Emotions In Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient

The Effects of Emotions in The English Patient
Love is a kind of emotions which have powerful effects on people’s values and life. Sometimes people would like to change themselves because of love. At the same time, love is imperceptibly changing them as well. In the novel The English Patient written by Michael Ondaatje, the main character named Almásy has been a cold and rational man. The emotions which created by love between him and a married woman named Katharine influences him. Almásy’s love for Katharine changes him in term of making him selfish, irrational and immoral, which shows the development of theme of emotions’ effects.
Firstly, Almásy’s love for Katharine makes him become selfish. Before Almásy falls in love with Katharine, he is a man who would not like to have too many connections with others. He does not want to be owned …show more content…
Almásy has been an unemotional and rational man. This is also one of the reasons why he does not want to have relationships with others. He does not want to contribute for the others until he meets Katharine. He realizes that Katharine is very important to him, so he can do anything for her even though it is against him. After three years, he comes back to the cave where injured Katharine stays. Katharine is already dead, but Almásy still carries her body: “Three years later, in 1942, I walked with her towards the buried plane, carrying her body as if it was the armour of a knight” (185, Ondaatje). Almásy still does not give up bringing Katharine out of the desert though Katharine is dead. He already becomes irrational by the reason of the love for Katharine. It makes him lose senses and calm. After Katharine is wounded by the accident which created by her husband, Almásy can choose to leave the trouble away. His love makes him decide to try his best to save his lovers without considering his own situation. However, he does not choose a moral way to save his