Chapter VI explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Critique of Nationalism and Propaganda

  Martha deconstructs nationalist rhetoric, comparing nations to dogs fighting over bones and dismissing 'historic rights' as pretexts for war.

• Peace and International Arbitration

  Martha questions why nations cannot arbitrate disputes instead of resorting to force, calling war 'international barbarism.'

• Grief and Psychological Trauma

  Martha's anxiety over Frederick's potential deployment dominates her thoughts, robbing her of peace and leading to tears on New Year's Eve.

• Militarism and Patriotic Education

  The colonel's toast to the emperor and the officers' excitement for promotion and glory illustrate militaristic values.

Characters to notice

• Martha Tilling

  Narrator and protagonist, deeply anxious about the war and critical of nationalist justifications, yet struggling with her own conflicting emotions.

• Frederick Tilling

  Martha's husband, who is against war in principle but would fight if it comes; his regiment is not initially deployed, bringing mixed relief.

• Count Althaus

  Martha's father, who toasts to a glorious campaign and expresses disappointment that Frederick's regiment is not sent to the front.

• Colonel

  Hosts a dinner where he praises the war as 'famous' and emphasizes loyalty to the emperor over nationalist ideas.

• Young First Lieutenant

  Expresses enthusiasm for the war based on the 'noble motive' of defending oppressed brethren and the national idea.

Key passages

• “If a number of dogs are fighting over some bones, it is still only the dogs themselves who tear each other; but in the history of nations it is chiefly the poor silly bones themselves that rush at each other and knock each other to pieces on the two sides, in fighting for the rights of the combatants who covet them.”

  Martha compares nations to dogs fighting over bones, with the common people being the bones that destroy each other for the sake of their rulers' quarrels.

  A critique of how ordinary people are manipulated into fighting for the interests of their leaders.

• “Why go on always shouting on both sides, 'I, I am in the right'—and even shouting it out against one's own conviction, till one has shouted oneself hoarse, and finishes by leaving the decision to Force ? Is not that savagery?”

  Martha questions why both sides insist on their own righteousness without compromise, ultimately resorting to violence, which she calls savagery.

  Reflects her growing disillusionment with nationalist propaganda and the futility of war.

• “It is true that people have also accustomed themselves to think of war too as a natural phenomenon, and to speak of it as eluding calculation in the same category with the earthquake or drought—and therefore to think of it as little as possible. But I could no longer bring myself to this way of looking at it.”

  Martha rejects the common view of war as an unavoidable natural disaster, instead seeing it as a man-made choice that can be questioned.

  Highlights her personal awakening to the avoidability of war.

• “The question, of which Frederick had once spoken: 'Must it then be so?' I had often answered with a negative in the case of war—and at this time instead of resignation I felt pain and vexation—I should have liked to shout out to them all: 'Do not do it; do not do it.'”

  Martha recalls Frederick's question about the necessity of war, and now feels anguish and a desire to cry out against it.

  Shows her emotional struggle and opposition to the impending conflict.