The Good Soldier

The distinction between perception and representation is one of the most important themes of the novel. No one in The Good Soldier is really who they seem to be, or who John Dowell thinks them to be. Edward is not a sincere, honourable "good soldier", Florence is not a reserved and loyal wife and Leonora is not a decent, "normal" woman devoid of passion or emotion. The novel traces Dowell's realisation that appearances are not reality, that the four are not really "good people." Dowell's slow comprehension, however, is trumped by the fact that the idea of "good people" seems to lose its very definition as the novel develops. If this well-born and well-mannered English couple is not "good," and if his own wife is deceiving him, then he feels he has nothing to believe in. In the absence of these representations, Dowell is left only with madness, a skewed perception of reality. Ultimately, as the novel's first-person narration shows, personal perception is all one can ever have. "Reality" is merely one individual's version of the truth.
Dowell's inability to understand the events that are about to happen create an amount of dramatic irony, for example, the difference between how Dowell represents himself and the reader’s perception of him. For example, in part 1, chapter 3, Dowell considers himself extremely perceptive and insightful and he reasons that he must be a faithful narrator. His attention, he explains, was entirely focused on the world around him such as the decorations in the dining room, the plan of their hotel, and the flirtatious actions of Florence. But as he relates the story of their day at Nauheim, Dowell is the opposite of insightful. He is so focused in seeing things as they appear to be and in trusting "good people," that he is incapable of perceiving the reality of the beginning of a romance between Florence and Edward. Even when Leonora desperately attempts to point out the truth to him, Dowell does not understand. Dowell can only recognise...