Seminar 1

Richard Aldington: Death of a Hero

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. In his preface to Death of a Hero, Aldington writes that his book is “not a
novel at all” but rather a book that has “entirely disregarded” novelistic
conventions. Is he right about this? How, if at all, do the conventions of novel
writing reassert themselves in the work despite Aldington’s claim?

According to the plot, the novel fits into the framework of a biographical novel and in
terms of its problems it refers to an anti-war novel. At the same time, the novel
breaks the framework of all the usual genre definitions. So, considering the problem
of a military catastrophe, getting to the bottom of its causes, one can notice that less
than half of the space is allotted to the actual front-line scenes. The author
disassembles the story of his hero's life in fragments, groping his way through
disparate influences, but traces it from beginning to end, warning in advance of the
tragic outcome. However, the individual story appears as a typical story, as the fate of
a generation

2. Aldington also calls his book a “jazz novel.” What do you think he means by
this designation? How, if at all, is the novel stylistically reminiscent of jazz?

The novel is built, like a musical piece, with a change of the tempo from quick to
slow as the plot is developing to its final tragic episode. "Death of a Hero" is lyrical,
pathetic, sometimes ironic and satirical. It is also highly emotional. “Jazz novel”
expression arises on the basis of a sharp combination of contrasts, their rapid change
and transitions: contrasting forms of expression - passionate journalism and
restrained description, accusatory pathetics and caustic irony; contrasting moods -
melancholic, enthusiastic, full of despair; impulsive articulation of the text. we
observe narrative techniques like: alternating short stressed phrases, changing pathos
and irony, the presence of oppositions, antitheses, the predominance of dynamics,
exclamations, rhetorical questions, stylistic (and sometimes visual) breaks, dots.

3. By announcing Winterbourne’s death both in its title and on its first

page, Death of a Hero makes few claims to suspense. What may have
motivated Aldington to give away his ending? Did he make the right artistic
choice?

To reinforce the ironical effect of the title, the author introduces the outcome of the
story at the very beginning, thus creating the effect of dramatic irony, when the
reader knows much more of the truth than does the character. This way the author
does not want the reader to concentrate on the plot, he wants to produce an impact, to
stir feelings. The author also puts the word "heroes" in inverted commas, showing
that they were far from being heroes. The author's bitter irony is felt in every page,
every line of the novel, and in the title itself.

4. In effect, Aldington tells his story twice: first summarizing the action in the
prologue and then more deliberately in the three numbered sections that follow.
Apart from their length, in what important ways do these two tellings differ?
Why do you think Aldington chose this organization for his book?

When he tells the story a second time, it is more detailed and the reader could
imagine more easily how horrible was the war. This book is really a 'threnody, a
memorial to a generation which hoped sincerely, strove honestly, and suffered
deeply.”

5. Although it is best known as an antiwar novel, Death of a Hero is

approximately two thirds complete before George Winterbourne joins the
army. Is the designation “antiwar novel” too limiting for Death of a Hero?
How do the things to which it is “anti” extend beyond armed combat? How
does Aldington’s lengthy critique of middle–class English society before the
war enable us to understand his criticism of the war itself?

The first two parts of the novel give a vivid portrait of life in late Victorian and
Edwardian England.We can get a picture of pre-war London through the eyes of the
main character.Aldington analyses materialism and the hypocrisy of middle-class
society at the turn of the century.He also presents the literary life of the age with
characters representing Ezra Pound, D. H. Lawrence and T. S. Eliot.

The novel deals with the theme of the young generation, who cannot find the
meaning of life and their place in this world after the war. George is a victim of war
like the author himself. He cannot live in the world after seeing all the brutality of
mankind. He is angry with everyone and everything: his friends, parents, lovers, and
the established world order of England.

6. Aldington is especially pointed in his treatment of sexual mores before and

during the war, as represented by Winterbourne’s relationships with his wife,
Elizabeth, and his mistress, Fanny. Discuss these relationships in terms of their
love, passion, and morality, or lack thereof. How do Winterbourne’s
relationships fit into Aldington’s reflections on the war?

As passionate opponents of the Victorian foundations, George and Elizabeth believed

that love should be free, not burdened by lies, hypocrisy and forced obligations of
fidelity. They agreed to have a „free” relationship, in which both of them would have
other lovers. However when the „modern” Elizabeth found out about the „betrayal”,
she quarrelled with Fanny and her relationship with George also began to cool.
Elizabeth lived in and on herself, and Fanny was a whole-hearted extravert. While
Elizabeth hesitated, mused, suffered, Fanny acted, came a cropper, picked herself up
gaily and started off again with just the same zest for experience. The two women
who had figured largely in George’s life had never loved him, and found quick
consolation after his death.
During the war moral torment was even harder: from an environment where
intelectual values were placed above all, he ended up in an environment where these
values were despised.
Seeking love, he falls under the influence of two women—Elizabeth, whom he
marries, and Fanny, whom he takes as a mistress—who are driven by carnal passions
and selfish desires that he can only partly comprehend.

