Some Do Not… And The Changing Tradition Of English Gentlemen In The 20^th Century

As one of the outstanding English novelists in the twentieth century,Ford Madox Ford is well known for his loosely collected tetralogy Parade's End,a novel describing the embarrassments and changes of a traditional English gentleman in the context of the First World War.Somehow,studies on those novels have been limited,and have focused on the theme of the withering of gentleman,which shows only half the picture.Therefore,the present thesis aims to further discuss the gentleman's image in the tetralogy by analyzing its first novel,Some Do Not…,which contains all the significant elements of the theme to be developed in later volumes.The thesis seeks to prove that true gentlemanliness in Christopher Tietjens,the novel's protagonist,has not become extinct,but has changed into a new form so as to fit into the modern context.Tietjens is presented almost as an incarnation of the traditional gentlemanly virtues,which is becoming unsustainable with middle-class values quickly absorbed into the old norms.In spite of Tietjens' great efforts to hold on,the Great War gives him such a blow that he could no longer continue,so he decides to make a change.But he only changes to make himself truer to his mind by giving up some of the traditional conventions,while in the meantime he still adheres to his righteousness,always determined to be kind and loving and to serve his country.Through the analysis of the change of the world in which Tietjens lives and his adherence,hesitation,abandonment and adhesion in that world,especially his psychological experiences before and after the war,the thesis concludes that the true gentlemanliness of service and sacrifice has not been lost in Tietjens.On the contrary,he has only cast away outmoded overt norms to become a more essential gentleman who can survive the new world.