Mourning and Melancholia in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls

3193 Words13 Pages
Mourning and Melancholia in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) begins with a quotation

from John Donne’s “Meditation XVII.” With this epigraph, Hemingway identifies the

source of his title and defines the connections achieved between human beings through

mourning.: Donne’s argument begins, “No man is an island,” and it concludes with an

assertion of our bond to the dead: “never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls

for thee.” Proper mourning acknowledges the losses to our self in the death of another.

Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls depicts such connections to the dead and

examines the emotional effects of incomplete mourning in terms that parallel Freud’s

own comments in “Mourning and Melancholia”(1917. Hogarth Press edition 1937).

Hemingway’s novel about mourning concludes by depicting Robert Jordan, the

American volunteer in Spain, as he prepares for his death. Jordan accepts the inevitability

of this death and he designs a ritual which expresses his commitment to his lover, Maria,

and contributes to the successful retreat of the members the guerrilla band (401-10). He

provides a last effort of participation in their struggle against fascism and affirms his

1

Page 2

connection to the future of Spain. In a parallel to the argument of Donne’s “Meditation,”

Jordan’s death while fighting as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War is presented as a

loss to fascism suffered by the people of all the republican nations of the world. In a

report published in 1938 Hemingway wrote of the deaths of such volunteers of the

International Brigades, and said, “They die fighting for you” (Hem on War 293).

The depiction of Jordan’s life and death parallels the ...

... middle of paper ...

...ocative that Rickman’s edition of Freud’s

essay appeared shortly before publication of For

Whom the Bell Tolls.

Gajdusek, Robert E. (2002). Hemingway In His Own Country. Notre Dame Indiana:

University of Notre Dame Press.

11

Page 12

Gellhorn, Martha. (1986). The Face of War. New York: Atlantic Press Ed, 1988.

Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. (1940 ) Blakiston: Philadelphia.

________________.By-Line Ernest Hemingway. (1967) New York: Scribners.

________________ Hemingway on War.(2003 ) Ed. with an Introduction, Sean

Hemingway. New York: Scribners.

Myers, Jeffrey. (2000) Hemingway: Life into Art. New York: Cooper Square Press

Nelson, Cary (1994). Remembering Spain: Hemingway’s Civil War Eulogy and the

Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Winnicott, D.W. Playing and Reality. (1971) London: Pelican, 1980.

12
Show More
Related

  • Hemingways Themes

    1595 Words  | 7 Pages

    Timms, David. “Contrasts in Form: Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and Faulkner’s ‘The Bear’” Modern Critical Interpretations: Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1999: 45-52.

    Read More

  • Ernest Hemingway

    2425 Words  | 10 Pages

    New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1987 Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1957. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls.

    Read More

  • Ernest Hemingway

    2092 Words  | 9 Pages

    Life and Works of Hemingway. England: Wayland, 1988. Meyers, Jeffery. Hemingway: A Biography. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1985.

    Read More

  • The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

    4204 Words  | 17 Pages

    Carlos Baker. New York, American Century Series: Hill and Wang, 1961. Benson, Jackson J. Hemingway: The Writer's Art of Self-Defense. Minnesota: the University of Minnesota, 1969 Kashkeen, Ivan. "Alive in the Midst of Death: Ernest Hemingway."

    Read More

  • War Scene

    1895 Words  | 8 Pages

    Gellens, Jay, ed. Twentieth-Century Interpretations of “A Farewell to Arms”: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970. Charles Scribner’s Sons. A Farewell to Arms NewYork, renewal Copy right Ernest Hemingway 1957 Monteiro, George, ed.

    Read More

  • Critical Themes in the Writings of Hemingway: Life & Death, Fishing, War, Sex, Bullfighting, and the Mediterranean Region

    1952 Words  | 8 Pages

    141. Oliver, Charles M. Ernest Hemingway A to Z. New York: Facts on File, 1999. Reynolds, Michael S. Hemingway’s First War: The Making of “A Farewell to Arms.” New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976. Rovit, Earl.

    Read More

  • The Character Santiago in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea

    1899 Words  | 8 Pages

    The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1952. Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway: A life Story. New York: Charles Scriber’s Sons, 1968, 1969.

    Read More

  • The Troubled Life of Ernest Hemingway Reflected in His Writing

    2485 Words  | 10 Pages

    Hart, James D. ed. "Hemingway" The Oxford Companion to American Literature, 364-395. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. McDowell, Nicholas. Hemingway.

    Read More

  • Ernest Hemingway

    1358 Words  | 6 Pages

    Washington, DC: Lancer Books Publishing, 1961. Day, Justin. An analysis of Ernest Hemingway. 02 Aug. 2001. http://www.teleport.com/~aaugiee/hemingway.shtml Dennis, Brian. “The True Gen, An Intimate Portrait of Hemingway by Those who Knew Him.” Grove Press 21 July.

    Read More

  • Relationships and Mechanical Processes in The Sun Also Rises

    1624 Words  | 7 Pages

    Ernest Hemingway. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. Fiedler, Leslie A. Love and Death in the American Novel. New York: Stein & Day 1966 Hemingway, Ernest.

    Read More

More about Mourning and Melancholia in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls

Open Document