Abstinence and indulgence in Captain Corelli’s
Mandolin
Characters to be seen:
Father Arsenios
Carlo
Pelagia
Captain Corelli
Doctor Iannis
Mandras
Father Arsenios
Cephallonian farm
He was notorious for having been an adulterer and for having come from
Epirus because he wanted to remarry. He was suspect of being interested
in widows, an extremely unethical and blasphemous idea for the Greeks.
His infamy also arose from the fact that he often consumed irreligiously
large volumes of alcohol, particularly Robola wine.
The priest was also extremely fat, and his movement was described as
“waddling”. As a consequence, he was continually perspiring heavily.
He was an unorthodox priest who abstained from normal religious
practice, but the Greeks still sought him for comfort and guidance.
Greek church
His indulgence in food, drink and women stopped, however, with
the arrival of the war, where he instantly became immensely
indulgent in religion, God and philosophical and utopian ideas. By
the end of his life, he was a thin man who had turned insane with
his constant maniacal preaching at the Italians and Germans.
Father Arsenios’ case is a strange one, because it shows a
complete reversal in the things he indulged in and those which he
abstained from.
Pelagia
Cephallonian beach
She is forced to abstain from sex with Corelli (she never appears to desire sex with
Mandras) because if she were to have a child, it would be illegitimate. Marrying the
captain was out of the question, for if he were to get killed, she would be an
unwanted widow for the rest of her life and she would be called a whore, as the doctor
curtly points out to her. Besides, the child would grow up fatherless.
Pelagia never indulges in anything, but she has a passion for several things, such as medicine and everything she
feels very attached to, particularly her goat and her father.
She also demonstrates an enormous capacity to love a person
(although, quite often, she does not seem to show it). This is
proven by her relationship with her father and her love for the
captain (and previously Mandras). One could say she brims
over with love, but it would be incorrect to say she indulges in
it, for indulgence is excessive and usually damaging. Pelagia is
certainly not a damaging person. What is sad is that she
became damaged.
Dr Iannis
The doctor is a professional man who has a loving passion for
medicine and Cephallonia, which he has transferred to Pelagia.
He is not obsessed by medicine, though, because he leads a
relatively varied life and rarely does anything in excess.
The doctor is evidently a generous man who is against the
beating of women and the other types of immoral treatment
inflicted upon them in most Greek households. However, he
seems to abstain from any type of useful work except for his
medical practice. All the housework and physically demanding
labour is performed by Pelagia.
Dr Iannis can be seen as a man who does not go to extremes very often, he abstains from
being too conspicuous, except when it comes to religion, according to Father Arsenios
who accuses him of being a “notoriously godless man”. An example of this is his views on
his politics, where he is a moderate venizelist. However, he enjoys criticising politics,
especially when he goes to the kapheneion to stun people like Kokolios with “his
devastating critique of Communist economics.”
As a rather romantic and wet sort of view, the
doctor can be seen as a man who indulges in life and beauty.
Background: sunset in Cephallonia
Carlo
Although he was huge in strength and size, Carlo never harmed anyone
(except in battle) and always appeared as a gentle, quiet, modest and
saddened man. This was because he was a homosexual and had to keep his
sexual desires to himself, because he would be expelled from the army,
publicly humiliated and mentally devastated. Consequently, he had to abstain
from many of the “fun” activities engaged in by “the boys of La Scala”, and,
as a result, from the life he would have liked to live without having to feel
uncomfortable about his sexual desires.
Another beautiful beach
Cephallonian beach
In his farewell letter to the captain, Carlo sadly says: “I hope you
are not disgusted, and I hope that you will be able to forgive me
and remember me without contempt. I hope that you will
remember all the times that we have embraced as comrades and
brothers, and that you will not shudder with retrospective horror
because they were the caresses of a degenerate... I trust that for
this you will not despise me as some might think that I deserve.”
Carlo never indulged in anything, nothing was ever excessive, if anything,
there was not enough in his life. He was alien to the rest of his world, but
only to himself: he could not let himself be free, he had to abstain from a
more worthwhile life in order to fit in and not be ostracised. Although
some people would have understood, like Corelli, he simply could not
take the risk of publicising the fact that he was a homosexual.
Fiskardo
Captain Corelli
Argostoli some centuries ago
The captain is a very emotional and passionate man
who appears as a very good-humoured, entertaining
and respectable invader. Although he is initially made
to feel like a flea by the doctor, the latter learns to
ignore the fact that he is an invader and labels him
“our charming yet uninvited guest.”
Corelli’s life is his music, and everything else falls behind it. He also loves the army, women,
football and observing the world around him, which is what makes him such a culturally rich
man, even though he has not travelled round the world like the doctor. Pelagia notes this and
desperately falls in love with him, but she does not realise this until the episode in which they
go on a quest for snails.
A small harbour, possibly Fiskardo or Argostoli
It is difficult to say that Corelli abstains from anything,
since his life is so varied and colourful. He is, however,
forced to abstain from sex and marriage with Pelagia for
practical reasons, but this does not prevent them from
loving each other. I do not think the captain indulges in
anything because he does not need to. Although music is
his paramount passion, it is not an obsession, and hence
not an indulgence. He does not do anything in excess, like
most characters.
Mandras
Mandras thought he was not doing anything useful with his life and that “Doctor Iannis
doesn’t think [he’s] good enough.” While fishing, he thinks “I love Pelagia, but I know that
I will never be a man until I’ve done something important, something I can live with,
something to be esteemed... I’ll be worth a dowry then.” He was very excited and anxious
to marry Pelagia, but he sensibly thought they would be better off marrying after the war.
Consequently, Mandras (and Pelagia) had to hold themselves back in relation to their sexual
desires.
During the war he fought alongside Hector, who brainwashed him, turning him into a
violent, ruthless and mindless Communist. Together with Hector he killed “collaborators”
and raped women in order to satisfy his primitive necessities (he had been seeing Pelagia
for about a year and they had not slept together. Besides, raping was routine procedure). So,
while with ELAS he ceased his long abstinence. His animal behaviour became so violent
that he was unable to control it.
When he got back home he saw Pelagia and couldn’t resist
his impulses. By that time he had indulged so long in
murdering and raping that he tried to violate her just like the
peasant women he had disgraced previously.
It could be said that by the time he was idolising Hector he
was abstaining from a true, moral and useful life. He
became what he had sworn never to be.
Bay with chapel in the background
Most characters do not indulge in anything, most
human beings do not. Excesses are negative and
to be avoided, hence a non-indulging person is
usually decent and likeable. Many characters have
vivid and varied lives without indulgences of any
kind, but, sadly, they also have to abstain from
certain things that would complete their
existences.
Having to do this eventually ruins the happiness and even the lives of certain characters
such as Carlo and perhaps Pelagia and the captain. The limitations they have to keep to
are the product of the war, which is one of the many ways the novel illustrates the
horrors and the misery caused by the useless and counterproductive dreams of a few
tyrants. Corelli bluntly and rather pathetically points out that the war was going so
badly for the Italians because “the Duce got some big ideas.” More to the point is the
explanation given in the pamphlet produced by Carlo and Dr. Iannis: “This Ludicrous
Buffoon has rearmed Germany, Belgium, and Austria, leaving His own army to fight
scandalously unjustifiable wars without weapons... This Moral and Intellectual Pygmy...
Has said “The more enemies, the greater the honour,” and so we have created enemies
out of thin air and gone out to fight them without boots on our feet, and in armoured
cars whose barrels are made of wood...”
Rafael Holt