Disenchantment · Chapter
XII: Belated Boons explained
The narrator reflects on the fleeting moments of hope and joy that surfaced late in the war, contrasting the early idealism with the jaded disillusionment of 1918.
What happens
The narrator reflects on the fleeting moments of hope and joy that surfaced late in the war, contrasting the early idealism with the jaded disillusionment of 1918. He describes the night before the Battle of Amiens, the misty dawn attack, and the miraculous breakthrough on the Santerre, but concludes that the victory came too late to restore the lost innocence and unity of purpose.
Themes in this chapter
Disillusionment and Disenchantment
The narrator laments that victory came too late, leaving the nation 'jaded and disillusioned, divided, half bankrupt.'
Loss of Innocence and Illusion
The war's early hopes are contrasted with the 'marred triumph' and the sense that the 'bride' of victory arrived as an 'old woman, or dead.'
Psychology of War
The narrator explores the emotional highs and lows of soldiers, from the 'drug' of anticipation before battle to the 'worm-eaten success' that followed.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator reflects on the war's lost youth and the bittersweet triumph of 1918.
- Foch
Mentioned as the foreign Commander-in-Chief under whom the Allied cause began to prevail.
- Tolstoy
Cited as an author who attempted but failed to capture the experience of exploring enemy lines.
- The Pious Aeneas
Quoted for his lines describing the sight of abandoned shores, evoking the British advance.
Key passages
“For a moment, the object of all dream and desire seemed to have come; the flaming sword was gone, and the gate of the garden open. Too late, as you know.”
For an instant, the longed-for paradise appeared attainable, but it was already too late.
The narrator captures the fleeting illusion of regained innocence, immediately undercut by the reality of belated victory.
“The bride that our feckless wooing had sought and not won in the generous youth of the war had come to us now: an old woman, or dead, she”
The victory we pursued so ardently in the war's early days finally arrived, but only as a withered or lifeless version of itself.
A metaphor for the disillusionment with the outcome of the war, personifying victory as a bride who has aged or died.