performance of duty has some taken as models. The ritual of hunting religious sanctity. Every profession has consists in that no life is to be its rules--a sort of private philosophy sacrificed in vain, that animals be which Hemingway’s hero does not killed cleanly so as to give the least want to violate. In The Mahabharta , pain, and that they not be left behind and The Bhagavad-Gita, man’s duty is wounded. Wilson teaches the “code” of considered the greatest religion.” 12 The hunting to Francis Macomber. In Hemingway hero does not believe in Green Hills of Africa , pop, the hunter, traditional values and superimposed “hated to have anything killed except morality. After rejecting “all values what we were after, no killing on the judgement of the past”, he sets out “in side, no ornamental killing, no killing the new world of action in serious to kill.” 10
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International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9, October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 quest for a new value system” 13 These and some- what superstitious is not values are tested in Hemingway’s religious but says “Hail Mary’s”, and practical life. He fights against the “Our Fathers”, and feels better after society and institutions which try to prayers. Thomas Hudson has no gods impose their own values on him. and looks at his life pessimistically Similarly, “Robert Jordan is unhappy after the death of his most beloved because he has to suppress” his son, Tom. Robert Jordan, too, is not individuality by carrying out traditionally religious. Equipped with impossible orders which had come confidence in his capability, he does from Golz: “But should a man carry not resort to prayers. He believes in out impossible orders knowing what work and not “in ogres, soothsayers, or they lead to?” he asks himself Colonel fortune tellers". 16 He is against killing Cantwell was also to worry later over men or animals but justifies it “when it the same problem. It is only for the is for the cause”. larger interest of humanity that Jordan Like Hemingway himself, is prepared to tolerate such impossible Hemingway hero is also a man of orders, suspending his own individual courage and honour. While defining judgement. honour, Hemingway says: “In Spain, Hemingway himself had fought hero is a very real thing called pun against traditional values and donor, it means honour, probity, morality. He said,what is moral is courage, self respect and pride in one what you feel good after and what is word. Pride is the strongest immoral is what you feel bad after. To characteristic of the race and it is a many people with traditional ideas, matter of pun donor not to show this would appear a moral anarchy-“a cowardice” 17 He further says that in strenuous kind of ethics in which order to live in this world a man has everyman’s law is tailored to his “got to be tough” Like Nick Adams, the private self”. 15 hero of his short stories, who has suffered both physical and psychic Indeed, the Hemingway hero is injuries in his fight but he bears his a moral revolutionary like Hemingway pains silently and uncomplainingly, himself. He does not pray and does not Hemingway, too, had suffered many goto church. If spoken at all, his injuries during his lifetime. He also prayers are only mechanical--a sort of could not find something meaningful empty ritual to satisfy others or even in his life, and he felt something his own self. He has boundless missing in it. "With him, as with his confidence in his own powers and feels heroes, to suffer uncomplainingly that a man shapes his own destiny. becomes an important part of the Jake Barnes is a Catholic only code”. 18 “technically”, and gets sleepy during his prayers. Frederic Henry does not Hemingway’s idea of stoicism love God, but fears him sometimes in and courage also appears to come from the night. Santiago, though simple bullfighting: “The usual bullfighter is a
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International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9, October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 very brave man, the most common interfere with the performance of your degree of bravery being the ability duty”. Like Hemingway, in the last temporarily to ignore possible Chapter, Jordan lies wounded, full of consequences. A more pronounced pain, and yet faithful to his duties, degree of bravery, which comes with while death stares into his face. He exhilaration, is the ability not to give a does not want to be shot to avoid the damn for possible consequence, not pain. Instead of complaining against only to ignore them but to despise his pain, he thanks his stars: “you had them.” 19 much of luck. There are many worse things than this…It was lucky the In Death in the Afternoon, nerve was crushed." Hemingway had written: “There is honor among pickpockets and honor As it was the case with among whores. It is simply that the Hemingway himself, Jordan is also of standards differ.” 20 The Mexican, the view that to commit suicide as an Cayetano Ruiz, in The Gambler, the escape from pain is unthinkable for Nyn and the Radio , has been hit in his him. It was his father’s shameful act leg by a bullet. He conceals the name from which the son suffered all his life. of his assailant, ignores his pain and He would not like to associate his proves worthy of the “honour-among- name with such a weirdly act. thieves-concept." Wilson acquaints Instead, he looks backward and Francis Macomber with the code, forward with a sense of calm and quoting Shakespeare: “By my truth, I satisfaction with no desire “to care not; a man can die but complain when you have been so once….and let it go which way it will. lucky”. He that dies this year is quit for the All the learning and experience next.” 21 of the Hemingway hero is usually Harry Morgan, loses an arm and crystallized in the