The English Patient

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-10

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Almásy/The English Patient

One of the novel’s central characters, the eponymous English patient is a badly burned man being cared for by Hana at the Villa San Girolamo. He suffers from amnesia and claims to have forgotten both his name and his nationality, but Caravaggio ultimately identifies him as Almásy, a Hungarian count and desert explorer. Much of the narratives consists of Almásy discussing with Hana his doomed romance with married Englishwoman Katharine Clifton, who, along with her husband Geoffrey, was part of the same North African exploration team as Almásy. Almásy’s only belonging is his worn copy of Herodotus’s Histories, into which he has inserted clippings from other texts as well as his own writing (See: Symbols & Motifs).

Almásy is notable for his love of the desert, believing it to be a place where one’s nationality does not matter. However, during World War II, he helped German spies navigate the route into Egypt, thus undermining his own belief that desert landscapes are fundamentally apolitical. He is wracked by guilt, both about his collaboration with the Nazis and about Katharine’s death, the latter of which occurred because British spies refused to help Almásy rescue her. However, he maintains that betrayals in war are much less important than betrayals in peace, which suggests that he elevates the personal above the political: This allows him to justify his efforts to aid the Germans, as he simply saw his love for Katharine as more important than any broader sociopolitical obligations. His ultimate fate is never revealed.

Almásy is loosely based on Hungarian aristocrat and desert cartographer László Almásy (1895-1951).

Hana

Hana, the novel’s other central character, is a 20-year-old Canadian nurse. Having been stationed at the Villa San Girolamo, she refuses to leave with the rest of her division after the Liberation of Italy because Almásy is too badly injured to travel. She spends most of her time caring for him—often reading to him from his own copy of the Histories—but she also plants a garden in the villa’s orchard.

Hana becomes infatuated with the English patient. She knows she should not develop emotional ties to her patients and calls them all “buddy” in an attempt to keep connections from developing, but she sees Almásy as a saint-like, almost holy, figure, eventually growing to love him. However, she believes she is cursed and that everyone around her is doomed to die.

Hana has been deeply traumatized by the violence of the war, particularly by the death of her father, Patrick. Patrick died alone in France after being badly burned and Hana is obsessed with the thought that she could have saved him. Outside of Almásy and Kip, the only person to whom Hana is close is her stepmother, Clara, who has written to her many times during the war. However, Hana has never responded. Throughout the novel, Hana is forced to confront her own trauma and begin to heal; she also must accept that she will eventually have to leave the villa and return to the real world. Ultimately, she realizes she is ready to go back to Canada and reconnect with Clara.

Kirpal “Kip” Singh

One of the novel’s minor protagonists, Kip is an Indian Sikh from Punjab who volunteered for the British Army, much to the chagrin of his Indian nationalist brother. Kip becomes a sapper after joining Lord Suffolk’s experimental bomb disposal unit. He grows close to Lord Suffolk, who, along with Kip’s second-in-command, Hardy, teaches Kip Western songs and customs. Despite the fact that Kip immerses himself in Western culture, he is always seen as “other” by white Westerners, during his time in the army and at the villa. Lord Suffolk is killed while attempting to dismantle a bomb, leading Kip to become emotionally withdrawn.

Kip and his partner are drawn to the villa when they hear Hana playing piano during a thunderstorm. Kip decides to stay and clear any unexploded bombs that remain in the area, and he and Hana soon become lovers. While Kip sees the residents of the villa as nationless, Hana’s initial attraction to him is largely motivated by his physical appearance, and she exoticizes his dark skin and turban.

Hana tries to keep Kip and Almásy apart, afraid that they will not get along, but the two men become close friends. At the end of the novel, Kip threatens to kill Almásy after learning about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, having come to see Almásy as emblematic of racist colonial violence. However, he simply strips off his Western clothes, leaves the villa, and returns to India, where he marries and has children. He never forgets his time at the villa and thinks of Hana often.

Caravaggio

David Caravaggio, often known only by his last name, has complicated relationships with Hana, Kip, and Almásy. An Italian immigrant to Canada, he was friends with Hana’s father before the war and has known Hana since she was a child. He is a professional thief who fought for the Allies during the war: He was a desirable enlistee specifically because of his profession, and the Allies used him to infiltrate German strongholds and steal important documents.

Toward the end of the war, he is caught by the Germans and tortured by Italian interrogators in Florence, the latter of whom cut off his thumbs. After the war ends, Caravaggio is sent to a military hospital in Rome, where he hears stories about a nurse who refuses to evacuate a villa in northern Italy. After he arrives at the villa, he develops romantic feelings for Hana. She feels deep, but not romantic, affection for him.

As a result of his imprisonment and torture, Caravaggio has lost his nerve, finding himself unable to steal anymore. Like the very sick Almásy, he is addicted to morphine, and this form of shared suffering helps the two men develop a close relationship (and is the method by which Caravaggio learns Almásy’s true identity). While initially critical of Kip’s non-Western customs, Caravaggio and Kip also become good friends. While the novel does not disclose Caravaggio’s fate after the end of the narrative, he, like Hana, has begun the process of healing psychologically after the horrors of war.