Mourning and Melancholia in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell TollsErnest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) begins with a quotationfrom John Donne’s “Meditation XVII.” With this epigraph, Hemingway identifies thesource of his title and defines the connections achieved between human beings throughmourning.: Donne’s argument begins, “No man is an island,” and it concludes with anassertion of our bond to the dead: “never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tollsfor 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 andexamines the emotional effects of incomplete mourning in terms that parallel Freud’sown comments in “Mourning and Melancholia”(1917. Hogarth Press edition 1937).Hemingway’s novel 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 ritual 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 his1Page 2connection 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 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 Jordan’s life and death parallels the …
…ocative that Rickman’s edition of Freud’sessay appeared shortly before publication of ForWhom the Bell Tolls.Gajdusek, Robert E. (2002). Hemingway In His Own Country. Notre Dame Indiana:University of Notre Dame Press.11Page 12Gellhorn, 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, SeanHemingway. New York: Scribners.Myers, Jeffrey. (2000) Hemingway: Life into Art. New York: Cooper Square PressNelson, Cary (1994). Remembering Spain: Hemingway’s 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
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