Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in For Whom the Bell Tolls, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love in War
Cultural Connections
Violence, Cowardice, and Death
The Eternality of the Present
Summary
Analysis
Pilar says that Pablo is “capable of doing anything,” and Robert Jordan asks where the automatic rifle is; Pilar says that Pablo won’t do anything with the rifle, since he has no practice with it. She then encourages Jordan to kill Pablo, and Agustin says that he is in favor of the murder, too, though he was against it before. Eladio and Andrés (the brothers) and Primitivo agree, though Fernando asks if they could hold him as a prisoner instead and sell him to the fascists. Rafael suggests that they turn him over to El Sordo, who will sell him to the fascists for them, but Primitivo says that the fascists will pay nothing for him.
The guerillas bicker about handling Pablo, who has again become a liability to the group, threatening the success of the bridge offensive. Jordan has observed that the Spaniards often turn against their own, and the guerillas prove to be no exception to this rule. Carrying out the bridge offensive, thus defending the Republic, has become smore important than protecting one of their group members.
Themes
After deliberating, Fernando says that because it is “impractical” to hold Pablo as a prisoner and “repugnant” to offer him up as a means of negotiation, he should be “eliminated.” Maria protests, but Pilar tells her to keep her mouth shut. Pablo suddenly reenters the cave and asks the group if they were speaking about him. Jordan wonders if Agustin is going to kill Pablo, since he hates him, and he reflects that though Pablo is “disgusting,” he himself doesn’t hate him; still, he is “perfectly willing to liquidate him.”
Robert Jordan and the other guerillas continue to grapple with the idea of killing Pablo. While Fernando, Rafael, and Maria seem opposed to the idea, Eladio, Andrés, Primitivo, Pilar, Agustin, and Robert Jordan are in favor. Nonetheless, Jordan feels conflicted about carrying out the murder, since he doesn’t feel personal hatred toward Pablo. Jordan tries to make the murder sound like wartime duty—a “liquidation”—but he struggles with the idea of killing someone he doesn’t actually despise (like he despises the fascists).
Themes
Jordan asks Agustin if he has “forgotten what is in the sacks,” and Agustin says he did forget. He turns back to Pablo and asks if he thinks that the snow will stop. Pablo seems friendly again: Jordan thinks that he “has shifted like the wind.” Indeed, Pablo declares that he is now for the bridge. Pilar asks him if he was listening by the entrance to the cave after he left, and he says that he was, though he heard nothing. Agustin asks Pablo why he changed his mind, and he says that he was drunk. Maria tells Jordan quietly that Pilar thinks Pablo heard about their plan to murder him. Fernando asks Pablo if he thinks that the plan for the bridge will be successful, and Pablo replies, “Why not?” Agustin says that he can no longer stay in the cave, which has become a manicomio (“insane asylum”).
Again, Pablo changes his views on the bridge offensive, confusing Robert Jordan and the other group members, and inciting their suspicion. It is not clear whether Pablo is merely bluffing, planning to sabotage the offensive, or whether he actually accepts the plan and has shifted his loyalties back to the Republic again. Pablo’s shifting attitudes reflect the constantly changing conditions of the war: the guerillas feel optimistic and successful at times, and completely hopeless at others.
Themes
