1.1.1-Knightlypatroclus

Hello! Sorry I’m late (sick/course registration, you know) Anyway! Attempts at analysis through Iliad parallels are below. (The Iliad is the only text I know really well that relates to war and conflict, and I’ve heard it’s still highly applicable, so)

"What, you don’t know who killed your husband?" "No." "Was it a Blue? Was it a White?" "It was a bullet."

This is really interesting. He’s so focused on his point of view - that there is Blue and White and obviously the person who did it is on one, and that’s important to him, because that’s probably how he determines right versus wrong. (Note: I claim to know nothing of war beyond the Iliad, but that’s a…decent start, I think.) He tries to be nice to her and pity her, and I think he genuinely does have empathy for her and care about her, but even then this sort of thing comes out.

(Iliad parallels time, because that’s about all I can contribute!) It’s maybe like how when Patroclus is trying to comfort Briseis he says that she can marry Achilles, and how Agamemnon tries telling Achilles that he can marry one of his daughters, but neither Briseis nor Achilles really gets what they want and is fully understood. Briseis is mourning the loss of every man she ever knew and her own husband besides, so I suppose Briseis is probably closer to her than Achilles. (Or Andromache, maybe. i’ll keep this post as reference for if she shows up later and I have more info on who she is as a person yesss)

back to the actual book! I think it’s interesting how she is affected by war on such a different personal level that, although he can feel sympathy for her, and he almost certainly knows what it’s like to lose a close friend or brother in battle where she may not, he also probably doesn’t quite know her pain, just as she won’t ever quite know his. Although it’s clear he understands more here:

"She hasn’t kept any for herself," muttered the sergeant. "It is because she isn’t hungry," said a soldier. "It’s because she is their mother," said the sergeant. The children interrupted them.

(i’m pretty sure they’re both the same person i’m sick and tired forgive me) So he does pretty strongly empathise with her and seems to understand at least some of what she’s going through. (Also interesting - they empathise with her, and at the end are all ‘yay you’re definitely one of us!’ even though it doesn’t seem like she identifies as French so much as Breton and really thinks of herself as being with these men)