Quote 1
For
him it was a dark passage which led to nowhere, then to nowhere,
then again to nowhere, once again to nowhere, always and forever
to nowhere . . .
This quotation from Chapter Thirteen
describes Maria and Robert Jordan’s lovemaking on their way back
from visiting El Sordo. Hemingway’s language in this passage strives
to imitate the sexual act and re-create the structure of the experience
for the reader. We can identify the repetitive rhythm of sexual
intercourse: “[I]t was a dark passage which led to nowhere, then
to nowhere, then again to nowhere, once again to nowhere . . .”
The passage goes on to describe the climax: “up, up, up . . .” and
the ejaculation: “and into nowhere, suddenly, scaldingly, holdingly
. . . .” Finally, with “all nowhere gone and time absolutely still
and they were both there, time having stopped and he felt the earth
move out and away from under them,” the jumble of words reorganizes
itself back into grammatical clauses, mimicking the post-climactic
regaining of the senses. This last phrase returns to the physical
description that is typical of Robert Jordan’s point of view throughout
the novel. Here as often elsewhere throughout the novel, Hemingway’s
writing style mirrors Robert Jordan’s psychological state. Just
as, most of the time, the controlled, direct prose embodies Robert
Jordan’s clear, logical thinking, the confusion and loss of control
over language in this passage reflects Robert Jordan’s loss of physical
and psychological control during sex.