concluding message yet he is a tough fellow Colonel to the world. It is as if he wishes the Richard Cantwell receives a wound, in world to benefit from his trials. The the First World War, and faces his lesson differs from one novel to death in a very heroic manner. another, partly due to variation in Similarly, like Hemingway, Robert Hemingway’s own attitude. Jordan is a man of courage and the Robert Jordan is the one in the novel about him is “a study of man novel who, like Hemingway himself, is under the sentence of death.” aware of all the complexities in values Like Hemingway Death has both in individual freedom as well as brought Jordan a sincere desire for patterned society. And the complex some accomplishment. The height of awareness of the hero is the result of stoicism is in one’s indifference to his sensitive and open response to life death. "To Jordan, his own death around him. His vision of life is seemed of complete unimportance only neither colored-as Anselmo’s-by any a thing to be avoided because it would irrational faith in the Republican
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International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9, October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 cause, nor distorted-as is Pablo’s-by liberty of individual human beings, he any morbid concern for idealism. He cannot accept killing as a vocation of had also felt, like Anselmo, a kind of his life; that while he must accept religious feeling in doing his duty for discipline of the system as a necessary the better cause of humanity. evil for carrying out his commitments, he can never accept the system that Now, when Jordan has had the reduces the individual’s identity to first hand experience of the system general signs and symbols on the operating in the Republican military papers. In the same way, Hemingway and politics, he is no longer a votary of also rejected such kind of systems in that strict discipline he had so his real life. enthusiastically approved of in the beginning. It is despite his feeling of Like him, Hemingway has disenchantment, however, that Jordan portrayed his heroes optimistic rather accepts the duty of blowing up the than pessimistic in spite of many bridge, and it is this disenchanted problems they face which seem to hero whom we see at the opening of make them disappointed. We can the novel. In his real life, Hemingway quote the example of Harry Morgan in was also not in favour of war activities. this context who loses his hand in his Jordan’s situation, thus one recalls, is life but manages to tell the world quite like that of Frederic Henry who before his death that a man alone, no carries a similar feeling of matter how strong, has no chance in disenchantment with the Italian army this world. Santiago half endorces and politics in the very opening of the Harry Morgan’s lesson, but with an novel. But the important thing about optimistic note:” A man can be the Hemingway hero is that destroyed but not defeated”. Thomas disenchanted or wounded, he betrays Hudson had been successful in every the better cause of humanity. It is in respect except in his married life. He this commitment to the betterment of had learned not to quarrel with women human society that his heroism lies. and not to get married. But for him, Frederick’s stay on the Italian front “these things have been nearly as despite his wound and difficult to learn as how to settle down disillusionment, and so is Jordan’s the paint in a steady and well ordered fulfilling his duty of blowing up the way at Gaylord’s, “he had only started bridge despite his disenchantment his education”. He, then, learns about with the Republic management of war. the smell of death from Pilar, the ecstatic experience with Maria, the Thus, the paradox involved in negligence of the gypsy, the bravery of the stance of the Hemingway hero is EI Sorda and his band, the false that while he must fight wars for the glorification of La Pasionaria and the better interests of mankind, he can deception of Pablo. He learns all these never accept the position of a things in a few hours’ time--an professional soldier; that while he is amazing thing which tempts him “to firmly committed to the dignity and
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International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9, October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 live a long time instead of going to die situation. But, at the end of For Whom today because "I have learned much the Bell Tolls , Jordan is no less about life in these four days; more, I disillusioned with the military pattern think than in all the other time”. than was Frederic. The only difference is that since he has not been The learning experience is so compelled by any stupid Carabineer to good that he would have preferred to leave the war and is able to complete become an old man so as to go on his assignment, he is less frustrated learning more and more. But a doubt than was the hero of A Farewell to assails him whether one goes on Arms . learning endlessly or comes to a point at which the learning stops. In any Any interpretation of For Whom case, he wishes he had more time the Bell Tolls is bound to be incomplete because he has to learn a lot about without considering it as a great which he knows so little. To wish to tragedy for not only has it two of the learn without being able to transmit to main elements of great action and others would amount to a selfishness great character, but also soliloquies of which is not inherent in the hero’s the hero, the observation of the unities character. of time and place which make it a “thoroughly Aristotelian” tragedy. It is This stand of Hemingway hero a tragedy, too, in the sense of depicting is also revealed by the circumstances an unfortunate period in the life of a in which he is placed in the war: he is nation when Robert