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

Mourning and Melancholia in Hemingways For Whom the Bell TollsErnest Hemingways For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) begins with a quotationfrom John Donnes venture XVII. With this epigraph, Hemingway identifies thesource of his title and defines the connections achieved between human beings through plaint. Donnes argument begins, No man is an island, and it concludes with anassertion of our bond to the dead never send to spang for whom the bell tolls it tollsfor thee. Proper mourning acknowledges the losses to our self in the death of another.Hemingways For Whom the Bell Tolls depicts such connections to the dead andexamines the emotional effects of incomplete mourning in terms that match Freudsown comments in Mourning and Melancholia(1917. Hogarth Press edition 1937).Hemingways novel about mourning concludes by portraiture Robert Jordan, theAmerican volunteer in Spain, as he prepares for his death. Jordan accepts the inevitabilityof 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 muckle (401-10). Heprovides a last effort of participation in their struggle against fascism and affirms his1Page 2connection to the future of Spain. In a parallel to the argument of Donnes Meditation,Jordans death while fighting as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War is presented as aloss to fascism suffered by the people of all the republican nations of the world. In areport published in 1938 Hemingway wrote of the deaths of such volunteers of theInternational Brigades, and said, They die fighting for you (Hem on War 293).The depiction of Jordans life and death parallels the ... ...ocative that Rickmans edition of Freudsessay appeared shortly before publication of ForWhom the Bell Tolls.Gajdusek, Robert E. (2002). Hemingway In His take Country. Notre Dame IndianaUniversity of Notre Dame Press.11Page 12Gellhorn, Martha. (1986). The Face of War. peeled York Atlantic Press E d, 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, SeanHemingway. New York Scribners.Myers, Jeffrey. (2000) Hemingway Life into Art. New York Cooper Square PressNelson, Cary (1994). Remembering Spain Hemingways Civil War Eulogy and theVeterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Urbana University of Illinois Press.Winnicott, D.W. Playing and Reality. (1971) London Pelican, 1980.12