My Notes On Ondaatje's The English Patient

Prepared By Dr. Santosh Rathod Asst. Professor cum Asst.
Director, IDOL, University

of Mumbai
THE ENGLISH PATIENT

Michael Ondaatje
About the Author
Born on 12th Sept 1943 to Cylon to a Burgher family of DutchTamil-Sinhalese-Portuguese origin.
The Burgher are a European ethnic group from Sri Lanka who
are descendants of European colonialists and local Sinhalese
women from 16th to 20th century.
Poet, filmmaker, editor, novelist.
Linda Spalding, his wife and Ondaatje together edit the literary
journal, Brick.
In 1954, he moved to England along with his mother.
He became a Canadian citizen in 1962.
Prepared By Dr. Santosh Rathod Asst. Professor cum Asst. Director, IDOL, University
of Mumbai
He did BA from University of Toronto. MA from Queens

University of Kingston, Ontario.
As a teacher, he taught in University Western Ontario in London;
in York University Glendon College in Toronto.
In 1988, he was made an officer of the order of Canada (OC)
In 1990, he became Foreign Honorary member of the American
Academy of Arts and Letters.
His works: a memoir- Running in the Family (his Sri Lankan
childhood); poetry- The Collected Works of the Billy and the Kid
(1970), There Is a Trick with a Knife Im Learning to Do: Poems from
1973-1978 (1979) both won Governor Generals Award; novels- In
the Skin of a Lion (1987), The English Patient (1992)
In the Skin of a Lion: Its a story of early immigrant settlers in
Toronto and a prequel to The English Patient; winner of 1988 City of
Toronto Book Award; Finalist for the 1987 Ritz Paris Hemingway
of Mumbai
Award for the best novel of the year in English; selected for the first
Canada Read edition in 2002.
The English Patient: a Sequel to In the Skin of a Lion; Winner of
the Booker Prize in 1992; Canada Australia Prize; Canadian
Governor Generals Award; adapted to a motion picture which won
the Academy Award for the Best Picture in 1996.
The English Patient is a story about a critically burned man
whose life is gradually revealed, a Canadian nurse who looks after
the English patient, a Canadian thief, and an Indian sapper in
British Army as they live out the end of World War II in an Italian
Villa.
The novel divides between the past and present actions; past in a
mysterious desert and present in Italian villa.
The novel is characterized by innovative narrative structure and
multiple points of view.
of Mumbai
The literary devices are: mixture of forms of prose and poetry;

invocation and images; emotions with lyrical language. Ondaatje
once said in radio interview that he uses his prose to create tactile
landscape for his choreography.
Concept of history: in the novel Herodotus history becomes
ancient and recent history. The ancient and recent history is
connected by the parallel of the king, the beautiful queen and Gyges
in an anecdote by Herodotus and that of Geoffrey Clifton, Katharine
and Almasy. History is not static concept but a flowing, changing
force connecting past and present.
The themes explored in the novels are: national identity;
connection between mind and body; love that transcend time and
place; healing versus denial; passion versus denial; drive towards
life versus drive towards death; the desert loneliness versus
conversation; surrogate parents; debts; boundaries and spaces
of Mumbai
broken and crossed; international bastards the ones who are born
in one place and choose to live in another.
of Mumbai
Characters
Almasy
Hungarian explorer, protagonist, the English patient. His name
remain unknown till chapter ix. He is critically burned in a plane
crash beyond recognition. His romantic life and adultery with
Kathrine.
He believes that nation is a dangerous creation/invention of
humanity. Love can transcend time and place.
The irony in chapter ix of revelation of English patients name is
that the English patient is not English but Hungarian by birth, an
international bastard who spent much of his life wandering on the
desert.
His career covers searching for an ancient city of Zerzura and
mapping empty land.
of Mumbai
Appearance of Kathrine and followed by his infatuation, he

became frustrated. And finally lost focus in his profession.
He helped German spies and carried on an affair with another
mans wife.
Hona
Young Canadian nurse of 21 years old who served all Allies as a
nurse in World War II like Florence Nightingale.
She takes good care of the English patient.
She is emotionally attached to her father. Therefore she breaks
down as soon as she hears news of her fathers death.
She falls in love with English patient for the thought that she is
caring saint like man.
Her heart belongs to Kip.
of Mumbai
Kip
A brown man in the white country
A Sikh from India working as a Sapper, defusing bombs for
British army in World War II.
He is polite, well-mannered, having skills I and character of a
good sapper.
He loves Hona.
Ondaatje takes free license to portray Kip as a lens through
which to explore Anglo-Indian relations during a period of chaos for
the British Empire.
As an Indian man serving in the British army, he straddles two
worlds, walking a fine line between adopting western customs and
losing his national identity.
His job has taught him to distrust everything and everyone.
of Mumbai
He finally comes to India and becomes doctor.

Passages from the text:
She has nursed him for months and she knows the body well,
the penis sleeping like a sea horse, the thin tight hips. Hipbones of
Christ, she thinks. He is her despairing saint. He lies flat on his
back, no pillow, looking up at the foliage painted onto the ceiling, its
canopy of branches, and above that, blue sky.
Caravaggio
A Canadian thief whose skill is used by British Intelligence
during war.
He is a surrogate father of Hona.
He becomes morphine addict after his fingers have been chopped
off.
He sheds light on establishing the identity of English patient.
of Mumbai
10
of Mumbai
Kathrine Clifton
An Oxford educated woman and wife of Geoffrey Clifton.
She travels with her husband to Northern Africa.
She is a voracious reader who learns all about Cairo and desert.
She is polite and genteel and takes what she wants- she wants
Almasy to ravish her.
Her husband is devoted and kind. She does not regret to have
extra marital affairs.
Her wild and dark side of her personality is revealed through her
affairs with Almasy.
Geoffrey Clifton
A British explorer and Kathrines husband.
He is young, good natured, and affable man.
11
of Mumbai
He is one of the members of group of explorers who are mapping

North African desert.
He is endowed with Oxford educated wealthy family connections
and a young beautiful wife.
He is proud to be a devoted husband to a beautiful wife, hence he
likes praising his wife in front of others.
He comes to North Africa purely out of interest in exploration,
but lands up in working as an arial photographer.
He attempts to kill his wife, her lover and himself, but his attempt
to murder turns into a suicide.
Madox
Almasys friend in desert who has interest in desert, in studying
features of land and report back to Geographical Society.
He always carries a copy of Anna Karenina (a tale of adultry) but
remains faithful to his wife back home.
12
of Mumbai
He takes his own life in the church. Almasy says, He died

because of nations.
13
of Mumbai
Lord Suffock
He is a member of old English aristocrat who takes upon himself
to defuse bombs and train others in it.
For others, Suffock is strange and eccentric, but for Kip, he is
wonderful and kind mentor. For Kip, he can go beyond race and
welcome Kip into English family. His death is a great loss in Kips
life.
Patrick
He is Hanas father who raised Hana.
Both leave Canada to join the war efforts.
Hana suffers a broken-down after her fathers death. At the same
time, she takes comfort in the fact that he died in a holy place, a
dove-cot, a protective place like church.
14
of Mumbai
Clara
Hanas step mother. Hana remembers her which shows her
attachment to her stepmother. For Hana she symbolizes home, a
place she has escaped from but she longs for returning to it at the
end of the novel.
Themes, Motifs and Symbols
Themes
(i)
Nationality and Identity
Family and nation is irrelevant.

The desert and isolated villa is a place where national identity is
not important to ones connections with others.
The reality, however, is that during war time national identity is
placed above all else.
The national identity is inescapable part of each of the characters
in the novel.
15
of Mumbai
16
of Mumbai
(ii)
Loves Ability to Transcend Time and Place
True love is universal; it is not governed by time and place.

Hana feels love and connection to her father though he has died
alone.
Almasy loves Katherine even though he is unable to see her
reach her in the cave.
Kip never loses his connection with Hana even if he leaves Italy to
marry in India.
Thus time and place are irrelevant to human connections.
Motifs
(i)
Bodies
The recurrence of description of bodies develops the themes of

healing, changing and renewal.
Almasys burned body
17
of Mumbai
Kips dark and lithe or agile body

Katherines willowy, flexible and succulent body
Bodies in the novel function as means of physical connections
between characters and tie them to certain time and place.
(ii)
Dying in a Holy Place
Katherine dies in a cave, a holy place to ancient people.

Patrick dies in a holy place, a dove-cot, a hedge above a building
where doves can be safe from predatory rats.
Madox dies in a holy place by taking his life in a Church of
England.
It does not signify a place that is holy to individual people:
Katherine hates the desert; Patrick hates to be alone; Madox loses
faith in holiness of the Church. It is to be noted that none dies in a
location special to them.
(iii) Reading
18
of Mumbai
Reading in the novel recurs in various forms and capacities.

Hana reads to Almasy to connect with him and tries to make him
interested in the present life.
Katherine reads voraciously about Cairo and the desert.
Almasy reads histories by Herodotus to guide him in geographical
searches.
They read for their own lives and for connecting with other places
or time.
Symbols
(i)
The Atomic Bomb
The atomic bomb The United States dropped on Japan in 1945

symbolizes the worst fear of wests aggression.
(ii)
The Italian Villa
The Italian villa represents both death and rebirth.
19
of Mumbai
War destroys the villa making huge holes in walls and ceilings,
but nature filled those holes replacing void with new life.
This image mirrors or reflects the spiritual death and rebirth of
villas inhabitants.
20
of Mumbai
(iii) Desert
The desert is a character in the novel like a living entity that have
power to kill, to bury and to alter lives.
The desert cannot be claimed or owned.
It is a piece of cloth carried by wind and never held down by
stones.
Important Quotations
21

My Notes On Ondaatje's The English Patient

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Prepared By Dr. Santosh Rathod Asst. Professor cum Asst.

Director, IDOL, University

THE ENGLISH PATIENT

He did BA from University of Toronto. MA from Queens

The literary devices are: mixture of forms of prose and poetry;

Appearance of Kathrine and followed by his infatuation, he

He finally comes to India and becomes doctor.

He is one of the members of group of explorers who are mapping

He takes his own life in the church. Almasy says, He died

Nationality and Identity

Family and nation is irrelevant.

Loves Ability to Transcend Time and Place

True love is universal; it is not governed by time and place.

The recurrence of description of bodies develops the themes of

Kips dark and lithe or agile body

Dying in a Holy Place

Katherine dies in a cave, a holy place to ancient people.

Reading in the novel recurs in various forms and capacities.

The Atomic Bomb

The atomic bomb The United States dropped on Japan in 1945

The Italian Villa

The Italian villa represents both death and rebirth.

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