The main topic of the novel is death. When Robert Jordan is given the mission to blow up the bridge, he knows that he will not survive it. Pablo, upon hearing of the mission, also knows immediately that it will lead to their deaths. Sordo sees that inevitability also. Almost all of the main characters in the book contemplate their own deaths, and it is their reaction to the prospect of death, and what meaning they attach to death, especially in relation to the cause of the Republic, that defines them.

A related theme is intense comradeship in the prospect of death, the giving up of the own self for the sake of the cause, for the sake of the People. Robert Jordan, Anselmo and the others are ready to do it "as all good men should", the often repeated gesture of embracing or patting on one another's shoulder reinforces the impression of close companionship. One of the best examples is Joaquín. After having been told about the execution of his family, the others are embracing him and comfort him by saying they were his family now. Surrounding this love for the comrades, there is the love for the Spanish soil, and surrounding this a love of place and the senses, of life itself, represented by the pine needle forest floor both at the beginning and the end of the novel. Most poignantly, at the book's end, Robert Jordan awaits his death feeling "his heart beating against the pine needle floor of the forest."


Each of the characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls loses his or her psychological or physical innocence to the war. Some endure tangible traumas: Joaquín loses both his parents and is forced to grow up quickly, while Maria loses her physical innocence when she is raped by a group of Fascist soldiers. On top of these tangible, physical costs of the war come many psychological costs. Robert Jordan initially came to Spain with idealism about the Republican cause and believed confidently that he was joining the good side. But after fighting in the war, Robert Jordan becomes cynical about the Republican cause and loses much of his initial idealism.

The victims of violence in the war are not the only ones to lose their innocence—the perpetrators lose their innocence too. The ruffians in Pablo’s hometown who participate in the massacre of the town Fascists have to face their inner brutality afterward. Anselmo has to suppress his aversion to killing human beings, and Lieutenant Berrendo has to quell his aversion to cutting heads off of corpses.

War even costs the innocence of people who aren’t involved in it directly. War journalists, writers, and we as readers of novels like For Whom the Bell Tolls have to abandon our innocent expectation that wars involve clean moral choices that distinguish us from the enemy. Hemingway shows in the novel that morality is subjective and conditional, and that the sides of right and wrong are almost never clear-cut. With no definite sides of right and wrong in For Whom the Bell Tolls, there is no sense of glorious victory in battle, no sense of triumph or satisfaction that good prevails and evil is defeated.


The novel deals with the brutality of war, spotlighting that both sides are losers, for there are always casualties to both. During the story, Hemingway describes the brutal massacre of the fascists in Pablo's hometown, Jordan's killing of the calvaryman and the sentry on the bridge, the brutal murder and beheading of El Sordo's band by the fascists, Anselmo's senseless death, and Jordan's injury, leading to his certain end. It is no wonder that the characters in the novel become disillusioned about the war. In fact, Pablo is disenchanted with it from the time the book opens. Although he had been zealous about the war effort at the beginning of the movement, he has lost all interest in it. He does not want any part in Jordan's mission, for it just spells danger to him, and he simply wants to be left alone to live in the mountains and raise his horses.

In a similar manner, Jordan is very devoted to the cause and his mission at the beginning of the book; however, during the course of the novel, he too becomes disillusioned. First he realizes the folly of General Golz's orders to destroy the bridge in daylight, making the mission much more dangerous than it has to be. Then when he kills the fascist calvaryman, he realizes that the enemy is just another human being like himself. When he falls in love with Maria, he suddenly has a strong desire to be out of the war, for he simply wants to settle down and live a peaceful life with her. In the last chapter, when he kills the enemy guard on the bridge and then sees Anselmo needlessly killed, he realizes the gross and needless brutality of war and becomes totally disenchanted.

