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

Mourning and Melancholia in Hemingways For Whom the buzzer TollsErnest Hemingways For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) begins with a quotationfrom John Donnes Meditation XVII. With this epigraph, Hemingway identifies thesource of his title and defines the connections achieved between human beings throughmourning. Donnes line of merchandise begins, No man is an island, and it concludes with anassertion of our bond to the dead neer send to know for whom the bell tolls it tollsfor thee. Proper mourning acknowledges the losses to our egotism in the death of another.Hemingways For Whom the Bell Tolls depicts such connections to the dead andexamines the stirred effects of incomplete mourning in terms that parallel Freudsown comments in Mourning and Melancholia(1917. Hogarth Press edition 1937).Hemingways myth about mourning concludes by depicting Robert Jordan, theAmerican volunteer in Spain, as he prepares for his death. Jordan accepts the inevitabilityof this death and he designs a ritu al which expresses his commitment to his lover, Maria,and contributes to the successful retreat of the members the guerrilla band (401-10). Heprovides a last effort of participation in their struggle against fascism and affirms his1 scallywag 2connection to the future of Spain. In a parallel to the argument of Donnes Meditation,Jordans death while armed combat 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 Own Country. Notre Dame IndianaUniversity of Notre Dame Press.11 pageboy 12Gellhorn, Martha. (1986). The Face of War. New York Atlantic Press Ed, 1988.Hemingway, Ernest. A leave 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 toes PressNelson, Cary (1994). Remembering Spain Hemingways Civil War Eulogy and theVeterans of the Abraham capital of Nebraska Brigade Urbana University of Illinois Press.Winnicott, D.W. Playing and Reality. (1971) London Pelican, 1980.12