# III explained — Soldiers’ Pay

> Chapter companion for Soldiers’ Pay by William Faulkner.

## What happens

Margaret Powers lies awake in her hotel room, haunted by the memory of her husband Dick's death in the war and her own sense of being tricked by fate. She checks on Donald Mahon, who is sleeping, and intuitively realizes he is going blind. Joe Gilligan arrives with a drunken Cadet Lowe, and after putting Lowe to bed, Gilligan and Margaret discuss Mahon's condition. Gilligan reveals he has seen Mahon's fiancée's photograph and letters, and predicts she will reject him because of his disfigurement. He insists they must get Mahon home to die in peace, and the two form a pact to help him, with Gilligan proposing marriage to Margaret in a moment of drunken sincerity.

## Themes in this chapter

### Loss and Grief

Margaret mourns her husband Dick, feeling tricked by fate, and anticipates Donald Mahon's impending death.

### Disillusionment with War

The war is portrayed as a 'rotten trick' that caused meaningless death and suffering, leaving characters like Margaret and Gilligan cynical.

### Love and Obligation

Gilligan and Margaret discuss Mahon's fiancée, predicting she will abandon him due to his injuries, highlighting the tension between romantic ideals and harsh reality.

## Character check-ins

### Margaret Powers

Lying awake in her hotel room, she reflects on her husband Dick's death and feels a sense of betrayal by fate. She discovers Mahon is going blind and conspires with Gilligan to help him.

### Joe Gilligan

Enters drunk, supporting Cadet Lowe. He reveals he has seen Mahon's fiancée's letters and predicts she will reject Mahon. He proposes marriage to Margaret in a moment of drunken sincerity.

### Donald Mahon

Sleeping in the adjacent room, unaware of his blindness and impending death. Margaret and Gilligan discuss his fate.

### Julian Lowe

Brought in drunk by Gilligan, he is put to bed and immediately falls asleep.

### Dick

Margaret's deceased husband, remembered with bitterness and sorrow. His death in France is a source of her ongoing grief.

## Key lines

> She thought of her husband youngly dead in France in a recurrence of fretful exasperation with having been tricked by a wanton Fate: a joke amusing to no one.

Margaret reflects bitterly on her husband's death in France, feeling that fate played a cruel and pointless joke on her.

_Highlights Margaret's grief and disillusionment with the randomness of war._

> He’s going blind, she said, bending over him.

Margaret realizes that Donald Mahon is losing his sight.

_A key moment of insight that drives the chapter's action._

> If I ever seen death in a man’s face, it’s in his. Goddam this world.

Gilligan declares that Mahon is clearly dying, cursing the world for its cruelty.

_Reflects Gilligan's bluntness and the pervasive sense of doom._

> It’s a rotten old world, Joe.

Margaret sums up her pessimistic view of life.

_Captures the chapter's tone of disillusionment._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/soldiers_pay_se/chapters/iii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/soldiers_pay_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/soldiers_pay_se/chapters