Character Archetypes in For Whom the Bell Tolls - Essay Example

Character Archetypes in For Whom the Bell Tolls It is well-known that Ernest Hemingway chose to base the main storyline of For Whomthe Bell Tolls upon the events that transpired while he was reporting during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930’s. So inspired by these circumstances, Hemingway depicted the events through classic love-story prose, illuminating heroines like Pilar and Maria while they struggle against a Fascist society while maintaining the balance between femininity and mercenary. With that said, a close look will be taken into the ways in which the two female leads in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls contribute to the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War by analyzing their actions and attitudes held as parallel to the atrocities playing out during the rebel’s struggle for freedom. To begin with, Maria’s story essentially begins when the enchanting American professor, Robert Jordan, enters her life. Before that, she was a rebel, a broken character all but destroyed by the civil war. However, Maria is a survivor. Her very character is symbolic of the war effort in that she has endured the loss of her family, who were brutally murdered by a fascist group, was gang raped by the fascists herself, and then spent time as a prisoner of the fascists, during which time her hair was cut short to symbolize her forced renouncement of the Republican cause. She was an utterly broken woman. Stripped of her family, her dignity, and her inherent power as a woman, Maria was on the verge of giving up—and would have—if not for the shining light that Pilar represented and the sexual redemption found within Robert’s arms. Maria is an inherently sexual heroine. She and Robert make love three times over the course of the novel’s three days and their relationship is fast-forming. Almost instantly, despite the civil war erupting around them, they discover a deep and transcendent love for one another. She is able to, at least outwardly, overcome the monstrous act upon her body; though, psychologically it appears as though she is taking up a sexual relationship with Robert because she is seeking a parallel comfort to her agony. In being sexually hurt, she seeks sexual redemption in the arms of the strong male lead. As a character, Maria is stereotypical and does not experience much evolution during the course of For Whom the Bell Tolls. She is nineteen, and while many women grow to be stronger characters during times of crisis, she maintains a youthful mindset, unable to fully escape from the horrors of her past. It is only when she finds herself safely in the arms of Robert that she attains some semblance of peace. What her character does represent, however, is the archetypal fire of rebellion in the hearts of the rebels during the war. Like the rebels, her heart, while damaged, fought for freedom, seeking solace in the darkness, finding peace in redemption. Ultimately, Maria’s sexual search for self is a direct correlation to the passion of the rebellion and demonstrates that a person can find true peace—an almost transcendent immortality—when the fires of rebellion burn hot within them. On the other hand, Pilar is a diverse and challenging character. She claims she is “so simple [she is] complicated” (Hemingway 156). She is tough, almost more so than the male leads of For Whom a Bell Tolls, and, more importantly, she serves as an archetypal symbol for the strength of the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War. She is a woman unafraid of conflict, and will challenge any of the men for their character flaws, cowardice, and mistakes. Perhaps the most endearing quality to Pilar—and that which makes her more accessible a character than Maria—is that she is nearing fifty and no longer knows the love of a man. She becomes almost instantly jealous of Maria and Robert’s relationship and makes a point of telling Maria so, explaining that “I love thee and he can have thee, I am no tortillera but a woman made for men” (155). It is a captivating moment to their friendship, one in which Pilar acknowledges that she never had a chance at a striking young man such as Robert; at least, never in the way that Maria did. And, at the same time, she never had a chance at someone like Maria, either. Where Maria is the openly and obviously sexual character, Pilar becomes the complicated dichotomy. Wanting so badly to find love and instantly jealous that both Robert and Maria are unavailable to her—it’s a difficult and applicable character arch that serves to highlight the tensions between the rebels and the fascists of the Spanish Civil War. Conflicting ideals, just as in love (and with no less intensity) fueled the fires for rebellion and, like Pilar, the rebel forces had to make choices and decisions that were in the vein of self sacrifice. Where Pilar lets her love for both Maria and Robert go, so too do the rebels make concessions for the greater good of their cause. One of the largest difficulties in war is acting on behalf of the whole and committing crimes that, while essential to the cause, are no less atrocious than the monstrous acts committed by the enemy. Ultimately, the goal in war is to weaken the enemy to a degree that they are rendered useless, unable to fight. It is not necessary to kill every last soldier, but to disable the head of the force so that it becomes incapable of further aggressive action. Kill the head and the body dies. Taking care of a few men meant the future survival of many more. Early in the novel, when Robert is first taken into the rebel group, Pilar describes a number of horrible atrocities to him that fuel the fire of rebellion for him as strongly as it burns within the others. Even though he is American and not technically part of their war, he is at once sympathetic to the people of the rebellion; by Maria’s exposed heart and Pilar’s sardonic hardness. In the end, on its basest level, war is about people: what they’re willing to accomplish when faced with adversity, the moments they are able to cherish when all hope seems lost, and the ability to retain their humanity when all hope is actually lost. No character is immune to the atrocities of war. A reader is introduced to evil actions on behalf of both the rebels and the fascists, and while the reader’s point of view remains that of the rebels, it can be understood that both sides are willing to do whatever it takes to win; even if that means killing or effectively destroying the lives of people on the other side. It is known that Hemingway, in his years of reporting for the Spanish Civil War never directly took sides. He believed that both sides were capable of the same degree of evil; it was only a matter of time. Ultimately, a reader can view For Whom the Bell Tolls as an archetypal commentary on the Spanish Civil War. While the characters are not directly tied to anyone in history, they do serve the innocuous purpose of representing just about anyone on either side of the conflict. It can be assured that both the fascists and the rebels had a character like Maria—taken by the opposite side and destroyed by war crimes only to achieve a redemptive end. And characters like Pilar—strong and powerful, essentially a leader for the effort. Looking at Hemingway’s work in this manner opens up a new dialogue, one in which the story is no longer about love in the face of adversity, but humanity in times of war. One in which characters like Robert Jordan, or Hemingway himself, can, no matter the outcome of the war itself, find a transcendent awareness from the archetypal beacons found within For Whom the Bell Tolls. Works Cited. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1968. Read More