The Snows of Kilimanjaro

by

Ernest Hemingway

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Helen Character Analysis

Helen is Harry’s wife, a wealthy woman who likes to drink, shoot, and make love. Her first husband died while she was relatively young. Struggling to bear the weight of the loss, she turned to lovers and drink, though neither satisfied her. Afterward, one of her two children also died in a plane crash and she decided to start life afresh, fearing loneliness. She pursued and married Harry, whom she loves and respects. She has given him access to all her money and followed his whims around the world. Nevertheless, Harry quarrels with her often, even as she is typically the voice of reason seeking to calm him. He tells her he has never loved her, calls her a “rich bitch,” and fires insults at her to alleviate his anger with himself and his situation. These cut her to her core, as she loves Harry deeply, but she takes them in stride, believing he is a better person than he lets on. She shoots a ram to make him a broth and constantly expresses optimism the plane will come to rescue him. Although Harry resents her, it is clear he also admires Helen for her strength of character, which shines through despite the story being told from her husband’s point of view.

Helen Quotes in The Snows of Kilimanjaro

The The Snows of Kilimanjaro quotes below are all either spoken by Helen or refer to Helen. 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:
Ever-present Death Theme Icon
).
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro” Quotes

So now it was all over, he thought. So now he would never have a chance to finish it. So this was the way it ended, in a bickering over a drink.

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Related Symbols: Gangrene
Page Number: 40-41
Explanation and Analysis:

“I love you, really. You know I love you. I’ve never loved any one else the way I love you.” He slipped into the familiar lie he made his bread and butter by.

Related Characters: Harry (speaker), Helen
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

… you said that you would write about these people; about the very rich; that you were really not of them but a spy in their country; that you would leave it and write it and for once it would be written by someone who knew what he was writing of. But he would never do it, because each day of not writing, of comfort, of being that which he despised dulled his ability and softened his will to work so that, finally, he did no work at all.

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:

And he had chosen to make his living with something else instead of a pen or a pencil. It was strange, too, wasn’t it, that when he fell in love with another woman, that woman should always have more money than the last one?

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:

The steps by which she had acquired him and the way in which she had finally fallen in love with him were all part of a regular progression in which she had built herself a new life and he had traded away what remained of his old life. He had traded it for security, for comfort too, there was no denying that, and for what else?

Related Characters: Helen
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:

“You can’t take dictation, can you?”

“I never learned,” she told him.

“That’s all right.”

There wasn’t time, of course, although it seemed as though it telescoped so that you might put it all into one paragraph if you could get it right.

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:

But if he lived he would never write about her, he knew that now. Nor about any of them. The rich were dull and … they were repetitious.

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:

No, he thought, when everything you do, you do too long, and do too late, you can’t expect to find the people still there. The people all are gone. The party’s over and you are with your hostess now.

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
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Helen Quotes in The Snows of Kilimanjaro

The The Snows of Kilimanjaro quotes below are all either spoken by Helen or refer to Helen. 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:
Ever-present Death Theme Icon
).
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro” Quotes

So now it was all over, he thought. So now he would never have a chance to finish it. So this was the way it ended, in a bickering over a drink.

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Related Symbols: Gangrene
Page Number: 40-41
Explanation and Analysis:

“I love you, really. You know I love you. I’ve never loved any one else the way I love you.” He slipped into the familiar lie he made his bread and butter by.

Related Characters: Harry (speaker), Helen
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

… you said that you would write about these people; about the very rich; that you were really not of them but a spy in their country; that you would leave it and write it and for once it would be written by someone who knew what he was writing of. But he would never do it, because each day of not writing, of comfort, of being that which he despised dulled his ability and softened his will to work so that, finally, he did no work at all.

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:

And he had chosen to make his living with something else instead of a pen or a pencil. It was strange, too, wasn’t it, that when he fell in love with another woman, that woman should always have more money than the last one?

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:

The steps by which she had acquired him and the way in which she had finally fallen in love with him were all part of a regular progression in which she had built herself a new life and he had traded away what remained of his old life. He had traded it for security, for comfort too, there was no denying that, and for what else?

Related Characters: Helen
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:

“You can’t take dictation, can you?”

“I never learned,” she told him.

“That’s all right.”

There wasn’t time, of course, although it seemed as though it telescoped so that you might put it all into one paragraph if you could get it right.

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:

But if he lived he would never write about her, he knew that now. Nor about any of them. The rich were dull and … they were repetitious.

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:

No, he thought, when everything you do, you do too long, and do too late, you can’t expect to find the people still there. The people all are gone. The party’s over and you are with your hostess now.

Related Characters: Harry, Helen
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis: