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Pilar / Pablo’s Wife
Pablo, once a great fighter, is now the disillusioned leader of the guerillas, along with his wife, Pilar. Pablo is introduced to Robert Jordan as a “man both serious and valiant,” though Pablo repeatedly abandons the guerillas and disagrees with their tactics, taking issue with Jordan’s plan to blow up the bridge (claiming that it is too dangerous a mission to undertake). Pablo longs for a life free from chaos, violence, and disaster, and he is attached to horses, which he seems to view as a source of beauty in the midst of war and destruction. Though Pablo recognizes the error of his ways after stealing and destroying Jordan’s explosives, thus limiting the potential of the offensive on the bridge and endangering the guerillas, his repentance does not make up for the consequences of his actions. Because the group doesn’t have enough explosives, they must carry out the plan in close proximity to the bridge (more explosives would have allowed them to be a safer distance away), and many of the guerillas are killed in the process. Pablo survives, forced to live with his own guilt, while Robert Jordan dies a martyr. At first, Robert Jordan is presented as Pablo’s foil, a model of heroic masculinity. It is suggested, though, that Pablo was once as heroic as Jordan—he helped to kill a number of fascist sympathizers in his hometown during a bloody coup—though he has become cynical about the war. Jordan, too, becomes disillusioned with the Republican cause, and thus, the two characters are not as different as they initially seem.
Pablo Quotes in For Whom the Bell Tolls
The For Whom the Bell Tolls quotes below are all either spoken by Pablo or refer to Pablo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
Robert Jordan […] saw also the wife of Pablo standing there and watched her blush proudly and soundly and healthily as the allegiances were given.
“I am for the Republic,” the woman of Pablo said happily. “And the Republic is the bridge.”
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Chapter 10
Quotes
Because the people of this town are as kind as they can be cruel and they have a natural sense of justice and a desire to do that which is right. But cruelty had entered into the lines and also drunkenness or the beginning of drunkenness and the lines were not as they were when Don Benito had come out. I do not know how it is in other countries, and no one cares more for the pleasure of drinking than I do, but in Spain drunkenness, when produced by other elements than wine, is a thing of great ugliness and the people do things that they would not have done.
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Chapter 43
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“There is no good-by, guapa, because we are not apart. That it should be good in the Gredos. Go now. Go good. Nay,” [Robert Jordan] spoke now still calmly and reasonably as Pilar walked the girl along. “Do not turn around. Put thy foot in. Yes. Thy foot in. Help her up,” he said to Pilar. “Get her in the saddle. Swing up now.” He turned his head, sweating, and looked down the slope, then back toward where the girl was in the saddle with Pilar by her and Pablo just behind. “Now go,” he said. “Go.”
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Pablo Quotes in For Whom the Bell Tolls
The For Whom the Bell Tolls quotes below are all either spoken by Pablo or refer to Pablo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4
Quotes
Robert Jordan […] saw also the wife of Pablo standing there and watched her blush proudly and soundly and healthily as the allegiances were given.
“I am for the Republic,” the woman of Pablo said happily. “And the Republic is the bridge.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
Because the people of this town are as kind as they can be cruel and they have a natural sense of justice and a desire to do that which is right. But cruelty had entered into the lines and also drunkenness or the beginning of drunkenness and the lines were not as they were when Don Benito had come out. I do not know how it is in other countries, and no one cares more for the pleasure of drinking than I do, but in Spain drunkenness, when produced by other elements than wine, is a thing of great ugliness and the people do things that they would not have done.
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Chapter 43
Quotes
“There is no good-by, guapa, because we are not apart. That it should be good in the Gredos. Go now. Go good. Nay,” [Robert Jordan] spoke now still calmly and reasonably as Pilar walked the girl along. “Do not turn around. Put thy foot in. Yes. Thy foot in. Help her up,” he said to Pilar. “Get her in the saddle. Swing up now.” He turned his head, sweating, and looked down the slope, then back toward where the girl was in the saddle with Pilar by her and Pablo just behind. “Now go,” he said. “Go.”
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