The Curfew Tolls
Stephen Vincent Benet
This is a short story which uses the biographical account. This account was revealed using the detailed nine letters of General Sir Charles William Geoffrey Escourt, C.B. to his sister, Harriet. The sequence of events was express using the first point of view narrated by Gen. Sir Charles himself. This story seems to act as a history tale.
The atmosphere was filled with topics mostly enjoyed by men. It has foretold how the two major characters, Gen. Sir Charles and Bonaparte take pleasure in discussing the “art of war” and playing a “war game”. It has also showed the dreams, transformation, hauntings and the sojourn of these two major characters. The story shows a military bonding relationship talking about the French Revolution. This in general tells readers a glimpse of the life of Bonaparte retold in a personal manner. It’s different because it is not focused on the historical account of Bonaparte as a commanding general. The story reflects the character’s strengths and weaknesses foretold in a personal manner. It has narrated how he was identified as a bandit. He was even described by Gen. Sir Charles as a “broken soldier”.
At first, the story was presented simply. The punch only came at the later end of the story when the acquaintance was named using these words, “Here lies NAPOLEONE BUONAPARTE”. His strong personality seems to say something.
The character of Napoleon Bonaparte in this story was pictured as a man with strong personality, intelligence, authoritative and in some parts rude and arrogant. Conversations between the Gen. Sir Charles and Bonaparte sometimes seem offensive. Some parts of this story show his vulnerability. This story gives readers a window of a strong personality like Bonaparte living a normal life. His character shows longings to do a lot of things before parting as reflected in these lines, “If I had Alexander’s chance would have bettered Alexander”, “If I had been born under the Sun-King, I would be a Marshall of France; If I had been born twenty years ago, I would mold a new Europe with my fist in the next dozen of years”. History tells us how Bonaparte conquered places, but in this account, it seems that he was not contented even in the summit of his greatness.
This story did not only talk about his mighty contribution to French revolution. Here, Bonaparte was a picture of a sick man. It has also shown his affection for his family and for friendship. As a family man he was described using these lines “For though not the eldest, he is strongest among them and they know it. They rebel, but he rules their family”.
The story accounted how Napoleon faced death calmly yet the narrator expressed his fear that “it was without the sincere repentance of a Christian”. It has also showed a picture of how some people hoped for his death. These are illuminated in the lines, “his end was relatively serene as might be hoped for” and “France had had enough of him”.
This however brings to mind a paradox of Bonaparte’s life. His life here is different from what we have known as what history told us. This story can be a very good example to differentiate an account foretold in a personal manner and an account foretold solely for historical purposes. Both are in narratives but the angle of how to tell the story is different.
This story has brought the classic question men are still in search for answers. This is communicated in these lines, “But have you never known the curse… the curse of not being employed when you should be employed? The course of being a hammer with no nail to drive? –the curse of sitting in a dusty garrison town with dreams that would split the brain of a garrison town with dreams that would split the brain of a Caesar and no room on earth for those dreams?”
This account also brought out topics about corruption in their French system. This is contained in the following lines, “He steals an empire for you, and your virtuous English parliament holds up its hands in horror because he steals a few lakhs of rupees for himself as well”.
Figurative language was noted in these lines “He is pleased as a child”, “half of a mind to break off the acquaintance early”, “courteous captors”, “It was like being in a nest of Italian smugglers, or a den of quarrelsome foxes”
This story shows traces that Harriet was also sending letters to her brother but none of her replies was published.
The setting was filled with conflicts –the two major characters’ spicy discussions and the family’s aggressiveness. The story is always talking about war that it seems peace don’t exist. This is highly contrasted to the peace felt only when Bonaparte died.
In this story, it is hard to identify the conflict, the rising action and all the elements of Freytag’s triangle. Maybe because this story deviates from what a number call as the standard of narrating a short story. The author has his own way through omitting other words of building characters, creating a story and leaving an impact.
More than three fourths of the story is more on character building.
Death has become a topic. It shows that death chooses no one. No matter how powerful Bonaparte has become, he died a lonely man that he can not even carry with him his treasures.
Chelyn Torejas, Literary Criticism
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