The novel actually contains two love stories - the sacred and the profane: one in the desperation of Italy at the end of World War II as Hana’s devotion to the English patient reflects on a pure and worthy kind of love. Their story is even reinforced by their existence in a ruined palazzo surrounded by books and a nearby medieval village. The other in the decadent cauldron of 1930's Cairo where everything is profane, and yet the love story that sprouts up between Katherine and Almasy is irresistible - and it draws us into its tale of desire and destruction. The two love stories intersect in the body of the “English patient”.

The reader is faced with many questions that are influential towards it’s themes. How

Similarly, Almasy is destroyed by the war when his plane crashes. In contrast to Madox and Almasy, Hana is able to detach herself from the war. “Throughout the war, with all of her worst patients, she survived by keeping a coldness hidden in her role as a nurse (p.48). She tells Caravaggio that after her abortion, “I stepped so far back that no one could get near me.” (p.85). Hana tries not to be disturbed by the war as much as Caravaggio is, and she also tries to detach herself from it, unlike Almasy. She is in a sort of shell shock despite her efforts to be ‘cold’. She also feels that “Everyone she loves dies - her love consumes”(Fred Mensch, Barbara Nixon, Greg Nixon, p.2-3). As well, when Almasy first sees her, he feels she has a dead look in her eyes. He knows she is “more patient than nurse” (p.95-96). Thus, Hana survives because she is able to withdraw emotionally from the war. However, she cannot detach herself from the love and devotion she feels for the Almasy.

Stephen Scobie writes that, “As a writer, Ondaatje is drawn to the moment when balance collapses, the moment when his characters lose their fine control; but of course he himself, in the precision of his work, always maintains his own balance, his own control” (p.102). In “The English Patient”, he contrasts two characters that lose control with two who do not. Madox and Almasy lose their control and balance and are destroyed by the war. Hana and Kip keep better control of their feelings and survive. Hana lives a life in which “People fall in love with her” (p.301) and Kip lives with his family in India finally without being destroyed by the war.

Unlike Madox, Almasy is greatly involved in World War II. Katherine Clifton, wife of Jeffery Clifton, a cartographer, was the woman that he loved most in his life. Almasy desperately needed to return to the cave where he hid Katherine after the plane accident in the desert. Like Madox, Almasy is a man of the desert. For example, in the novel, he says, “Everything that ever happened to me that was important happened in the desert” (p.177). Therefore, this reaction for his love of the desert is deep and nothing can compare to it, or that appeals to him in his life. His love for the desert symbolizes his hot and passionate nature. Also, he even sings “Sometime a horse I’ll be, sometime a hound. A h

Some topics in this essay:
Hana Kip, Madox Almasy, Kip Almasy, Almasy Hana, Greg Nixon, Katherine Hana’s, Expedition Team, II Hana’s, II Italy, Stephen Scobie, madox almasy, world war, destroyed war, hana kip, world war ii, war ii, barbara nixon greg, barbara nixon, greg nixon, nixon greg, remain detached, english patient, nixon greg nixon, mensch barbara nixon, fred mensch barbara,