Spanish Women In Ernest Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls

In Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, he gives a story of the stress and strife during a war between fascist groups. The drama and emotion, every character displays shows their own individuality and their importance to accomplishing the ultimate goal. Women, during this time, played a major role in easing the men’s emotions. Before one can compare the role of Maria to Pilar, they must first know what the role of a typical Spanish women during the Spanish civil war. Many Spanish women not only stayed home to help the infrastructure of their country, but also went into the armed forces. Almost four hundred thousand women served in and with the armed forces. This number exceeded the total male troop strength in nineteen thirty nine. Women went through the same training as the men but never were allowed to fire guns. They lived in the same conditions and did the same jobs but were restricted to being unable to fire a gun. At home, many women needed to take up an industrial job since most of the men were gone. Due to this, the number of women in manufacturing jobs more than doubled. In fact, in the aircraft industry alone, women made up thirty nine percent of the workforce. Maria, in fact, does not compare to the typical Spanish women during the Spanish civil war at all. She was very sensitive to everyone around her and acted more as an emotional supporter rather than contributing to the cause of the war. Maria supports Robert Jordan, emotionally, by having an affair