A Man Could Stand Up— · Chapter
II explained
In the trenches before an imminent German attack, Christopher Tietjens confronts Captain Mckechnie's hostility and the pressures of command.
What happens
In the trenches before an imminent German attack, Christopher Tietjens confronts Captain Mckechnie's hostility and the pressures of command. Amidst the threat of battle, Tietjens reflects on fear, the absurdities of military life, and the lost tranquility of the seventeenth century, finding a brief respite in a cornet playing an old air. He contemplates his own mortality, his estranged wife Sylvia, and the enduring land of England.
Themes in this chapter
Trauma of War
Tietjens experiences the physical symptoms of battle fear—heart stopping, skin prickling, cold hands—and contemplates losing his reason.
The End of an Era
Tietjens mourns the loss of the seventeenth-century world of quiet fields, Anglican sainthood, and accuracy of thought, symbolized by the cornet's air.
Memory and the Past
Tietjens recalls Campion quoting poetry and reflects on the enduring land of England, seeking to remember the name of George Herbert's parish.
Characters to notice
- Christopher Tietjens
Commanding the battalion in the trenches, he faces Mckechnie's resentment and the terror of the coming strafe, while seeking solace in thoughts of the seventeenth century.
- Captain Mckechnie
Bitter and lachrymose, he confronts Tietjens over a perceived slight and pleads for leniency regarding the C.O.'s refusal to take a pill.
- General Lord Edward Campion
Mentioned in Tietjens' thoughts as a radiant figure who quoted poetry; Tietjens imagines him marrying Sylvia after his death.
- Sylvia Tietjens
Tietjens envisions her as a widow in crêpe, possibly marrying Campion after his death.
- Lieutenant Aranjuez
A very minute subaltern who peers around the bank in an impossible tin hat, briefly interrupting Tietjens and Mckechnie.
- Sergeant Cutts
Reports to Tietjens about the cornet player and the arrival of Mills bombs.
- Colonel (unnamed)
The C.O. of the battalion, a ranker with a fine service record, who refuses to take a prescribed pill, causing a dispute with the M.O.
Key passages
“He said: "Did you put that fellow up to saying that damnable thing?" He repeated: "That perfectly damnable thing! Damnable!"”
Mckechnie accuses Tietjens of orchestrating a hurtful remark, repeating his outrage.
Mckechnie's paranoid and emotional confrontation with Tietjens.
“Tietjens' heart stopped; his skin on the nape of the neck began to prickle: his hands were cold. That was fear: the battle fear, experienced in strafes.”
Tietjens feels the classic symptoms of terror as the German barrage begins.
Vivid description of Tietjens' physiological response to imminent danger.
“The key-bugle remarked with singular distinctness to the dawn: A sudden waft of pleasure at the seventeenth century air that the tones gave to the landscape went all over Tietjens.”
A cornet playing a seventeenth-century tune brings Tietjens a moment of aesthetic joy amidst the war.
The music momentarily transports Tietjens from the trenches to a more civilized era.
“He refused to consider that, probably even today, that land ran to... produced the stock of... Anglican sainthood. The quiet thing! But until he could remember the name he would consider nothing.”
Tietjens blocks out thoughts of England's enduring rural sanctity until he recalls the name of George Herbert's parish.
Tietjens' mental struggle to hold onto a specific memory of the English countryside.
