Captain Corelli's

Authors Avatar

By focusing on at least three characters from ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’, consider the importance of the range of viewpoints used in the novel.

   

      Throughout the novel, Louis de Berniere gives every character a clear identity. By this every individual is representative of those that were present at the time of the war. This identity entitles them to show the reader different prospective and viewpoints on how they feel. Thus it portrays a sense of reality as it is not all fiction and does consist of facts from the war. However I do feel that there are central characters in the novel that make it seem more interesting and therefore grip the reader to make us want to read on. These characters don’t only represent the individuals in the horrific war but manage to make the storyline seem more intriguing. Dr Iannis, Pelagia, Carlo and Mandras are selected well by Berniere to highlight different views of different people from different places.

      Captain Corelli’s Mandolin opens with an insight into Dr Iannis’s daily routine. He is perhaps the most educated individual on the island and therefore well respected and known by all those who live amongst him. He is symbolic of the independence of Greece and through him we gain an incite into the historic and patriotic pride of Cephallonia. The deep desire and passion for the island is portrayed by the doctor are clear as he begins to describe the infamous island;

“…Cephallonia rises improvidently and inadvisedly from the Ionian Sea, it is an island so immense in aniquity….rocks themselves exhale nostalgia… ”

However his views about the island, its past and its people’s beliefs prove to be inevitably subjective also showing us the history itself is subjective. This part is included by the author in the very first chapter to make readers know Dr Iannis and understand the way Cephallonians live and think.This clearly indicates the fact that this place isn’t just a common ground but is, in fact a true beauty of nature to Dr Iannis. Having the doctor describe this makes us realize his view on the country and how he feels it should be written down in history as. Also the doctor’s occupation tells us that he is a man who likes to help others and therefore his character becomes more appealing and loved by the audience. His simple but actually quite basic procedures of operating such as “carefully inserted the straightend hook into the hirsute orifice” makes the patient very thankful and increases the doctor’s need to be with ‘his people’.

The method itself sounds very complex yet in reality the operation is a simple one but as Dr  Iannis is carrying it out, Bernieres adds sophisticated language to show the high level of intelligence the doctor has. Education is the reason why the doctor and his daughter stand at the top of the island’s hierarchical system, and are therefore respected more than the commoners.

Join now!

      The war brings out a side of Dr Iannis which is slightly more opinionated. We later realize that he is more into politics than he at first seems. He predicted that Greece was going to be attacked before war was even apposed upon them. To get his view across he prepares or rehearses a speech for Kokolios about Communism and its connection to Capitalism however doesn’t manage to tell him as Lemoni interrupts.

     Pelagia is a young, ambitious women who takes after her father. She too would like to be a doctor even though she ...

This is a preview of the whole essay