Bonds Relationship with Women

AlphaOmegaSin

Throughout the Course of both the Fleming and Gardner Novels (Have not read any of the Benson Books yet) Bond gets involved with many Woman, and only gets as far as Marriage and Proposal with a few of them. However, the Girls he falls in Love with all die (Vesper and Tracy) This brings up the Subject of Bonds horrible Luck with Balancing Commitment and his Job. Is Bond selfish in the Fact that he puts the Life's of those he Cares about in Peril without meaning to?

Thunderpussy

I seem to remember in OHMSS, Bond reflects that he'll have to give up the 00 section and
Go back to desk work and standard duties to marry Tracy.

Gassy Man

As a lifelong bachelor, I can tell you that for some of us, family life only seems appealing if it will be with "the one." For some people, that person is easy to find, but for others, it takes a lifetime, if ever. One reason Bond is not a sociopath is because he is a romantic -- cynical, hardened by his profession, and wanting to be as pragmatic in nature as in training, he nonetheless is highly romantic. And that makes sense, as Bond is a knight errant. So, for Bond to have flings and relationships makes total sense, because unless you're going to be a eunuch, that is the life you have when not doing the standard marriage thing. Is he selfish? No, he wants as much as he gives, and the women he meets are themselves essentially in the same line of work.

Number24

I know special forces operators have a horrendously high divorce rate and I assume the job does not lend itself to a stable home life. I suspect the same would be the case for double-O's. Bond is romantic, but also a womanizer. He can make huge sacifices for the common good in his job, but privately he is very self centred.

(also, the plural of 'woman' is 'women'. I feel I can say this as a fellow forum member who has made many language errors in my time)

Thunderpussy

Not if your a bit of a caveman like me, It's all "Woman fetch my shoes !", "woman make my tea !" etc.
( Can you tell my Wife is out at work at the moment ) )

Barbel

I've fixed the heading.

AlphaOmegaSin

) I'm always getting them mixed up. Cheers for the Correction -{

Gassy Man

Number24 wrote:

I know special forces operators have a horrendously high divorce rate and I assume the job does not lend itself to a stable home life. I suspect the same would be the case for double-O's. Bond is romantic, but also a womanizer. He can make huge sacifices for the common good in his job, but privately he is very self centred.

(also, the plural of 'woman' is 'women'. I feel I can say this as a fellow forum member who has made many language errors in my time)

I'm not sure Bond really does qualify as a womanizer in the novels. He certainly seems so in various films.

AlphaOmegaSin

In CR, he sees Females as a Commodity that get in the Way of Work and act as Distractions. In following Novels though, his Attitude is different to Women.

The Domino Effect

Gassy Man wrote:

quote]I'm not sure Bond really does qualify as a womanizer in the novels. He certainly seems so in various films.

Very valid point. On so many levels there are big differences between literary Bond and cinema Bond. I would not suggest that literary Bond was an old romantic, but as you say Gassy Man, I also wouldn't go so far as to describe him as a womaniser either. The two characters are quite different in the respective medias.

Gassy Man

Yeah, these terms are used loosely today. The fact that he's involved with a lot of women doesn't automatically make him a womanizer, at least not in the novels. In the films, though, he is much more so, juggling several at a time and telling them what they want to hear just to get them into bed.

I do think Bond is a romantic though. He believes in country and all that, despite his first-hand knowledge of the brutality required to keep it in power. He is cynical, too, but that usually accompanies a romantic who has been taught harsh lessons by life. The fact that Bond wants to believe in marriage -- to the degree that he will resign from the only other thing that matters in his life, his job -- to me is proof. After seeing all that he has and doing as that he's done, to believe in that institution with one woman requires an enormous romantic spirit.

CmdrAtticus

I don't think Bond is selfish - he's actually the opposite - as well as a realist. He knows he could be killed at any time on a mission, so he only gets involved with adulteresses as he knows there will be little chance of a relationship with them.
He therefore stays away from single women because he doesn't believe it would be fair to them to develop a relationship on the very good chance it won't be a long one
and having his death causing them such grief. It's the same reason he spends so much of his time on so many luxuries.

Number24

Perhaps Bond (at least in the novels) is a serial monogamist with significant problems making relationships work over longer periods of time?

Revelator

AlphaOmegaSin wrote:

However, the Girls he falls in Love with all die (Vesper and Tracy)

Not quite true--Bond falls in love with Tiffany Case, and she leaves him. One could also argue that Bond loved Kissy, but of course he had amnesia at the time.

It would be rather interesting to speculate on the fate of the Bond girls who survived. We know what happened to three of them:
* Honey "had two children by the Philadelphia doctor she had married."
* Tiffany, after living with Bond, met a Marine at the US Embassy and sailed back to America to marry him.
* Gala Brand got engaged to Detective-Inspector Vivian. After marriage, she probably would have retired from the Special Branch and become a housewife, as women did in the 50s.

As for what happened to the other Bond girls, here are my guesses...
Solitaire: moved to Las Vegas and opened a fortune-telling shop catering to superstitious gamblers.
Tatiana Romanova: relocated by the Secret Service to Canada, where she met and married a Mountie.
Pussy Galore: after evading prison, she moved to Nevada and opened the world's biggest whorehouse.
Mary Ann Russell: continued working for Station F, eventually married a French count.
Judy Havelock: returns to Jamaica to rebuild and manage "Content," her parents' estate. She raises cattle and bananas there.
Liz Krest: inherits her late husband's millions and spends her days sailing around the world and taking it easy.
Domino Vitali: resumed her kept-woman ways, romancing rich playboys all over the world. Never married.
Vivienne Michel: continues her journey on scooter across North America, eventually reaching San Francisco, where she settled down to open a coffee shop in Haight-Ashbury, giving poetry readings to hippies. Never married.
Kissy Suzuki: resumed life as an Ama diver in Fukuoka and also raised Bond's son.
Mary Goodnight: took over her late boss's role as head of the Jamaica section of the Secret Service, had occasional flings with Bond whenever he returned to the island.
Trigger: executed by the Russians for her failure to kill British agent 272.

AlphaOmegaSin

Gala Brand moved to the States with her Husband and Kids as described in FSS