Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Undoubtedly, the central theme of "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" is war. This is clear even when reading the title of the novel for the first time, as the word "Captain" suggests that military subjects, if not war itself, are predominant in the story. Even before the novel starts we are presented with an extremely melancholic and gloomy poem about war, "The Soldier", by Humbert Wolfe, now confirming our idea that the novel treats war as a main theme and additionally setting the tone (essentially melancholic) in which this theme will be presented.

After reading the novel we realise that all of the events that occurred in the story are, in some way or another, originated because of the war, this is to say, the war is the engine that drives the series of actions that we encounter. It is important then to understand the significance of war's depiction in the novel, as, by understanding the instigator of the occurrences which Louis de Bernières portrays, we can comprehend his intention and hence extract the essence of his work.As war is the cause of the incidents in the book, we have to look at its origins in order to understand its implications in context with them. Under this trend we arrive at the conclusion that the originators of war are the governments of the countries in conflict, and, as we are dealing with single-party states, their totalitarian leader.

Therefore, in this case, those responsible for the war are Mussolini, Metaxas and afterwards Hitler. De Bernières is obviously aware of this and reflects this by giving us the descriptions of these first two men very early in the novel.If we take a close look to their characterisations, we are given in both sides the image that supreme leaders, even having absolute power, are also human beings and are subject to their own errors and defects. Mussolini is portrayed as being irresponsible and inconsistent with his ideas (as he remarks that he does not take naps but then states: "I'm going to go and lie down, it must be past siesta-time.

"), and, as an element of humour, he cannot stand cats.Metaxas is shown having ordinary domestic problems with her daughter Lulu and in no way being a "God-like" figure that totalitarian leaders usually try to portray in front of their people. This leads to an important argument: given the recurrent references to Greek mythology in the text we can interpret the leaders and their humanly descriptions as being modern versions of those ancient Greek gods which used to play around with mortals' fates and had the same kind of human weaknesses as those found in the leaders (unserious temper and domestic problems).Under this context, war is but a mere game of gods, a bloody contest of superiority played with anonymous statistical pieces they call soldiers. The structure of the military institutions makes it impossible for the "pieces" to go against these pseudo-gods and their "divine commands" are translated into orders for the common soldier who has to obey them as if they came from God himself.

The omnipotence of orders, and the subsequent impotence felt by the ordained is stressed along the climaxing sections of the book, especially when Gunter is forced to shoot his friends to death.Gunter's impotence and desperation is clearly perceived, firstly when he talks to the Major and then when he is in front of his friends of La Scala: "Weber's face trembled with suppressed tears and desperation, and at last he said suddenly, 'Forgive me. '" This feature of the writing now shows that anonymity is found at both sides, not only from the leader to the soldier, but also vice-versa. The soldiers do not know these faceless gods which command their fates, they just recognise them by images and other representations, much like ancient Greeks represented their own gods.At one point, when Corelli is wandering among the ruins of Argostoli, De Bernières reflects upon this: "Little girls as innocent and sweet as this had died for nothing in Malta, in London, in Hamburg, in Warsaw. But they are statistical little girls, children he had never seen himself".

This quote also exposes Bernières intention in depicting war as he did, by saying that the little girls had died "for nothing" he expresses how meaningless and futile it is to fight a war, reinforcing the idea that it is almost some macabre contest between nations.Alekos is the author's main tool to express this view about war. As Alekos lives alone in the summit of Mt. Aenos he is isolated from the world below and often looks down and mistakes what he sees.

In this way he confuses a parachutist with an angel and thinks of the battle between Germans and Italians as a change in date of St. Gerasimos festival. This innocence we can perceive, together with the fact that he lives higher up that the rest of people, suggests some sort of divine nature again with Alekos, (it is also interesting to say that in the first chapter in Dr.Iannis' writing we get a reference that there was a temple to god Zeus, the god of gods, in the summit of Mt.

