Gender Roles In Ernest Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls

The book For Whom the Bell Tolls written by Ernest Hemingway has some major recurring themes such as women’s roles in war and how important those roles were. For example, the characters Maria and Pilar and their roles in the book and how they give the book depth. The role of women in this novel is something you cannot avoid noticing. The book For Whom the Bell Tolls is a story of a passionate love between Maria and Robert that takes place throughout the time of the Spanish Civil War.
The book For Whom the Bell Tolls tells a story about a young man named Robert Jordan who joins a republican gorilla unit during the Spanish civil war. His mission was to take out a bridge to slow down the fascist. And as soon as he arrives at the camp he sees …show more content…
From the beginning she is referred to as being like a man. Her facial features and personality traits are manly. She is confident, knowledgeable, and is a natural leader. She is constantly complimented for these qualities by the group. She also has knowledge and real understanding of the strategies in war, to where she becomes the leader of the group very early in the novel. Because Maria looks to Pilar as a mother figure she listens to her advice. Pilar’s advice to Maria is to be with Robert Jordan and she knew they would be good for each other. It turns out that she is right, and they help to heal each other of their baggage. Through the healing they fall in love with each other, and it is all the because of Pilar’s encouragement. Without her telling Maria to go to Robert Jordan then Maria would still be scarred, and Jordan would still be absorbed into his …show more content…
Pilar has a dual role. She can stand up to Pablo and take a leadership role among the men in the group. But Pablo still treats her like a woman who can’t do anything for herself which she does not like. But she also has that rude side to her: a foul mouth and a vile sense of humor, and a sharp tongue. With her sharp tongue she gives some hard tongue lashings to the group. Part of her man likeness, is that she has an unbeatable ferocity while on the battlefield. Pilar is bothered by her looks, but this hasn’t prevented men from respecting her. She has won each of them over through her personality, she is able to command respect, despite how she looks. Pilar feels jealous of Robert and Maria even though she pushed them together, because of their passionate love that they have for each other. She has never had a man love her like they love each other. She longs for someone to love her like that. An interesting thing about Pilar is that, even if she may seem like the strongest and lively character, she also has vulnerabilities. She's described by Hemingway as gross, but also very delicate at the same time. Pilar is also very conscious of her, so called ugliness.
As a leader of the group, Pilar displays that kind of strategic understanding that grasps Jordan's or Sordo's plans, and she is smart enough to know where she and Maria can contribute. She also spots problems