7. Aldington harshly criticizes the culture of England’s public schools. What

aspects of life in these schools particularly enrage him? What connections does
he perceive between public school culture and the English world view that led
to the war?

Aldington operates from a premise that the conformity and reinforcement of the
social system are what cause emotional disasters such as what George experiences
and political disasters as World War I. Aldington believes that the culture of
England's public schools play a large part in the emotional and political pain.

8. During his military service, George Winterbourne comes rather quickly to

doubt that the Germans are his true enemies. Who or what are the real enemies
in Death of a Hero, and how does Aldington propose fighting them?

Aldington asks the question: who is the real enemy? The enemies of the German and
English alike were the fools who had sent them to kill each other instead of helping
each other. The leadership of the countries was wrong.

9. During the war, while Aldington was in France, his wife, H.D., began a more
than twenty–year lesbian relationship with the novelist Annie Winifred
Ellerman. Aldington himself took a mistress. Before the war was over, H.D.
became pregnant with another man’s child. When Aldington returned from
duty, suffering from shell shock, he and H.D. tried to salvage their marriage to
no avail. The couple lived completely separate lives before finally divorcing
nine years after Aldington published Death of a Hero. How might these events
have influenced Aldington in his thoughts on free love as expressed in Death
of a Hero?

In my opinion, he realises the immorality and disgust of „free” marriage. Maybe the
parts where Elizabeth and George’s relationship is shown is about his and H.D’s life.

10.Death of a Hero has a logical defect in its narration: the story is told not from
an omniscient point of view but by an unnamed fellow soldier who knew
 George Winterbourne near the end of the war. This narrator offers us many
facts that he could not possibly know, including Winterbourne’s thoughts
moments before his death. How does this twisting of narrative logic have an
impact on your reading of the novel?

For me, it is as if I am reading his story, as if he is narrating his own life story. Even
if the narrator was a fellow soldier who knew George but he could not know
George’s thoughts.

11.The literal death of Aldington’s hero takes place on the morning of November
4, 1918. In what ways, though, does the entire novel describe the gradual death
of George Winterbourne?

It is the day when Allied armistice with Austria-Hungary, signed 3 November, goes
into effect.
There was nothing heroic in George Winterbourne’s death. Everybody died in vain.
His death was caused by deep disappointment in life, unbearable situation at home
with Elizabeth and Fanny, and physical exhaustion.
George’s death was quite useless. This idea runs right through the novel and makes
the reader side with the author in his hatred of those who caused the bloody slaughter
and deep sympathy for its victims. The author also puts the word "heroes" in inverted
commas, showing that they were far from being heroes.

12.What, in Death of a Hero, do most of the characters seem to regard as

manliness? How, by contrast, do Winterbourne and Aldington appear to define
what is manly, and how do their ideas contrast with the prevailing view? What
is your own definition of manliness?
By the end Winterbourne is transformed. He became a man who can no longer see a
world beyond the war, and feels no connection to the home front. He is already
critical of his patriotic middle-class upbringing before the war, and rejects social
norms as monogamous marriage, but nonetheless feels a social and national
obligation to join the war and sustain the nation through the service. His death marks
the end of the potential for change that he embodied.
For me the term manliness is associated with strength and security.

13.Although he is deeply repelled by the pettiness and hypocrisy of life in society,

Aldington does find in the world possible sources for individual redemption.
What, for Aldington, are the potentially saving experiences of life? Why do
they seemingly fail to save George Winterbourne?

After an unhappy childhood George Winterbourne turns to dabbling in writing,

painting, and sex. Becoming an officer in World War I, he finds himself regarded as a
failure by his superiors. Discouraged by opinion, as well as by the lives and
characters of his father, mother, wife, and mistress, he stands erect during shelling by
German guns and is killed. As I have mentioned before there was nothing heroic in
George Winterbourne’s death. His death was caused by deep disappointment in life,
unbearable situation at home with Elizabeth and Fanny, and physical exhaustion.
George’s death was quite useless.

14.Although the title of Aldington’s novel concerns only the death of a single
hero, the work may be read as proclaiming the general death of heroism in the
modern world. Discuss Aldington’s concept of the heroic and the forces that, in
his view, undermine the very possibility of heroism.

George, Elizabeth and Fanny reject social norms as monogamous marriage. It is one
possible reason why it undermines the very possibility of heroism. None of the
characters could live a heroic life. George was deeply disappointed in his life.
Elizabeth is obsessed with the idea of free love. However she is angered by her best
friend’s becoming her husband’s mistress. Fanny spends George’s last night in
England with him, but she is not interested enough to arise from bed, or even awaken
fully, when he leaves her the following morning.

15.What functions are served by the poem that Aldington wrote for the epilogue
to Death of a Hero? What levels of meaning does the poem add to the novel? How
does it change the poem to read it in the novel.

The poem is written from the point of view of a veteran comparing World War I to
the Trojan War. Maybe the levels of meaning that the poem add to the novel that in
all wars, it's the common, innocent people who suffer the most for something they
don't want, but the richer, wealthier people want it. And the wealthy people have
caused the whole war.