Aenos) however, because we now so little of Alekos characteristics he seems less human. His childish views of what happens hide some kind of wisdom, as his innocent reflections of the events put the reader in a position outside the conflict, higher up on Mt. Aenos, and make him reflect upon the reason, the point, of this war. This is accomplished by De Bernières because of the fact that innocence is a characteristic of children, and it is the world of adults that is in conflict, so in a way, in order to leave greed (completely absent in Alekos as he is happy with his routinary way of life) and war behind we have to learn from children and in this case from Alekos to look at the world in innocence.

A contrast arises when we see the war from this elevated level and compare it with the very graphical and gory descriptions we get of certain deaths in the story.It is inevitable that if we regard war from this "godly" point of view the subject of anonymity will arise, as previously stated when dealing with Mussolini's view. However De Bernières also presents us with the people behind the numbers, the humans with feelings, emotions and desires. An interesting point arises when these two aspects clash; this is, in individual death. The author's style when relating the death of someone or the appearance of a corpse is in fact quite exaggeratedly violent: "The pieces of skull looked grey and were coated in membrane and thick blood. Some of the fluid was bright red, and some of it was crimson.

He was still alive" or "He stared wonderingly into the middle of Carlo's back as ragged and appalling holes burst through from inside his body, releasing shreds of tattered flesh and crimson gouts of blood. " The author uses here impacting images aided by the slightly onomatopoeic sounds of words to add and effect of repulsion to the description ("thick blood", "tattered flesh", "gouts of blood"). This contrasts with the peaceful and ethereal image of death that is suggested when looking at it in godly perspective (as in the poem before the beginning), which is related to the statistical approach to death as seen before.This contrast between the numerical insignificancy of an individual and the sentimental value this "insignificancy" can hold for another individual tells us about the enormous fragility of a person, and how this fragile and ephemeral being can have such serious consequences in the future of other persons, as it is seen in the psychological impact in Carlo after Francesco's death and the impact on the Captain and the rest after Carlo's one.

This sort of exponential consequence diffusion is the backbone behind Bernières intention of showing war as the main reason for the outcome of events in the story, or, now taking in account the interpretation that the leaders are god-like figures that play with the humans like ancient Greek gods, being the vehicle that they use to influence people's lives. It is important to say that even though Metaxas dies very early in the story, it is his decision to fight the Italians and the subsequent consequences that carry on living, so he has too to be taken in account.It is also important to take in account the reactions of the people in the island to the war. One especially interesting example is Father Arsenios who, after being frustrated because God wouldn't help the Greeks, decided to take action himself: "It came to him, as a man, that he might surpass the God that made him, and do fro Greece what God had not.

Father Arsenios' eagerness to surpass God would be seen as a direct defiance to a divine order under Christian terms, but in context with our interpretation that the leaders behind the governments are given a god-like representation in the text, his reaction would be much more logical as this would only mean that he wants to transcend the barriers of the oppressive Italian occupation in order to liberate his land.However, as we are treating with an Orthodox priest the suggestion of ancient Greek gods is replaced by the Christian God in order to keep the concordance between the leaders and their symbolic manifestation towards the people. In this passage, the idea that war is being controlled by some kind of superior being is reinforced, as Arsenios' reaction is to God's unwillingness to stop the war. However, God's order, in the plane on which Arsenions sees it as compared with military orders, is that Cephallonia remains under oppression.Again the idea of impotence against orders is brought about, as his death, even though he was struggling with all his strength against the invasors, confirms.

In conclusion, war is depicted dually in the text in order to show the two perspectives we can have. From the elevated point of view, war is seen as futile and senseless, putting in risk the lives of millions of brave men and innocent people, in essence, just for the sake of doing it.However, the consequences of this are brought about very clearly in the text by showing death in a crude and violent way, emphasising human fragility together with the impotence an individual has, and the insignificance it is for an entire system. War here acts as the catalyst of those with power to change someone's fate and therefore the essence of its role is to show the injustice present in the random nature of human future, here presented as the determined decisions of totalitarian governments, hence showing a major but inevitable flaw in our system of equality and freedom.