Madox Character Analysis in The English Patient

The English patient’s friend and part of his desert exploration team. Madox is an Englishman, and like the English patient, he carries a book—Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina—through the desert. Madox uses Tolstoy’s book to try to explain Geoffrey Clifton’s connection to the British government, which underscores Ondaatje’s overarching argument that literature offers a way to understand and shape the world. As World War II begins, Madox leaves the desert and returns to England, where he commits suicide with his revolver in the middle of a church during a sermon that supports the war. According to the English patient, Madox “died because of nations.” Madox thought the church had “lost its holiness” in its support of the war, so “he committed what he believed was a holy act.” Madox’s final act is one of protest against what he considers to be a misuse of religion, which, to many characters in The English Patient, has “lost its holiness” in the violence of the war. The character of Madox is based on Patrick Clayton, a real-life British surveyor and soldier who mapped large areas of the North African desert in the early 1930s.

Madox Quotes in The English Patient

The The English Patient quotes below are all either spoken by Madox or refer to Madox. 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:

By 1932, Bagnold was finished and Madox and the rest of us were everywhere. Looking for the lost army of Cambyses. Looking for Zerzura. 1932 and 1933 and 1934. Not seeing each other for months. Just the Bedouin and us, crisscrossing the Forty Days Road. There were rivers of desert tribes, the most beautiful humans I’ve met in my life. We were German, English, Hungarian, African— all of us insignificant to them. Gradually we became nationless. I came to hate nations. We are deformed by nation-states. Madox died because of nations.

Related Characters: The English Patient/László Almásy (speaker), Madox

Related Symbols: The Desert

Related Literary Devices:

Page Number and Citation: 138

Explanation and Analysis:

This quote appears as the English patient begins to tell his story. It is important because it reflects his connection to the desert, but it also underscores Ondaatje’s argument about the divisive nature of nations. The English patient and Madox spend much of the early 1930s looking for the mythical city Zerzura, and they both fall in love with the anonymity and isolation of the desert. The indigenous people of the desert know nothing of European countries; thus, one’s nationality is “insignificant” in the desert. This lends valuable insight into why the English patient, actually the Hungarian explorer Almásy, helped Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi sol

Madox Character Timeline in The English Patient

The timeline below shows where the character Madox appears in The English Patient. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

British Colonialism and Racism Theme Icon

...tells Hana that his first desert exploration was in 1930 with a fellow explorer named Madox. They went on a seven-day journey to El Taj on which they were plagued by... (full context)

...to hate nations. He tells Hana that the world is “deformed by nation-states” and that Madox had “died because of nations.” The explorers went to the desert to shed the clothing... (full context)

...He soon came to Cairo and met up with the English patient’s exploration team, including Madox, Bell, Prince Kemal el Din, and Almásy. They were still looking for Zerzura, a city... (full context)

...Geoffrey ever found out about their affair, he would “go mad.” As their affair progressed, Madox couldn’t help but notice the English patient’s multiple bruises and bandages, and he wondered why... (full context)

...her about his time in Cairo. In 1937, he went gone on an expedition with Madox to Uweinat. The English patient asked Madox what the name for the small hollow at... (full context)

...to travel to the buried plane by foot. It was an extra plane, owned by Madox, which the expedition didn’t use anymore. (full context)

When the English patient finally reached Madox’s plane buried in the desert in 1942, he loaded Katharine’s body into it and took... (full context)

History, Words, and Storytelling Theme Icon

...with Katharine. The English patient had ignored all of Katharine’s remarks about Geoffrey’s relatives, but Madox had tried to warn him about Geoffrey’s connection to the English. Like the English patient’s... (full context)

...eventually returned to Geoffrey, and the English patient returned to the desert. He had told Madox nothing specific about the woman he was seeing, only that she was a widow in... (full context)

As Madox was leaving for England, he stopped and turned around. “This is called the vascular sizood,”... (full context)

On Madox’s last night in Cairo, the English patient finally talked him into going into a bar,... (full context)

...important to die in holy places,” the English patient tells Caravaggio, and that is why Madox killed himself in the church in Somerset. Madox thought the church “had lost its holiness,... (full context)

Madox Character Analysis

Madox Quotes in The English Patient

Chapter IV Quotes

Madox Character Timeline in The English Patient