The Wars

The Wars

by

Timothy Findley

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Wars makes teaching easy.

Marian / Miss Turner Character Analysis

A French military nurse who takes care of Robert Ross at Bois de Madeleine hospital after he commits a series of war crimes and sustains severe, disfiguring burns. As with Juliet d’Orsey, the narration features several transcripts of interviews with Miss Turner in the novel’s contemporary time period, roughly sixty years after the events that take place during World War I. When Robert arrives at her hospital, she is outraged that a Military Police officer is required to stay by him at all times, even during surgery. Miss Turner hoards morphine for Robert and offers to assist him in committing suicide, but he replies, “not yet,” a statement that profoundly affects her and becomes her life’s motto. In addition to sharing her memories of Robert, Miss Turner’s interviews hold retrospective wisdom about the war’s harmful effects on society and culture.

Marian / Miss Turner Quotes in The Wars

The The Wars quotes below are all either spoken by Marian / Miss Turner or refer to Marian / Miss Turner. 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:
Trauma and War Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 3 Quotes

“He was unique. But you have to be careful, searching his story out. I’ve been through it all, you know…the whole of this extraordinary century—and it’s not the extraordinary people who’ve prevailed upon its madness. Quite the opposite. Oh—far from it! It’s the ordinary men and women who’ve made us what we are. Monstrous, complacent and mad.”

Related Characters: Marian / Miss Turner (speaker), Robert Ross, The Reader
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:
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Marian / Miss Turner Quotes in The Wars

The The Wars quotes below are all either spoken by Marian / Miss Turner or refer to Marian / Miss Turner. 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:
Trauma and War Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 3 Quotes

“He was unique. But you have to be careful, searching his story out. I’ve been through it all, you know…the whole of this extraordinary century—and it’s not the extraordinary people who’ve prevailed upon its madness. Quite the opposite. Oh—far from it! It’s the ordinary men and women who’ve made us what we are. Monstrous, complacent and mad.”

Related Characters: Marian / Miss Turner (speaker), Robert Ross, The Reader
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis: