The English Patient

The English Patient is a 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje. The book follows four dissimilar people brought together at an Italian villa during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The four main characters are: an unrecognisably burned man — the eponymous patient, presumed to be English; his Canadian Army nurse, a Sikh British Army sapper, and a Canadian thief. The story occurs during the North African Campaign and centres on the incremental revelations of the patient's actions prior to his injuries, and the emotional effects of these revelations on the other characters. The story is told by multiple characters and "authors" of books the characters are reading. The book won the 1992 Booker Prize, the 2018 Golden Man Booker, and the Governor General's Award.

This article is about the novel. For the film, see The English Patient (film). For other uses, see The English Patient (disambiguation).
The English Patient
First edition cover
AuthorMichael Ondaatje
Cover artistCecil Beaton
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistoriographic metafiction
PublisherMcClelland and Stewart
Publication date
September 1992
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)
Pages320
ISBN0-7710-6886-7
OCLC26257641

Plot synopsis
Villa San Girolamo in Fiesole (Florence)

The novel's historical backdrop is the North African/Italian Campaigns of World War II. The story is told out of sequence, moving back and forth between the severely burned "English" patient's memories from before his accident and current events at the bomb-damaged Villa San Girolamo (in Fiesole), an Italian monastery, where he is being cared for by Hana, a troubled young Canadian Army nurse. The English patient's only possession is a well-worn and heavily annotated copy of Herodotus's The Histories that has survived the fiery parachute drop.[1] Hearing the book constantly being read aloud to him brings about detailed recollections of his desert explorations, yet he is unable to recall his own name. Instead, he chooses to believe the assumption by others that he is an Englishman based on the sound of his voice. The patient is in fact László de Almásy, a Hungarian Count and desert explorer, one of many members of a British cartography group.

Caravaggio, an Italian-Canadian in the British foreign intelligence service since the late 1930s, befriended Hana's father before the latter died in the war. He learns that Hana is at the villa caring for a patient. He had remained in North Africa to spy when the German forces gain control and then transfers to Italy. He is eventually caught, interrogated, and tortured; they even cut off his thumbs.[2] Caravaggio bears physical and psychological scars from his painful war experience for which he seeks vengeance.

Two British soldiers yell at Hana to stop her from playing a piano since the Germans often booby-trapped them. One of the soldiers, Kip, an Indian Sikh, a trained sapper, specializes in bomb and ordnance disposal. Kip decides to stay at the villa to attempt to clear it of unexploded ordnance. Kip and the English patient immediately become friends.

The English patient, sedated by morphine, begins to reveal everything: he fell in love with the Englishwoman Katharine Clifton who, with her husband Geoffrey, accompanied Almásy's desert exploration team. Almásy was mesmerized by Katharine's voice as she read Herodotus' Histories out loud by the campfire.[3] They soon began a very intense affair, but she cut it short, claiming that Geoffrey would go mad if he were to discover them.

Geoffrey offers to return Almásy to Cairo on his plane since the expedition will break camp with the coming of war. Almásy is unaware that Katharine is aboard the plane as it flies low over him and then crashes. Geoffrey is killed outright. Katharine is injured internally and Almásy leaves her in the Cave of Swimmers. Caravaggio tells Almásy that British Intelligence knew about the affair. Almásy makes a three-day trek to British-controlled El Taj for help. When he arrives, he is detained as a spy because of his name, despite telling them about Katharine's predicament. He later guides German spies across the desert to Cairo. Almásy retrieves Katharine's dead body from the Cave and, while flying back, the decrepit plane leaks oil onto him and both of them catch fire. He parachutes from the plane and is found severely burned by the Bedouin.

The novel ends with Kip learning that the U.S. has bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He departs from Villa San Girolamo, estranged from his white companions. Returns to India, marries and has two children though he still thinks of Hana.

Characters

Almásy

Count Ladislaus de Almásy is the titular character who comes under Hana's care in Italy after being burned unrecognizably in Africa. Although Hungarian by birth, because he has lived without government identification or many verifiable long-term interactions, his accent prompts the authorities around him to perceive an English affiliation and to refer to him as the English Patient. Almásy serves as a blank canvas onto which the other characters project their experience during this time in Italy. For example, Hana treats him tenderly to redeem herself for not being by the side of her father when he was engulfed in flames and died. She provides comfort to the English Patient that she could not provide to her own father.

The rejection of a nationalistic identity enables Almásy to rationalize his duplicitous actions with his associates. He socializes with, and is a mapmaker for, the British before the war, then uses that information to smuggle German spies across northern Africa. Almásy is portrayed in a sympathetic light, partly because he tells his own story, but also because he always adheres to his own moral code.

Almásy is also at the centre of one of the novel's love stories. He is involved in an adulterous relationship with Katharine Clifton, which eventually leads to her death and the death of her husband, Geoffrey Clifton. Katharine is the figure who leads Almásy to sensuality. He falls in love with her voice as she reads Herodotus. Sensuality, both sexual and observational, is a major theme in the novel.

The character is loosely based on László Almásy, a well-known desert explorer in 1930s Egypt, who helped the German side in World War II. Almásy did not suffer burns or die in Italy, but survived the war and lived until 1951.

Hana

Hana is a twenty-year-old Canadian Army nurse torn between her youth and her maturity. Being a good nurse, she quickly learns that she cannot become emotionally attached to her patients. She calls them all "buddy,"[4] and forgets them immediately once they die. Her lover, a Canadian officer, is killed and because of this, Hana comes to believe that she is cursed and that all those around her are doomed to die.

In contrast, upon hearing of her father's death Hana has an emotional breakdown. She then puts all of her energy into caring for the English Patient. She washes his wounds, reads to him and provides him with morphine. When the hospital is abandoned, Hana refuses to leave, staying with her patient. She sees Almásy as saint-like and falls in love with his pure nature.[5]

In addition to her relationship with Almásy, Hana also forms a strong relationship with Kip during his stay at the villa.

Hana seems to not be able to acknowledge or even come to terms with her father's death. As she almost sees no reason in returning home and her excuse to stay in the now abandoned hospital is to take proper care of the English patient, due to Almasy not being able to move because of how severe his burns are externally and internally as well. On top of this Hana fails to reply or write back her step-mother, whom she loves and is the only living family she has left. Clara writes to Hana for a year whilst she is in Italy; Hana keeps every letter, but fails to write back even with such woe and guilt filling her heart.

Hana seems to be putting off her life as a young adult and at times shows her immaturity throughout the novel. In ignoring Caravaggio's advice or suggestions or simply not facing the reality that awaits her back home. She seems as if escaping reality and being completely isolated from the rest of society is better than growing up. Hana escapes reality simply by stalling in taking care of the patient, rearranging her set up inside the defaulting villa, listening to what the Almasy has to say or the stories he tells, and by reading books to him over and over again.

Hana claims to have changed and grown up mentally throughout being a nurse during the war, as one would expect, but her "growing up" seems to be much more of building up a wall and being stuck in this continuous process of trying to heal an already dead body.[6][7]

Kip
Triumph 3HW 350cc motorcycle used by Kip in the novel

Kirpal (Kip) Singh is an Indian Sikh who has volunteered with the British military for sapper bomb disposal training under Lord Suffolk. This act of patriotism is not shared by his Indian nationalist brother; the scepticism of his unit's white peers discourages a sense of community for Kip.

Lord Suffolk, an eccentric English nobleman, has developed techniques to dismantle complicated, unexploded bombs in what is a very dangerous occupation. Kip feels a sense of belonging in a community when he is welcomed into the Suffolk household and regards Lord Suffolk as a father figure. Lord Suffolk and his sapper team are killed while attempting to dismantle a new type of bomb. Their deaths cause Kip's emotional withdrawal to become more pronounced. Charles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk, was a real person who did dismantle bombs and was killed while attempting to dismantle one.

Kip is transferred to another unit in Italy where he and his partner hear a piano playing. As they enter the villa, they come across Hana and urge her to stop playing as the Germans were known to sabotage musical instruments. Kip stays on at the villa to clear any remaining unexploded bombs, mines, or other booby-traps. Kip feels a sense of community and confidence when he becomes Hana's lover. Kip sees the interactions of the Westerners at the villa as those of a group that disregards nationality. They get together and celebrate Hana's twenty-first birthday, a symbol of their friendship and Kip's acceptance. However, when he learns of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima Kip is thoroughly shocked. He leaves immediately, convinced that Westerners would never use such a weapon on their own race. Kip goes back to India and never returns, he marries and has two children though he never stops recalling the effect of Hana in his life.

David Caravaggio

David Caravaggio is a Canadian thief whose profession is legitimized by the war, as the Allies needed crafty people to steal Axis documents. He is a long-time friend of Hana's father and becomes known as "the man with bandaged hands" when he arrives at the villa; the bandages cover his severed thumbs, the result of an interrogation by the Italians in Florence. He recalls that Ranuccio Tommasoni ordered the interrogation tactic. This is a reference to a man by the same name who was murdered by the historical Caravaggio in 1606.[8] The mental and physical outcome of the torture is that Caravaggio has "lost his nerve"[9] and ability to steal. Hana remembers him as a very human thief. He would always be distracted by the human element while doing a job. For instance, if an advent calendar was on the wrong day, he would fix it. She also has deep feelings of love for Caravaggio. At times, Caravaggio seems to display a romantic love towards Hana, but also at one point wishes she would marry Kip. Caravaggio[10] and Almásy share a morphine addiction. Caravaggio works this to his advantage to confirm his suspicion that Almásy is not English.

Katharine Clifton

Katharine is the childhood friend and recently wedded wife of Geoffrey Clifton, whom she married after their days at Oxford University. The day after their wedding, she and Geoffrey flew to join Almásy's expedition. She entertained the camp in the evening by reading aloud from Almásy's copy of Herodotus' Histories, after which she and Almásy began an affair.Katharine stabs and punches Almasy repeatedly because she is mad that he doesn't want to change. Geoffrey discovered the affair after she had ended it, and she is wracked with guilt. Geoffrey attempts to kill all three of them by crashing his plane while they are flying. After Geoffrey is killed in the crash, Katharine admits that she always loved Almásy.

Geoffrey Clifton

Geoffrey is Katharine's husband, on a secret mission for the British government to make detailed aerial maps of North Africa; his joining the Almásy expedition is only a ruse. The plane he claims to be his own was appropriated by the Crown, and he leaves his wife with the other expedition members while on his mission, leading to her infidelity.

Analysis

Christopher McVey has discussed the nature of Ondaatje's use of metaphysical aspects of body, history and nation in the novel.[11] Amy Novak and Mirja Lobnik have separately analysed aspects of the treatment of memory in the novel.[12][13] Thomas Harrison and Rachel Friedman have each examined the references and use of Herodotus in the novel.[14][15] Madhumalati Adhikari has critiqued the treatment of World War II and its effects on the characters of the novel.[16]

A major symbol of the novel is the desert. It serves as a representation of the characters' war experiences and how they came to gather in the villa. A passage in the novel notes "The desert could not be claimed or owned."[17] Carravaggio had stepped away from the war for a brief time when he drifted into the villa and encountered an old flame, Hana. Kip elects to stay in the villa, a straggler from his unit, to continue searching for explosives. He also finds there is a serene sense of acceptance in the villa and that the people need him. Hana is devoted to her patients, to the very last. Thus, she stays behind in the villa hospital when numerous others abandon it. Almásy himself is forced into the villa, essentially because the desert took him when his plane was shot down. The characters were like grains of sand that blew with the wind to be fatefully settled into the villa ultimately facing their own mysteries and finding within themselves answers to some of their dilemmas. The film adaptation also captures this aspect of the novel. There is an essay that states "The story tells the audience what they need to know when they need to know it."[18] This is very true of the novel. Michael Ondaatje shrouds his plot like sand. Nothing is revealed until a carefully selected time in the story. Character aspects are settled in the villa like sand before being blown into destiny.

A psychoanalytic analysis of "The English Patient" helps us to understand the meaning of Michael Ondaatje's emphasis on his characters' differences and appearances. He may have been thinking about how melting pot civilizations begin by different cultures working together in spite of each other's back ground. Note how each central character living in the reconstructed villa is almost as opposite of each other in appearance as they could be. Hana was young, healthy, and capable of caring for more than one person at a time, but she mainly attended to the English patient. In contrast to Hana, the English patient was handicapped and on his death bed. But little did Hana know, in the English patient's past, he had worked with the Germans on other desert expeditions way before their paths had crossed. However, his amnesia couldn't allow him to remember such things at the moment. In other words, Hana was caring for someone who was partly responsible for her village's demise. The moral of this is that Hana, the English patient, Kip, and Caravaggio had fewer physical resemblances to each other than they had had of humanistic desires. Thus, Michael Ondaatje may have wanted us to see that what's on the outside doesn't matter as much as what's on the inside when rebuilding a village, city, or country.[19][20]

The English Patient is a progressive novel that aims to bring a sense of the meaning of freedom to its readers. While the four main characters Hana, Caravaggio, Kip, and the English Patient are who reside at the Villa San Girolamo, the novel uses these characters to break stereotypes. All four characters come from different parts of the world, all from different cultural, religious, and political backgrounds, but are still able to find middle ground to co-exist. They are brought together by the humanness in themselves, and build on each other's misgivings, flaws, quirks, and strength to do so.

The emotional heart of this novel is found at the core of the character's want and need to survive, which in turn is the eternal damnation they find by everything seeming so bleak. Within this, the desert is a large symbol. As the Villa San Girolamo is an abandoned, war ridden place, it is also a place that seems like a cage, with no chance at happiness in sight. The war may be over, but the characters feel trapped in a sense. The desert within the novel is a place of freedom, a place that cannot be claimed or owned by any one person. The desert is everlasting, and can never be wavered. This is unlike the war that these characters had become extremely traumatized from. It is a vast nothingness that will always remain nation-less. A place that these characters can seek out in their minds, when there is nowhere else to turn for hope.[21][22]

Awards

The novel won the 1992 Booker Prize,[23] the 1992 Governor General's Award,[24] and the 2018 Golden Man Booker award.[25]

Film adaptation

The book was adapted into a 1996 film with the same title by Anthony Minghella, starring Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe, Colin Firth, Naveen Andrews, and Juliette Binoche. The film received nine Academy Awards—including Best Picture and Director—at the 69th Academy Awards.[26]

References
  1. Ondaatje 1993, p. 16.
  2. Ondaatje 1993, p. 54.
  3. Ondaatje 1993, p. 233.
  4. Ondaatje 1993, p. 51.
  5. Ondaatje 1993, p. 45.
  6. Adhikari, M. “History and Story: Unconventional History in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient and James A. Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific.” History & Theory, vol. 41, no. 4, Dec. 2002, pp. 43–55. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=7676201&site=ehost-live.
  7. Kyser, Kristina. “Seeing Everything in a Different Light: Vision and Revelation in Michael Ondaatje’s ‘The English Patient.’” University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 70, no. 4, Fall 2001, pp. 889–901. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3138/utq.70.4.889.
  8. Don Meredith. Varieties of Darkness: The World of the English Patient. University Press of America, 2011. ISBN 9780761857235. p. 12.
  9. Ondaatje 1993, p. 33.
  10. Ondaatje 1993, p. 166.
  11. McVey, Christopher (Winter 2014). "Reclaiming the Past: Michael Ondaatje and the Body of History". Journal of Modern Literature. 37 (2): 141–160. doi:10.2979/jmodelite.37.2.141. JSTOR 10.2979/jmodelite.37.2.141.
  12. Novak, Amy (Fall 2004). "Textual Hauntings: Narrating History, Memory and Silence in The English Patient". Studies in the Novel. 36 (2): 206–231. JSTOR 29533636.
  13. Lobnik, Mirja (Fall 2007). "Echoes of the Past: Nomad Memory in Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient". South Atlantic Review. 72 (4): 72–108. JSTOR 27784741.
  14. Harrison, Thomas (1998). "Herodotus and The English Patient". Classics Ireland. 5 (2): 48–63. doi:10.2307/25528323. JSTOR 29533636.
  15. Friedman, Rachel D. (Winter 2008). "Deserts and Gardens: Herodotus and The English Patient". Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics. Third Series: 15 (3): 47–84. JSTOR 29737360.
  16. Adhikari, Madhumalati (December 2002). "History and Story: Unconventional History in Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient and James A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific". History and Theory. 41 (4): 43–55. doi:10.1111/1468-2303.00219. JSTOR 29533636.
  17. Ondaatje.
  18. "The English Patient (1996) – Deep Focus Review – Movie Reviews, Critical Essays, and Film Analysis".
  19. Mala Devi, S. Poorna Immigrants' Experience in Michael Ondaatje's Novels In the Skin of a Lion and The English Patient
  20. Droping the Bomb? On Critical and Cinimatic Reactions to Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient
  21. Peter Aicher (2013). "Herodotus and the Vulnerability Ethic in Ancient Greece". Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics. 21 (2): 55. doi:10.2307/arion.21.2.0055. ISSN 0095-5809.
  22. Shin, Andrew (2007-08-22). "The English Patient's Desert Dream". Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory. 18 (3): 213–235. doi:10.1080/10436920701525588. ISSN 1043-6928.
  23. "2 Tie For Booker Prize". The Seattle Times. 18 Oct 1992. p. K6.
  24. "FIRST COLUMN Ottawa's arts policies assailed". The Globe and Mail. Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. 1 Dec 1992. p. A1.
  25. Flood, Alison (8 July 2018). "The English Patient wins public poll of best Man Booker in 50 years". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  26. Van Gelder, Lawrence (25 Mar 1997). "'English Patient' Dominates Oscars With Nine, Including Best Picture". New York Times. Retrieved 11 Nov 2014.

Bibliography
  • Ondaatje, Michael (1993). The English Patient. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-74520-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. "Ondaatje's The English Patient and Questions of History." Comparative Cultural Studies and Michael Ondaatje's Writing. Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek. West Lafayette: Purdue UP, 2005. 115–32.
  • Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. "Michael Ondaatje's 'The English Patient,' 'History,' and the Other." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 1.4 (1999).
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