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Pablo
Anselmo is the first member of the Republican guerillas Robert Jordan meets. He is a thoughtful, highly principled older man who supports Jordan’s offensive on the bridge. Due to his Catholic faith, Anselmo is firmly opposed to killing fascists, though he has also chosen to leave behind Catholicism, since the fascists have laid claim to the religion. Nonetheless, Anselmo has nothing left to lose in his fight for the Republicans: his wife is dead, and fighting gives him something to live and strive for. Like Pilar, he is unfailingly optimistic about the new Republic that he believes the Republicans are helping to forge by fighting back against the fascists. Like Robert Jordan, he dies a hero and a martyr, having helped Jordan to blow up the bridge and launch one final attack on the invading fascists.
Anselmo / The Older Man Quotes in For Whom the Bell Tolls
The For Whom the Bell Tolls quotes below are all either spoken by Anselmo / The Older Man or refer to Anselmo / The Older Man. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 15 Quotes
No, he [Anselmo] thought, I am lonely. But so are all the soldiers and the wives of all the soldiers and all those who have lost families or parents. I have no wife, but I am glad that she died before the movement. She would not have understood it. I have no children and I never will have any children. I am lonely in the day when I am not working but when the dark comes it is a time of great loneliness. But one thing I have that no man nor any God can take from me and that is that I have worked well for the Republic. I have worked hard for the good that we will all share later. I have worked my best from the first of the movement and I have done nothing that I am ashamed of.
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Anselmo is one of the most principled and patriotic characters in the novel. He is firmly opposed to killing, though he also believes in carrying out orders for the Republic, including killing fascists: since he has nothing left to lose in life, having no wife or family, he invests himself in the Republican cause, satisfied by the notion that everyone will be able to “share” “the good” of the Republic later. Selfless, driven, and patient, Anselmo embodies the best qualities of the Republicans, who are motivated to create a fairer, morally just society (though this motivation is often obscured by Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. In
Chapter 37 Quotes
If I die on this day it is a waste because I know a few things now. I wonder if you only learn them now because you are oversensitized because of the shortness of the time? There is no such thing as a shortness of time, though. You should have sense enough to know that too. I have been all my life in these hills since I have been here. Anselmo is my oldest friend. I know him better than I know Charles, than I know Chub, than I know Guy, than I know Mike, and I know them well. Agustin, with his vile mouth, is my brother, and I never had a brother. Maria is my true love and my wife. I never had a true love. I never had a wife. She is also my sister, and I never had a sister, and my daughter, and I never will have a daughter. I hate to leave a thing that is so good.
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Robert Jordan realizes that despite the many differences between him and his fellow guerrillas, he loves them deeply—not just Maria, but also Agustin, Anselmo, and (though he does not mention her here) Pilar. Jordan views the other fighters as his adopted family, and the four days he has spent with them as a lifetime in itself: he has learned a great deal about himself and others (as well as how to connect with others) through his experiences with the guerrillas. This moment marks a turning point in Robert Jordan’s development as a character, since he both accepts his fate—realizing that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mol
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Anselmo / The Older Man Character Timeline in For Whom the Bell Tolls
The timeline below shows where the character Anselmo / The Older Man appears in For Whom the Bell Tolls. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...was built since he was here. The man looks at a military map, and an old man wearing a peasant’s smock, breathing heavily, looks over his shoulder. The man says to the...
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The younger man says that he doesn’t see any sentry, but the older man says that the sentry might be in the shade. He promises to figure out how...
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The older man’s name is Anselmo, and he comes from Barco de Avila. He offers to help the younger man, who...
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The older man asks what the younger man’s name is, and he replies, “Roberto.” He takes off his...
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Robert Jordan trusts Anselmo, but he has not yet “had an opportunity to test his judgment.” He knows how...
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...joking. Jordan and Golz shake hands, and Jordan goes out to the staff car where Anselmo is waiting, asleep; they ride up the Navacerrada road to the Alpine Club hut where...
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...he picks and eats; he also drinks from the stream. He turns around and sees Anselmo with another man carrying a carbine (later revealed as Pablo), in the same kind of...
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...the service of the military intelligence and the General Staff. The man asks Jordan and Anselmo what they have in their packs, and Anselmo replies that they have dynamite. The man...
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...bridges that are close to where they have camped. Pablo refuses to help Jordan and Anselmo with their packs, and Anselmo sharply rebukes him in old Castilian. Pablo says that the...
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Pablo offers to help Jordan with his pack, saying that Anselmo, “an old man of great strength,” can handle his own. The three men begin to...
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...that although he is a foreigner, he wishes he had been born in the country. Anselmo tells Pablo that he has changed since becoming obsessed with his horses, and that he...
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Chapter 2
Anselmo, Pablo, and Jordan come up to the “cup-shaped upper end” of a valley and see...
