The Good Soldier Character Analysis

Representation of the Human Character in the “Good Soldier”

Just as Virginia Woolf’s essay “Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown” uses the setting of a train carriage to show how “human character changed”, in Ford Maddox Ford’s The Good its narrative, but the novel itself becomes a train-like vehicle for discussing the representation of character. Ultimately, the novel embodies the constant journey that is human character, which must be interpreted and conveyed by the reader and novelist as they climb on-board. In The Good Soldier the train represents the fragmentary nature of character and provides and red” (50). His impressions are brief and fragmented, the conjunction “and” emphasizing the multiplicity of colors flickering before his eyes. Furthermore, the passages

Similarly, whilst Dowell describes glimpses seen through the “glass” of the train window, he is also aware of his wife’s reflection on its surface, The Soul of London 120). Dowell uses this method window, human character changes when viewed from different positions. Consequently, as “the perfect symbol of modern fragmentation” (Haslam 190) the train provides an apt setting for exploring the collision of these fragments of character. In effect, in Ford’s novel the train becomes a site for representing the struggle between aspects of human character, particularly in the case of Edward Ashburnham. From the outset, Dowell describes the Ashburnham’s as “good people” (13). Edward is a “gentleman” (30) and a “good soldier” (33). However, he is also a “senti), encouraging him to cross class boundaries. Only when confronted with the threat that the “Kilsyte Case” (as the scandal becomes known) will present to his “public character” (108), does Edward realize the consequences of his “mad passion” (60). Conversely, when Edward sees Nancy to