In 1979 a trilogy of novels by American writer Jim Harrison was released. ‘Revenge’, ‘The man who gave up his name’ and ‘Legends of the fall’ are all chained by the common theme of revenge. However, ‘Legends of the fall’ turned out to be the most striking, the most emotionally powerful novel, which later became the basis for the movie of the same name. Being the shortest one of the whole trilogy, it, nevertheless, drew the story of the emotional development of a person, who became the prisoner of the epoch and had to act under the influence of tragic events.
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Three brothers consider it to be their duty to enlist in the World War I to fight against Germany, though the USA did not enter it till 1917. Alfred, Tristan and Samuel Ludlow find themselves in the midst of the hot battles, which change their lives forever.
The point is that though the novel attracts the reader’s mind to the story of the family, where all the characters seem to be significant, the true main character is Tristan Ludlow, the personality of whom becomes distinctly outlined only, when he interacts with other members of his environment – his family - father Colonel, brothers Samuel and Alfred, on the initial stage and later with both wives – Susannah and Isabel. Their fates are tightly bound and each has an immense effect at Tristan. This paper is aimed to reveal the essence of the chain of main characters, Alfred, Samuel and Susannah, who had an impact on the ‘centre’ of the novel – Tristan Ludlow. Thus the circumstances under which the story developed and surrounding people will be considered to be an environment.
Samuel Ludlow is the youngest and the most enthusiastic among brothers. Eighteen year old boy, having already had a year of studying in Harvard, is eager to partake in the battles in Europe as a volunteer. He has just stepped in adult life but already experienced love (an encounter with Isabel on their way to Calgary), saw death and loyalty – he had to mature early under the pressing circumstances of the war. Samuel, being an apple of his family’s eye, promised to be a man of values, a worth member of the society. But he was destined to perish. His death was to change the whole essence of his elder brother Tristan, having turned him into a revengeful outcast and a man to break the laws. If it had not been for war, millions of lives would be saved, meaning not only the lives of the soldiers, but lives of their close people. In other words, with death of Samuel the long, arduous road to the formation of Tristan’s odd and twisted personality began.
Alfred Ludlow is the eldest brother, a man of values, an example to follow for his younger siblings. Calm, sober-minded and determined, he was able to achieve his goals and made a brilliant career as a senator. He seems to be so self-strained that one could think that he relies on mind only, forgetting about feelings and emotions. He tended to place social moral and social values higher than his own beliefs. It can be concluded that a marriage to Susannah, abandoned by her husband Tristan, appeared to happen not because of deep love, but mainly because he could not let a woman be disgraced. Being able to stick to firmly to the stated social rules, was one more reason of having established such a career.
The eldest brother never had close relationships with Tristan, they were too different, and one could never get the motives, emotions and thoughts of another. The situation with Susannah completely broke their fragile relationship apart.
The war left an imprint on him, but this imprint seems to be mainly physical (the man was wounded and that’s why left the front earlier than it had been expected). Alfred suffered greatly from the loss of his brother, but he found courage to get over his grief and keep on living. The new era after the war, the new life and adapting to its stream, overwhelmed Alfred. In one word, he lived with present, tried not to look back on past and made plans for future.
Having mentioned Susannah, it is necessary to mark that this character turned out to have had the most miserable fate. She became the victim of social morals and its prejudices, the victim of her own passion and one-sided love, the victim of Tristan, who abandoned her, drowning his grieve in the distant countries. Moreover, the woman became a sore trial between two brothers, whose relations were far away from the ideal and trusty. Susannah loved Tristan devotedly, but having found herself in a position of an abandoned wife, she had to marry Alfred and thus save herself from being disdained. And again the thought about the social opinion took over the feelings. Being influenced by Alfred, on the one hand, who cherished the warm feelings towards her, and the dogmata of the society, they lived in, broke her and made her obey. However, she had never experienced the true happiness with Alfred, always comparing him and thinking of his brother. Susannah’s life tragically came to an end. The woman committed suicide, no longer being able to be parted with him and bear his changeable nature: ‘she could no longer bear the phases of insanity and his absence’ (Harrison, p.265)
Though actually Tristan Ludlow is the middle child, the whole story enlightens his character through the relationship with the closest people. Having always been a different person, who seemed a stranger to his own family, nothing to say about the society and surrounding people, he led his, independent life, showing no attention to the laws he so much disdained after the terrible loss, which changed him forever. The war turned out to be the factor that set his life to an entirely different course. Tristan survived physically, but was completely destroyed emotionally – his brother was killed. The man put the blame of his brother’s death on himself, that’s why he hardly managed to get over the loss: “Tristan stood there dazed in the rain and mud with his friend embracing him in sorrow. The scout who was from their tent approached with an officer in tail. They raced to the paddock and quickly saddled three horses. The officer commanded them to stop and they knocked him aside in full gallop northward toward Calais reaching the forest by midnight. They sat still and fireless through the night and then at dawn in the fine sifting snow they crept forward in the snow and wiped it from the faces of the dozen or so dead until Tristan found Samuel, kissed him and bathed his icy face with his own tears: Samuel’s face gray and unmarked but his belly rended from its cage of ribs’ (Harrison, p.154) Tristan distanced himself from the outer world, closed in his shell and let the feeling of vengeance overwhelm him. All his life is the chain of several periods, marked by horrible events.
This event made him lose his sanity not only in the episode with German soldiers, whom he revenged. This state continued up to the time when he returned home, after several years of vagabonding throughout the world. ‘There was the unspoken, unthought, unrehearsed sense that time and distance would reveal to him why Samuel died’ (Harrison, 257) It had been mentioned that he abandoned his wife, whom he never truly loved. The spark between them was no more than a flame of passion that went out with time.
Tristan experienced several losses and all of them proved him once more, that there was justice neither human, nor divine. The man loved his second wife, Isabel, but her life had been taken away in an accident. She was shot during the family’s journey home. This thing completely pushed him to the road of revenge, totally devastating for surrounding people and society behavior.
Tristan Ludlow is compared to the bear. He leads the secluded way of life, he overcomes a long road, mainly laid in grief and sorrows. He is destined to die alone.
The war as the anti-social event influenced greatly the family, whose bonds, being not strong in the beginning, were destructed by the behavior and reaction to the tragic circumstances, which accompanied it.
Works cited:
Jim Harrison. ‘Legends of the fall’. Random House Publishing group, 1980. Print.
