For Whom The Bell Tolls Theme

Hemingways novel For Whom The Bell Tolls is an Epical novel in which a grand and universal theme of war and love has been delineated in a dignified style with the help of symbolic and colloquial language. The novel in particular presents a study of mans disillusionment regarding the post-bellum society which is more agonizing because power

corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and it is unanimously acknowledged

that a revolution is not an appropriate solution of our problems rather it gives birth to a new revolution which is more harmful than the previous one. Hence, we should solve our disputes on table talks with love and tolerance. This preface to the novel or prologue to For Whom the Bell Tolls strongly verifies that war is death of love which resultantly gives birth to things fall

apart.
Explicitly, For Whom The Bell Tolls deals with the Spanish Civil War between

the Fascists and the Loyalists or Royalists, and throws light on indomitable courage of
an American volunteer who indulges himself in this war while implicitly, the novel unfolds a universal theme that war is the death of love along with the sub theme of an individuals position and status among his community. The sub theme revolves round the unity among us. Hemingway writes:

No man is an Island; entire of itself every man is a piece of continent, a part of the Maine.
In Urdu Literature we also come across this fact:

The writer again puts forth:

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.

As we have come to know that this Epical novel is a multi-thematic one; we try to unfold these themes by probing into the following two topics:

(1) Jordan-Maria relationship (2) War and the post-bellum society

Jordan is Tyro; Tyro is a tragic one who suffers from a conflict between his will and environmental requirement. Being a Tyro Jordans mind is obsessed with agonizing situations. He is caught in the web of conflict between his individuality and the society, between his ideas and the Communistic code of anti-democracy. Jordan on one hand sticks to

equality, liberty and fraternity, but on the other hand, he has submitted himself to the
Communistic disciplines under the dictates and commands of Russian General Golz. These Communistic disciplines are entirely against Jordans love for humanity. That is why he thinks again and again:

You believe in life, liberty, equality and fraternity but you are fighting against the Fascists under the command of Communist! Why?
However, it is Maria who gives a helping hand in resolving Jordans conflict and he kicks this agonizing chapter out of his brain for the time being and gets not only courage but solace also by virtue of Marias presence. Robert Jordan is, now, deeply concerned with the problem of killing and thinks time and again about it. He knows the killing is wrong but he would like to enjoy it only to satisfy his instinct of Humanism which he has seen in the eyes of Maria. When he considers Marias modesty as modesty of the whole female folk, he encourages himself to do what he actually does not intend to do. That is why he continues killing but conflictedly. He thinks again and again:

Do you think? You had right to kill someone! No. But I have killed a lot of. Do you know? Whether the Fascists are right or Loyalists. No body knows. Do you know? You believe in liberty, fraternity and equality and it is not wrong to kill whom you do not know in real practice. Moreover, you do not believe in killing absolutely.

Jordan-Maria relationship gives us essence of bond of love among us. It is the power of love that keeps us united. It is, no doubt, a strong force that forces us to feel an enthusiastic sympathy for others. We come to know through this novel that it is the spirit of love by virtue of which Jordan might have thought at the eve of his expiry. Let us say his enthusiasm and intensity of love in the words of John Donne:

Our two souls, therefore, which are one though I must goe, endure, not yet A breach but an expansion like gold to ayery thinness beat.
It is now crystal clear that war causes death of love at physical level and death of love creates barbarism in our social set-up. Hemingway, as such, is an anti-war writer who loves humanity and dislikes the killing

practice practiced. During war days that is why the

novel also presents mans response to war, which is entirely negative because man by instinct does not like killing. It is our fractured and lusty political system which has divided us into many groups and due to this illogical division among us that we have become power-hungry, always seek for absolute power which corrupts absolutely. To achieve this goal we plunge into the ocean of war and indulge ourselves in killing activities. We come to know from the text of the novel that Jordan, Anselmo and El Sardo are in actual practice against the killing practice. Anselmo broods:

But with or without God, I think it is sin to kill an other person.

Hence, war not only deteriorates human spirit of love and tolerance but it also roots out the intrinsic values of humanity. We are one brotherhood and just an individual is a part and parcel of society, the same is with the whole world. Every country is a part and parcel of any other country on this sphere of earth. The Loyalist and the Fascists are actually one but it is man-made world and man-made issues in it which force one of two to blow the bridge that is to break the bond of love as well as unifying force between the Loyalists and the Fascists. Hence, we may safely say that For Whom the Bell Tolls is in real an Epical novel which presents not only a grand theme but the treatment as well.