Nuns and Soldiers: Analysis of Major Characters
"Nuns and Soldiers" explores the intricate dynamics between several major characters, primarily focusing on themes of love, loss, and the moral complexities of human relationships. Central to the narrative is Guy Openshaw, a wealthy and intellectual figure facing terminal cancer, whose philosophical musings challenge those around him to confront their own lives and decisions. His wife, Gertrude, evolves through grief and companionship as she navigates her relationship with Tim Reede, a penniless painter with a complicated past, and the Count, a devoted friend who harbors unspoken love for her.
Anne Cavidge, a former nun, serves as a bridge between Gertrude and the male characters, grappling with her own search for purpose after leaving the convent. The interactions among these characters illuminate the tension between personal desires and the implications of truth, particularly in love and fidelity. Tim's struggle with his past and commitment to Gertrude underscores the moral dilemmas faced by all, while the Count’s silent love for Gertrude and his consultations with Anne highlight the complexities of friendship amidst romantic entanglements. The narrative ultimately weaves a tapestry of emotional and ethical challenges, urging readers to consider the repercussions of their choices and the quest for honesty in relationships.
Nuns and Soldiers: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Iris Murdoch
First published: 1980
Genre: Novel
Locale: London and southern France
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: The late 1970's
Guy Openshaw, a senior official in the Home Office; he is wealthy, intellectual, highly competent, and dying of cancer. He is a helper of Tim Reede and a friend to the Count. Although they lost their only child, Guy and his wife, Gertrude, have had a successful marriage. Although he is terminally ill, Guy renounces painkillers long enough to tell Gertrude lucidly that he wishes her to be happy again. He has wandering, philosophical conversations with the Count and discusses vice and virtue with Anne Cavidge, a former nun. Guy believes that his own virtue is accuracy and that justice is not a virtue but a calculation. Guy believes in consequences; he seeks truth and finds Purgatory a hopeful idea. The book is devoted to those who must reorder their lives because of Guy's death, to the need for truth, and to the unavoidable consequences of action and inaction—all ideas the reader meets first in Guy's conversations. His death establishes the premise of the novel, and he brings together the other characters.
Gertrude Openshaw, Guy's thirty-eight-year-old, attractive wife and eventually his wealthy but grief-stricken widow. During Guy's last days and after his death, Gertrude turns to Anne Cavidge, her friend from Cambridge days, for support and companionship. She sees the former nun sharing her comfortable life. When Tim Reede, Guy's protégé, a penniless painter, appeals to her, she generously offers him the job of caretaker in her French house. Falling in love with him there comes unexpectedly. Tim is equally in love, and the two are married. Guy's family is naturally opposed, as are Anne Cavidge and the Count, who has loved Gertrude for years. When it comes to their notice that Tim has a longtime mistress of whose existence Gertrude is ignorant, both are eager to act in Gertrude's interest, not their own. They decide that she must be told. Gertrude sends Tim away but suffers in his absence. She turns to the Count and Anne for company. When Tim reappears at the house in France, Gertrude is overjoyed, and the couple renew their married life. Gertrude loves Tim but continues to mourn for Guy. She also manages to include the Count in her new circle, so that he can at least return to his place as platonic friend.
Anne Cavidge, a friend of Gertrude at Cambridge who entered a closed order of nuns but has now returned to the world. Anne, though her clear vision of faith has gone, is still a pilgrim seeking her path. At first, her duty seems to be with Guy and Gertrude. Her uneasiness about Tim, her discovery of his mistress, and her love for the Count make Anne's relationship to Gertrude complex. Anne wishes Tim and Gertrude to be together because the Count might then become aware of her. She believes that Tim is not a good choice for Gertrude and so tells her the unpleasant truth, even knowing that if Gertrude is free, the Count will propose to her. Anne also finds it hard to obtain employment because of her age and lack of experience. When Gertrude and Tim are reunited and Gertrude finds room for the Count in her new life, Anne leaves for the United States to work with an order of Poor Clares there.
Peter Szczepanski, called the Count, the only child of Polish immigrant parents. This lonely man is a friend of Guy and in love with Gertrude. He is a man of honor and cannot tell Gertrude of his love, neither while Guy is alive nor too soon after his death. In the meantime, she remarries. Afraid of acting in his own interest rather than Gertrude's, the Count consults Anne when he discovers that Tim has a mistress. Anne and the Count become friends, and he never suspects that she is in love with him. Briefly hopeful when Gertrude's second marriage seems to be over, the Count again accustoms himself to his old relationship with Gertrude.
Tim Reede, a mediocre painter in his early thirties, a red-haired, sunny-natured, and feckless drifter. Reede has lived a hand-to-mouth existence with his mistress Daisy for years. He is not particularly intelligent and is ill-informed; he lives by sense, enjoying every day as it comes. He has no particular regard for truth, and when he falls deeply in love with Gertrude, he hopes that the problem of Daisy will go away. When Gertrude dismisses him, he returns to Daisy, but he finally realizes that, even if he never sees Gertrude again, he must break with his former mistress. His reunion with Gertrude results, morally, from this new commitment to truth.