Before he is killed, Anselmo expresses his own disillusionment. Even though he is devoted to the cause, he is totally against killing and feels he must later atone for the murder of others. The brutality of war has caused him to give up his belief in God, for, according to him, if there were a God, he would not permit the kind of atrocities that have taken place. Even Pilar, who is totally devoted to the cause, begins to question the value of destroying the bridge in daylight and the danger that it causes them. Like Jordan, she begins to sense that the little man is used as a pawn in the war game, while the officers watch at a distance and discuss their battle plans at cocktail parties.

Through all of his characters, Hemingway successfully captures a sense of disillusionment about war. By the end of the novel, it is clear that fighting is not a glorious event, as is so often depicted in literature. Additionally, he makes it clear that few men are truly war heroes, for everyone in the battle comes out a loser.


Many characters die during the course of the novel, and we see characters repeatedly question what can possibly justify killing another human being. Anselmo and Pablo represent two extremes with regard to this question. Anselmo hates killing people in all circumstances, although he will do so if he must. Pablo, on the other hand, accepts killing as a part of his life and ultimately demonstrates that he is willing to kill his own men just to take their horses. Robert Jordan’s position about killing falls somewhere between Anselmo’s and Pablo’s positions. Although Robert Jordan doesn’t like to think about killing, he has killed many people in the line of duty. His personal struggle with this question ends on a note of compromise. Although war can’t fully absolve him of guilt, and he has “no right to forget any of it,” Robert Jordan knows both that he must kill people as part of his duties in the war, and that dwelling on his guilt during wartime is not productive.

The question of when it is justifiable to kill a person becomes complicated when we read that several characters, including Andrés, Agustín, Rafael, and even Robert Jordan, admit to experiencing a rush of excitement while killing. Hemingway does not take a clear moral stance regarding when it is acceptable to take another person’s life. At times he even implies that killing can be exhilarating, which makes the morality of the war in For Whom the Bell Tolls even murkier.


Even though many of the characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls take a cynical view of human nature and feel fatigued by the war, the novel still holds out hope for romantic love. Even the worldly-wise Pilar, in her memories of Finito, reveals traces of a romantic, idealistic outlook on the world. Robert Jordan and Maria fall in love at first sight, and their love is grand and idealistic. Love endows Robert Jordan’s life with new meaning and gives him new reasons to fight in the wake of the disillusionment he feels for the Republican cause. He believes in love despite the fact that other people—notably Karkov, who subscribes to the “purely materialistic” philosophy fashionable with the Hotel Gaylord set—reject its existence. This new acceptance of ideal, romantic love is one of the most important ways in which Robert Jordan rejects abstract theories in favor of intuition and action over the course of the novel.


To be a hero, Hemingway believes that a man must display grace under pressure. Most of his characters put themselves into dangerous situations and then act with remarkable bravery in the face of danger. Robert Jordan is no exception. During the novel, Robert Jordan becomes the true Hemingway Code Hero, displaying a penchant for action and grace under pressure. Even though he realizes the dangerous nature of his mission and questions the orders of General Golz to carry it out in daylight after the offensive has commenced, he never doubts his own ability to accomplish the task. Even after Pablo steals and destroys some of his key equipment, he does not run from the danger. Instead, he carefully plans the task at hand and carries it out methodically. Even though he has become disillusioned with the war effort and disagrees with the methodology of destroying the bridge, he carries out the mission flawlessly. He is, however, upset that Anselmo is killed in the process, for he knows if Pablo had not destroyed the detonator, Anselmo would have been spared.

Jordan more clearly displays grace under pressure after he has been injured by fascist gunfire. Paralyzed and unable to easily escape with the others, he insists upon being left behind with a gun. He promises to fire at the approaching fascists, giving the others more time to escape. He also refuses to let Agustin put an end to his life, for that would be cowardly. Instead, he positions himself behind a tree and stoically waits for his certain death, showing tremendous grace under pressure. When Maria begs to stay with him, he convinces her to leave by telling her his mission will have been worthwhile if her life is saved. After he blows up the bridge and is riding away to a new life with Maria, he is shot by the fascists who pursue them. When his horse is shot, he is thrown and injures his leg. Unable to travel to safety, he faces death with bravery, firing his gun at the enemy to give the others time to get away.


Throughout the novel, there are references to superstitions. An aura of mysticism prevails throughout the book. In the very beginning, Robert Jordan sets the tone of the novel when he thinks it is a very bad sign that he has forgotten Anselmo's name. The protagonist, Robert Jordan repeatedly asserts that he does not believe in prophecies and refuses to give in to superstition. In fact he states:

"These mysteries tire me very much...I do not believe in ogres, soothsayers, fortunetellers, or chicken-curt gypsy witchcraft."

But the reader never truly believes his claims, for he is always giving in to superstitions. Although he is not openly superstitious like some of the Spaniards around him, he is influenced by the mystical. He allows the gypsy Pilar to read his palm and is convinced that she sees bad fortune there when she stops midway and refuses to tell him what she sees. When she later tells Jordan that it was all a pretense, he does not belief her. In addition, Pablo's sulleness is a bad sign for Jordan, who senses from the very beginning that the guerilla leader is going to betray him. He also agrees with Pilar that the enemy planes are "bad luck birds." All these signs and superstitions increase the gloominess of the mood and foreshadow the tragic outcome of the novel.


Another important theme is suicide. The characters, including Robert, would each prefer death over capture and are prepared to kill themselves, have someone else kill them, or to fulfill the request of a companion. As the book ends, Robert, wounded (but not mortally), and unable to travel with his companions awaits a final sniping opportunity. He is mentally prepared to commit suicide to avoid capture and the inevitable torture for the extraction of information and final death at the hands of the enemy. Still, he hopes to avoid suicide partly because his father, whom he views as a coward, himself committed suicide. Robert understands suicide but doesn't approve of it, and thinks:

"You have to be awfully occupied with yourself to do a thing like that".

Robert's view of suicide as a selfish act is ironic, given that Hemingway took his own life twenty-one years later.


There are also the themes of political ideology and bigotry. After noticing how he himself so easily employed the convenient catch-phrase "enemy of the people", Robert Jordan moves swiftly into the subjects and opines:

"To be bigoted you have to be absolutely sure that you are right and nothing makes that surety and righteousness like continence. Continence is the foe of heresy."

Later in the book, Robert Jordan explains the threat of Fascism in his own country. He said:

"Robert Jordan, wiping out the stew bowl with bread, explained how the income tax and inheritance tax worked. 'But the big estates remain. Also, there are taxes on the land".

'But surely the big proprietors and the rich will make a revolution against such taxes. Such taxes appear to me to be revolutionary. They will revolt against the government when they see that they are threatened, exactly as the fascists have done here,' Primitivo said.

'It is possible.'

'Then you will have to fight in your country as we fight here.'

'Yes, we will have to fight.'

'But are there not many fascists in your country?'

'There are many who do not know they are fascists but will find it out when the time comes."

This last line could be tied to fellow writers' Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound's fascist stances during the Spanish Civil War.


Divination is another theme that arises in the book. Pilar, the gypsy woman, is a reader of palms and more. When Robert Jordan questions her true abilities, she replies:

"Because thou art a miracle of deafness.... It is not that thou art stupid. Thou art simply deaf. One who is deaf cannot hear music. Neither can he hear the radio. So he might say, never having heard them, that such things do not exist."


Hemingway's choice of a John Donne poem as the source of the novel's title and epigraph emphasizes a major theme of For Whom the Bell Tolls: "No man is an island," that is, no person can exist separate from the lives of others, even others living in far-away countries.

The theme is demonstrated most clearly by the actions of Robert Jordan. Throughout his participation in the Spanish Civil War, he has fought actively for a cause- not the cause of communism, as he says, but the cause of antifascism. As the novel progresses, his involvement with the guerrilla band, and particularly his love for Maria, teach him the value of the individual as he or she affects a larger society. The abstractions of an ideology are lifeless without the people they represent; concepts have no meaning except for the ways in which they affect human beings.

For Jordan, Maria represents human love, the first he has ever known. It is for her that he stays behind to allow the rest of the band to escape, demonstrating his realization that others depend on him as he has depended on them. His decision not to commit suicide at the end of the novel represents his ultimate understanding that he must fight for the people whose lives are affected by the cause, not purely for the cause as a generalized ideology.

Both Pablo and Pilar represent minor variations of the theme of interdependency. Pablo is full of greedy self-interest now that he owns horses. His decision to betray the guerrilla band is due to his need to survive and thrive. At the last minute, however, he seems to understand how his actions will affect those whom he once led, and he returns to help them. Pilar, on the other hand, is almost blindly devoted to the cause. She will do whatever it takes to win for the Republic. Yet she, too, comes to understand the severe toll the guerrillas' mission is likely to take, and for the first time she expresses doubt about the cause that prompted the demolition.


Who wants the Spanish Civil War? Is anyone likely to benefit from it? There is much to suggest that the common people, on whose behalf the war is supposedly being waged, are tired of the war, uninterested in it, and unlikely to benefit from it. Hemingway was prompted in part to write For Whom the Bell Tolls to show his disgust at the way in which the civil war had betrayed the Spanish people, both through internal disputes between the warring factions and through foreign intervention eager for a testing ground for an upcoming war.

The war's effect on the Spanish is demonstrated in acts of great courage and great cruelty. The challenges of the struggle created both the bloodthirstiness and greed of Pablo, as well as the steadfast courage of Pilar and Anselmo. The war may have exacted a terrible price from its people, Hemingway seems to be saying, but it often revealed them at their best.

Despite his pro-Republican leanings, Hemingway is careful to point out that both sides are capable of savage behavior and that each side is peopled with human beings with similar human needs. Through Robert Jordan, Hemingway describes how a foreigner comes to view the Spanish struggle. Jordan often states his belief in the "power, justice, and equality to the people" theory espoused by the Republicans. But he soon sees the toll the war is taking on those around him, and he realizes, too, that his own side has committed as many outrages against human rights as the enemy has.


Hemingway writes about several kinds of love in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Romantic love is depicted in the relationship of Jordan and Maria. Before Maria, Jordan had expressed himself sexually, but he had not loved. Loving her transports him from his intellectual world of ideology to the world of real-life relationships. Maria represents the love that humanizes Jordan, making possible his transition from a political partisan to one who recognizes the worth of the individual. For Maria, Jordan's love is the healing touch she needs to cure the psychic wounds inflicted upon her by her former captors.

Other kinds of love also are discussed in the novel. Many of the peasants in the guerrilla band demonstrate a fierce love of the land that supports their involvement in this brutal war. Jordan's love of liberty has brought him to Spain to fight for the Republican cause. The anguish of Pablo's band as the guerrillas listen to the attack on El Sordo's camp reflects the love among comrades. And Pilar's concern for Maria's happiness and well-being is a kind of maternal love that plays a part in Maria's healing process.


Examples of hypocrisy abound in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Prime among them are the Loyalist leaders themselves, many of whom are incompetent and uncaring. They exploit their positions in order to attain a level of comfort and self-indulgence in the midst of war.

Many of the leaders who were supposed to have sprung directly from the Spanish peasantry at the beginning of the war are not really genuine, and in fact some have been imported.

In his musings, Jordan admits that he doesn't really believe all the things he says he believes in order to justify his involvement in the war.
The communist slogans that Joaquin mouths as El Sordo's band is being besieged provide further examples of a philosophy that does not seem to work, yet is regarded by many as sacred.

The crowning touch is Andre Marty, the visiting French communist leader. Although many regard him with awe, his incompetence regularly sends men to their death- while career officers stand around and do nothing about it. He embodies both tactical bungling and self-centered hypocrisy.