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...will learn this area quickly, since he has a good map and a good guide. Anselmo thanks him, and Jordan realizes that he and the girl are not alone, and that...
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...says that he has no time for any woman. Maria blushes and clears the table. Anselmo reveals that the group has seven members, with two women; the other woman, “Pablo’s mujer”...
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...of rounds, and Jordan tries to figure out what type it is. Jordan, Rafael, and Anselmo discuss machine guns, which fire continuously—unless you run out of ammunition or the weapon overheats,...
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...her with the rope. The old woman, Rafael, and Pablo also took turns carrying Maria. Anselmo recollects the explosion of the train, and Rafael explains how they found Maria after a...
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...down from the mountain. Jordan thanks her for her frank advice and goes to wake Anselmo to travel to El Sordo and discuss the operation with him.
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Chapter 3
Anselmo and Robert Jordan move down the hills and spot the bridge in the distance: it...
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Anselmo tells Jordan that there are seven men and a corporal on guard at the bridge....
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Anselmo tells Jordan that he does not like to kill men, and Jordan replies that nobody...
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...(“gypsies”) believe the bear to be a brother of man, and “Indians” believe the same. Anselmo tells Jordan that he does not have Roma blood, and that to Roma people, it...
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Anselmo tells Robert Jordan that he has never been in a battle: the Republicans fought in...
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At the same time, Jordan realizes that he and Anselmo are only instruments of duty, and he orders himself to stop worrying and think about...
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As Anselmo and Jordan walk through the rocks toward the camp, a man speaks to them: “Halt....
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Anselmo says that Agustin is a good man, though he speaks “very filthily.” He says that...
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Chapter 4
...and carries them into the cave, where Pablo, three men he does not know, Rafael, Anselmo, and the two women are gathered. Pablo asks if it would be better to have...
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...the bridge, and Pablo responds that he and his people do not support the bridge. Anselmo says that they will blow up the bridge without “this coward,” meaning Pablo.
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Chapter 5
...in the group. It would be ideal if she, Rafael, or Agustin would kill Pablo. Anselmo would kill him if Jordan asked, but he is morally opposed to killing. Jordan realizes...
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Chapter 8
...Manzanares el Real. Pablo is concerned that the planes saw his horses. Robert Jordan tells Anselmo to watch the road and make a note of everything that passes by. Anselmo does...
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Jordan asks for Rafael and sends him with Anselmo to go observe the road and note how many soldiers are posted at the saw...
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Chapter 14
...that they will have “much snow,” and he tells Robert Jordan that neither Rafael nor Anselmo have come back to the camp yet. Pablo says that Jordan won’t want to sleep...
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...unusual movement on the road, and Robert Jordan says that they should go to retrieve Anselmo from his post.
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Chapter 15
Anselmo is crouching in the trunk of a large tree in the middle of the snowstorm,...
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Anselmo reflects that the fascists he has been observing are only “poor men,” like the Republicans...
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Anselmo reflects that after the war, “there will have to be some great penance done for...
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Anselmo wishes that there was a “penance” for killing that he could start now, since when...
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Chapter 23
Robert Jordan tells Agustin and Anselmo to get down while a group of fascist cavalry walk by their position. Jordan can...
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...war, there will be no revolution nor any Republic, and none of them will live. Anselmo says that they should win the war and then shoot no one, then go on...
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Chapter 24
...“for the thing of tomorrow,” he will go “gladly.” He tells Jordan that Primitivo, Pilar, Anselmo, Andrés, Eladio, and Fernando are dependable, though Pablo and Rafael are not. Jordan hears automatic...
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Chapter 28
Anselmo watches the fascists ride past him, counting them and feeling “a fear like a freezing...
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Chapter 29
Anselmo finds Robert Jordan inside the cave with Pablo, and he tells him that there are...
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Chapter 37
...he has only “the very smallest beginnings of an education,” though he does know that Anselmo is his “oldest friend” now, Agustin his “brother,” and Maria his “true love and wife.”
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Chapter 38
...tense and arguing. Jordan asks Eladio where he got his grenades, and Eladio says that Anselmo brought them from the Republic; Pilar says that Pablo used them at the attack on...
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Chapter 41
Anselmo, Agustin, and Robert Jordan walk downhill and position the maquina (machines) for the explosion behind...
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Chapter 43
...and he fires his gun toward the sentry box and hits the sentry. He hears Anselmo shoot his sentry, and then the noise of grenades and Pablo’s cavalry automatic rifle; he...
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...Rafael are supporting Fernando, who seems to have been shot through the groin. Jordan tells Anselmo to blow the bridge if tanks come, even if he is below the bridge. Anselmo...
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Anselmo, watching for Robert Jordan on the other side of the bridge, does not feel afraid;...
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...its lower side, hears a truck coming down the road, and he yells out to Anselmo to blow up the bridge: he sees the bridge rise up in the air “like...
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