The English Character

The national character of the English has been very differently described, but most commentators agree over one quality, which they describe as fatuous self-satisfaction, serene sense of superiority, or pride. English patriotism is based on a deep sense of security. Englishmen as individuals may have been insecure, threatened with a lost of a job, unsure of themselves, or unhappy in many ways; but as a nation they have been for centuries secure, serene in their national successes. They have not lived in a state of hatred of their neighbors, as Frenchmen or Germans have often lived. This national sense of security, hardly threatened by Napoleon, or by the First World War, has been greatly weakened by the Second World War and by the invention of the atomic bomb.

Many books have been written – even more, perhaps, by Frenchmen, Americans, Germans, and other foreigners than by Englishmen – on English traits, English ways of life, and the English character. Their authors are by no means always in agreement, but they tend to point out what seem to them puzzles, contrasts, in the way the English behave. A few of these contrasts may serve to sum up how the world looks at the English.

First, there is the contrast between the unity the English display in a crisis, their strong sense for public order, indeed for conformity, and their extraordinary toleration of individual eccentricities. Germans are usually astounded by what they regard as the Englishman’s lack of respect for authority and discipline. Frenchmen are often puzzled by the vehemence of English political debates, by the Hyde Park public orator, and similar aspects of English life, which in their own country would seem signs of grave political disturbances. This sort of contrasts has led to the common belief held by foreigners, and indeed by Englishmen themselves, that they are the most illogical people, always preferring practical compromises to theoretical exactness.

Second, there is the contrast between English democracy, the English sense of the dignity and importance of the individual, and the very great social and economic inequalities that have hitherto characterized English life. There has recently been some tendency to allow greater social equality. But Victorian and Edwardian England – which foreigners still think of as the typical England – did display extremes of riches and poverty, and drew an almost caste line between ladies and gentlemen and those not ladies and gentlemen.

Third, there is the contrast between the reputation of the English as hard-headed practical men – the “nation of shopkeepers” – and as men of poetry – the countrymen of Shakespeare and Shelly. The apparent coldness of Englishmen and their reserve has been almost universally noted by foreigners; but foreigners also confess that they find English reserve not unpleasant, and that once one gets to know an Englishman he turns out to be a very companionable fellow.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14