Jordan, always a kind of learner of a small representing the loyalist forces in group of people and never a commoner Spain, is wounded fatally in his under the command of someone else. symbolic fight against the villainous No doubt, both Frederic Henry and forces of the fascist Government. Jordan are under the command of their superiors, but his command is Melville considered “a mighty either at a distance as in the case of theme” a necessary condition for a Jordan or almost non-interfering as in great work of art. It is difficult to the case of Frederic. It is only in the gauge accurately what really position of unthreatened individual constitutes a theme great or small. autonomy that the Hemingway hero Milton’s Paradise Lost , and Pope’s The most happily functions. His status as Rape of the Lock decidedly represent an officer or leader also ensures the themes on two extreme poles in the necessary freedom he must have to middle of which lies the themes of feel as a free individual. When other great works whether epic or Frederic Henry deserts the Italian war, tragedy. Some of Hemingway’s themes it is because of this certainty of stupid of successful novels, if simplified by death, which would have been for no stripping off their symbolic meaning, cause. Jordan does not have to desert are not very great--a lieutenant the Spanish War because he does not deserting his army to meet his beloved have to face Frederic’s kind of facing her inevitable death, a
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International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9, October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 fisherman bringing home a mere as aesthetic experience. The lifetime skeleton of a marlin after fighting the experiences of the hero crystallize at voracious sharks in the Gulf Stream, the time of his death into an essence of an American blowing up an by which the author affirms new important bridge to arrest all the values, by recalling his heroic deeds.In fascists' advance, but each one of them this way, Hemingway reveals his as touched by the master hand has philosophy of life through Robert been imbued with permanent value Jordan. which raises the action of these works Bibliography to a level elevated enough to meet, e.g. Matthew Arnold’s concept of “high [1]. Young, Philip. Young, Ernest seriousness”, and that of Aristotle of it Hemingway: A Reconsideration. being “serious, complete and of a University Park and London: certain magnitude”. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1966. In Shakespeare’s plays, the tragic sense is usually, though not [2]. Dahiya, Bhim S. The Hero in always, achieved in the hero’s fall from Hemingway: A Study in nobility or higher stature. Development .Chandigarh: Bahri Hemingway’s heroes are simple men, Publication Pvt., 1978. ennobled by their honour, courage and [3]. Baker, Sheridan. Baker, Ernest perseverance. The tragic sense in his Hemingway: An Introduction and works comes when the hero, who, in Interpretation ,New York : Holt, spite of his attained mobility, gets Rinehart and Winston, 1967. wounded, dies or falls to achieve his [4]. Waldmeir, Joseph. “Confiteor goals due to his tragic flaws or failures. Hominen: Ernest Hemingway’s Talking of the tragic hero, Aristotle Religion of Man ,” included in suggests that he is “a man who is not Twentieth Century Views, edited eminently good and just, yet whose by R.P. weeks. misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity by some error of frailty. Macneile Dixon in Tragedy fails [5]. Hemingway, Ernest. Death in to understand whether it mean ‘a the Afternoon. New York : moral or intellectual error, of the heart Charles Scribner's Sons, 1945. or head”. [6]. Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway, The building up of suspense For Whom the Bell Tolls. New brings an anticipated end to the novel York : Charles Scribner's Sons, with its hero waiting for his death. For 1954. the supreme misfortune to which the [7]. Bessie, Alvah. The Un-Americans hero comes through his error or frailty .London: John Calder, 1967. in Jordan’s case by overconfidence or trust misplaced is terminated with death and so with it the tragic as well
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International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9, October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848
[8]. Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell [18]. Young, Philip. Ernest to Arms .New York: Charles Hemingway: A Reconsideration . Scribner's Sons, 1929. University Park and London: Pennsylvania State University [9]. Hemingway, Ernest. Island in Press, 1966. the Stream .New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952. [19]. Hemingway, Ernest. Hemingway, Death in the [10]. Hemingway, Ernest. Afternoon. New York: Charles Green Hills of Africa . New York: Scribner's Sons, 1945. Charles Scribner's Sons,1956. [20]. Ibid ., p.52. [11]. Colvert, James B. "Ernest Hemingway’s: Morality in [21]. 21. Hemingway, Ernest. The Action", American Literature, Short Stories of Ernest vol. 27, 1955-56, Kraus Reprint, [22]. Hemingway.New York: 1963. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953. [12]. Rajgopalichari, C. (ed.), The Mahabharta .Bombay: Bharti Vidhya Bhawan, 1968. [13]. Colvert, James B. Colvert, " Ernest Hemingway's Morality in Action" , American Literature, vol, 27, 1955-56, Kraus Reprint,1963.
[14]. Hemingway, Ernest. Death in the Afternoon.New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1945. [15]. Killingar, John. Hemingway and the Dead Gods .University of Kentucky Press, 1960. [16]. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls . New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1943. [17]. Hemingway, Ernest. Death in the Afternoon. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1945.
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