Something about Ownership and Label(2)

Something about Ownership and Label(2)

     In spite of this, when Almasy is lying in the hospital, with his severely burnt body and unrecognized face, all the people wonder what is his nationality. Later in the villa, Hana and Caravaggio want to know where he is from, is he an English or German. Especially

Caravaggio, Caravaggio, who has suspected the English patient is not really English, has his suspicions confirmed. He even uses morphine to make the patient tell the truth .It is so cruel for the patient to recall all the things-- how he falls in love with Katharine, how she read the poem from his book of Herodotus, how she stabs his shoulder, how frustrated she is

to lie to her husband, how lonely and cold she is when she is in the cave by herself....Almasy has to go through the whole painful story with each details again. I believe every images about Katharine is like a dagger stabbing into his heart. The mentally pain is always much severe than the physical pain.

     Here is Katharine's letter for Almasy when she is dying in the cave:

My darling, I'm waiting for you — how long is a day in the dark, or a week? The fire is gone now, and I'm horribly cold. I really ought to drag myself outside but then there would be the sun. . . I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings and on writing these words. We die, we die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have entered and swum up like rivers, fears we have hidden in, like this wretched cave. We are the real countries, not the boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men. I know you will come and carry me out into the palace of winds. That's all I've wanted — to walk in such a place with you, with friends, on earth without maps.

     This scene is so sad and beautiful. I cannot imagine how desperate and helpless she is when she knows that she will die in the dark and cold cave alone. Every minute, she hopes he will show up and carry her out into the “palace of winds”. Sadly, Almasy is locked by the English army because of his foreign-sound name. The last sentence is really impressed; it is Katharine’s nice wish for the whole world, as well as all the people suffering the war. An ideal world is place without maps, conflict nationalities, and specific ownership.