The English Patient

by

Michael Ondaatje

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An Italian immigrant to Canada who fights on behalf of the Allies during World War II. Caravaggio is a thief whose “skills” are “legitimized” during the war, and he is enlisted by the Allies to infiltrate German strongholds and steal various documents. Caravaggio is caught by the Germans near the end of the war, and they nearly cut off his hands. He is sent to a military hospital in Rome, where he is received as a hero and hears about a nurse, Hana, who has refused to evacuate an unsafe villa in the north on account of her unstable patient, a burned amnesiac known only as the English patient. Caravaggio was close to Hana’s father, Patrick, before the war, and has known her for years. Arriving at the villa, Caravaggio falls in love with the woman he knew as a child, but she is in love with the English patient, a man she sees as a representation of her father, who was also badly burned and killed during the war. When Kip arrives at the villa, Caravaggio has a difficult time adjusting to life with the Indian sapper. Caravaggio is critical of Kip’s customs and habits; however, it is not long before Caravaggio grows fond of Kip and overcomes his obvious prejudice. Caravaggio soon grows fond of the English patient as well, despite the fact that he knows the English patient is really László Almásy, a wanted Hungarian explorer known to assist German spies through the desert during the war. Ondaatje never reveals what happens to Caravaggio after Kip threatens to kill the English patient and life at the villa unravels, but Caravaggio’s character serves to illustrate the power of love to heal psychological wounds after the violence of war. Caravaggio arrives at the villa an emotionally-distant and damaged thief, but by the end of the novel, he has transformed into a loving and honest man.

Caravaggio Quotes in The English Patient

The The English Patient quotes below are all either spoken by Caravaggio or refer to Caravaggio. 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:
Love Theme Icon
).
Chapter II Quotes

He sits with his hands below the table, watching the girl eat. He still prefers to eat alone, though he always sits with Hana during meals. Vanity, he thinks. Mortal vanity. She has seen him from a window eating with his hands as he sits on one of the thirty-six steps by the chapel, not a fork or a knife in sight, as if he were learning to eat like someone from the East. In his greying stubble-beard, in his dark jacket, she sees the Italian finally in him. She notices this more and more.

Related Characters: Hana, Kip/Kirpal Singh, Caravaggio
Page Number: 39-40
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter III Quotes

At lunch there is Caravaggio’s avuncular glance at the objects on the blue handkerchief. There is probably some rare animal, Caravaggio thinks, who eats the same foods that this young soldier eats with his right hand, his fingers carrying it to his mouth. He uses the knife only to peel the skin from the onion, to slice fruit.

Related Characters: Kip/Kirpal Singh, Caravaggio
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter VI Quotes

“Let me tell you a story,” Caravaggio says to Hana. ‘There was a Hungarian named Almásy, who worked for the Germans during the war. He flew a bit with the Afrika Korps, but he was more valuable than that. In the 1930s he had been one of the great desert explorers. He knew every water hole and had helped map the Sand Sea. He knew all about the desert. He knew all about dialects. Does this sound familiar? Between the two wars he was always on expeditions out of Cairo. One was to search for Zerzura— the lost oasis. Then when war broke out he joined the Germans. In 1941 he became a guide for spies, taking them across the desert into Cairo. What I want to tell you is, I think the English patient is not English.”

Related Characters: Caravaggio (speaker), The English Patient/László Almásy, Hana
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter IX Quotes

We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on my body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography— to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books.

Related Characters: The English Patient/László Almásy (speaker), Caravaggio, Katharine Clifton
Page Number: 261
Explanation and Analysis:
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Caravaggio Quotes in The English Patient

The The English Patient quotes below are all either spoken by Caravaggio or refer to Caravaggio. 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:
Love Theme Icon
).
Chapter II Quotes

He sits with his hands below the table, watching the girl eat. He still prefers to eat alone, though he always sits with Hana during meals. Vanity, he thinks. Mortal vanity. She has seen him from a window eating with his hands as he sits on one of the thirty-six steps by the chapel, not a fork or a knife in sight, as if he were learning to eat like someone from the East. In his greying stubble-beard, in his dark jacket, she sees the Italian finally in him. She notices this more and more.

Related Characters: Hana, Kip/Kirpal Singh, Caravaggio
Page Number: 39-40
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter III Quotes

At lunch there is Caravaggio’s avuncular glance at the objects on the blue handkerchief. There is probably some rare animal, Caravaggio thinks, who eats the same foods that this young soldier eats with his right hand, his fingers carrying it to his mouth. He uses the knife only to peel the skin from the onion, to slice fruit.

Related Characters: Kip/Kirpal Singh, Caravaggio
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter VI Quotes

“Let me tell you a story,” Caravaggio says to Hana. ‘There was a Hungarian named Almásy, who worked for the Germans during the war. He flew a bit with the Afrika Korps, but he was more valuable than that. In the 1930s he had been one of the great desert explorers. He knew every water hole and had helped map the Sand Sea. He knew all about the desert. He knew all about dialects. Does this sound familiar? Between the two wars he was always on expeditions out of Cairo. One was to search for Zerzura— the lost oasis. Then when war broke out he joined the Germans. In 1941 he became a guide for spies, taking them across the desert into Cairo. What I want to tell you is, I think the English patient is not English.”

Related Characters: Caravaggio (speaker), The English Patient/László Almásy, Hana
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter IX Quotes

We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on my body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography— to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books.

Related Characters: The English Patient/László Almásy (speaker), Caravaggio, Katharine Clifton
Page Number: 261
Explanation and Analysis: