As with some of Hemingway’s other work, many of the characters, experiences, and events were based off real people and battles Hemingway saw. One of the most interesting qualities of For Whom the Bell Tolls is the use and restraint of profanity. In fact, many believe his work is among the best depictions of the Spanish Civil War written. Inspired by Hemingway’s time as a war correspondent for The North American Newspaper Alliance during the Spanish Civil War, For Whom the Bell Tolls is a stark and brutal commentary on the nature of war, sacrifice, and death. He lies on the hillside almost delirious, restraining himself from suicide so that he may shoot the leader of the Fascists, and thinks, “I have fought for what I believed in for a year now.Many consider For Whom the Bell Tolls to be author Ernest Hemingway’s finest work. In the attempt to flee he is wounded, and forces the others to leave him. Leaving the retreat, Jordan successfully blasts the bridge. The generals finally realize they should have cancelled the attack, but it is too late. A sense of impending disaster develops, with smoldering opposition within the group, a Falangist attack on the guerrilla leader El Sordo on a neighboring hill, acts of cowardice by Pablo, and a mission by Andrés to Loyalist headquarters to carry a note from Jordan saying the advance is likely to fail, with the messenger impeded by the Communists' bureaucracy and suspicion. The others include foul-mouthed Agustín pedantic, dignified Fernando the gypsy Rafael and the adoring Andrés. Her man Pablo is wily but lacks belief and hence courage. Their passionate love is abetted by the powerful woman Pilar, who dominates the group by her force of character, gusto, and love of the Republic. Her close-cropped hair is a symbol of her tortures Jordan helps her to regain her desire to live. He falls in love with Maria, daughter of a Republican mayor, who has seen her parents killed and was herself raped by Falangists. During the three days and nights that he spends in the guerrillas' cave, he awaits with a romantic opposition to heroism what he suspects will be his own destruction and that of his companions. Robert Jordan, an American, has entered the Loyalist army during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, and has been sent to join a guerrilla band in the mountains near Segovia to blow up a strategic bridge at the exact minute that will help a Loyalist advance.

The title is derived from a sermon by Donne: “No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe every man is a peece of the Continent … And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls It tolls for thee.”

For whom the bell tolls novel