For Whom the Bell Tolls: Pilar Character Analysis
Pilar: Character or Caricature?
Ernest Hemingway’s novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, is a story about Robert Jordan, an
American professor, who travels to Spain to fight with the Spanish guerrillas. Jordan’s western prejudices against gypsies and his romantic ideals are transformed by the guerillas he meets especially Pilar, who becomes the leader of the guerilla band. Hemingway believes that an author’s ability to create lifelike characters that are believable as real people to tell his stories is essential. In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway avers, “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature . . . ” (191). Nevertheless, critic David Murad argues that Pilar does not meet this standard established by Hemingway as she cannot be believed as one living person (1). Murad’s assessment that Pilar is a caricature is misguided because Pilar is one of Hemingway’s most magnificent creations. Pilar’s character is exceptional as she is the vehicle that Hemingway specifically creates and fully exploits to deliver unexpectedly diverse narratives and insights that add great depth and pathos to his novel.
Even though Pilar’s character is a composite of diametrically opposing ideals, it should not be said that she is merely a caricature. Recognizing the flexibility of Pilar’s character in For
Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway teasingly dubs her the “great whore” because she easily embodies the diverse multitude of characteristics that he needs to make his novel succeed (93).
Hemingway, completely enthralled by his unique creation, has Jordan opine that Pilar is “better than Quevedo,” thereby admonishing the reader to carefully heed her words because she is more eloquent than one of the most prominent Spanish poets (134). Without Pilar, Jordan and the reader would not empathize with the glory of the Spanish Republic (Mandel 1), the ideal of the
“New Spanish Woman” (Guill 1), or Hemingway’s own
Ernest Hemingway’s novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, is a story about Robert Jordan, an
American professor, who travels to Spain to fight with the Spanish guerrillas. Jordan’s western prejudices against gypsies and his romantic ideals are transformed by the guerillas he meets especially Pilar, who becomes the leader of the guerilla band. Hemingway believes that an author’s ability to create lifelike characters that are believable as real people to tell his stories is essential. In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway avers, “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature . . . ” (191). Nevertheless, critic David Murad argues that Pilar does not meet this standard established by Hemingway as she cannot be believed as one living person (1). Murad’s assessment that Pilar is a caricature is misguided because Pilar is one of Hemingway’s most magnificent creations. Pilar’s character is exceptional as she is the vehicle that Hemingway specifically creates and fully exploits to deliver unexpectedly diverse narratives and insights that add great depth and pathos to his novel.
Even though Pilar’s character is a composite of diametrically opposing ideals, it should not be said that she is merely a caricature. Recognizing the flexibility of Pilar’s character in For
Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway teasingly dubs her the “great whore” because she easily embodies the diverse multitude of characteristics that he needs to make his novel succeed (93).
Hemingway, completely enthralled by his unique creation, has Jordan opine that Pilar is “better than Quevedo,” thereby admonishing the reader to carefully heed her words because she is more eloquent than one of the most prominent Spanish poets (134). Without Pilar, Jordan and the reader would not empathize with the glory of the Spanish Republic (Mandel 1), the ideal of the
“New Spanish Woman” (Guill 1), or Hemingway’s own