In The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford makes it difficult to distinguish between appearance and reality. By using Dowell's detached and inaccurate narrative and characterizations throughout the book, Ford forces the reader to construct their own assumptions about the true intentions of the characters that made this story so tragic. However, this proves to be a difficult task due to Dowell's seemingly inherent inability to understand the reality of other people's temperaments, as well as how the actions of his acquaintances affect his own life. This is demonstrated most clearly in Dowell's interpretation of his wife, Florence. Despite the fact that Dowell's unconscious subjectivity presents a different depiction of his wife each time she is mentioned throughout the novel, the reader is ultimately able to give a clear impression of his cold arrogance. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get Florence's original essay as superficial and simple. He says that: “she was brilliant; and she was dancing…and my function in life was to bring this shiny thing into existence” (8). Rather pathetically, Dowell admits that his life's sole purpose was to appease Florence's deceptive illusions by providing her with everything she desired in order to maintain their illustrious appearance. However, this superficiality also applies to the way Dowell handled his own life. Dowell's financial security has allowed him to live a quiet life in which he is not required to work. As a result, his life is repetitively punctuated by a succession of teas, lunches, and dinners, which only serve to give him the appearance of a normal, modest upper-class lifestyle. For example, his marriage to Florence constitutes another fulfillment of societal expectations for a man in Dowell's position. He describes their meeting as rather mundane: “I just arrived and I wanted Florence. First, I ran into Florence over Browning tea, or something…. I don’t know why I went to tea” (8). The seemingly random and sporadic way in which Dowell met his wife demonstrates that he is no more goal-driven than a leaf in the wind. His reaction to his death was also inconsequential. After her initial shock, "she disappeared completely, like yesterday's newspaper" (69) and any memory of her was "simply a matter of study, not of memory" (69). This revelation demonstrates that his marriage to Florence was not based on love, but on utility – as a way of constructing himself as a complete and conventional man. “She became for me like the object of a bet, the trophy of an athletic feat… With an intrinsic value as a wife, I think she had none at all for me » (52). For Dowell, life is all about appearances, which makes him as simple-minded and superficial as his wife. Although Dowell considers his wife to be somewhat rudimentary and uneducated, she is shown to be much more interested in intellectual matters than her husband. Dowell downplays Florence's desire "to leave the world a little higher than she found it" (8) as arrogance and a need to increase her image in the eyes of others. While this may be the case, it shows that Florence values ​​being informed about culture and history – which can be seen when she prepares for an excursion to M – by reading an assortment of history books. Although Dowell compares Florence and Leonora to "a retriever... rushing after a greyhound" (23), implying thatFlorence will never be able to reach Leonora's level of cultural sophistication, her perception of why she feels the need to be intellectual eludes her. . Dowell may perceive Florence's quest for knowledge as simply a method of elevating himself in the eyes of others, because he naively perceives her long conversations with Edward as an attempt to educate him, when, in reality, her intentions are of a nature flirtatious. Her inability to interpret this somewhat deeper side of Florence demonstrates her ignorance and lack of interest in anything outside her bubble of superficiality. Florence's affair with Edward is meant to serve a singular purpose: to grant her a higher status in society. Florence's desire to become "a lady of the county in the house of her ancestors" (51), which currently belongs to the Ashburnhams, is fueled by a greed for aggrandizement. Although she could never fully own Bramshaw Manor, as Edward would never divorce Leonora, Florence could have settled close enough to the manor to still feel like she had achieved "lady of the shire" status - an elevation . status that she sought above all else. However, Florence's wish to achieve even this compromised version of her dream is thwarted by her own brilliant manipulation of Dowell. Dowell was so convinced of Florence's inability to travel that he forbade her from crossing the English Channel to Fordingbridge. Although this is the only instance in which Dowell takes the initiative to obstruct his wife's actions, it "suited her magnificently" (51), as she was unable to challenge his orders without risking exposure. his deception. In his unconsciousness, Dowell acted with the best of intentions in order to fulfill his duties as a conventional husband in what appeared to be a conventional marriage. As a result, although inadvertently, he managed to take away from her "the one main idea in her heart" (51), namely the dream of becoming Edwards' mistress at Bramshaw Manor. Florence's death acts as a catalyst that forces Dowell to perceive the past. the superficial appearance of his life and open his eyes to the reality of the deception and manipulation he had suffered at the hands of his wife and his closest friends. Dowell does not object to the way Florence's infidelity affected their own marriage, because their marriage was not united by love. However, he draws a line in how his actions disrupted Edward and Leonora's relationship, even though it was already in an unstable and fragile state. With Florence gone, Dowell finally has a chance to reflect on his role in Ashburnham's relationship and how it changed his perception of the two of them. He said: “The more I think about it, the more certain I become that Florence had a contaminating influence – she depressed and deteriorated poor Edward; she deteriorated, desperately, the miserable Leonora” (105). Before Florence's death, Dowell's life reflected the pattern of conventional leisure that he dreamed of. However, this superficial perception of his life is shattered after Florence's death. He realizes that the Ashburnhams are no longer the “model couple” and that he can no longer reflect on “the glowing tales of [Florence’s] virtue and constancy” (52). While there are many instances in which Dowell's ignorance of his wife's actions seems unimaginable, it must be understood that he was living his ideal life and anything that could potentially take that away from him was dealt with like nonsense. In order to control the damage already done, he begins to view Florence as the sole cause of all the Ashburnhams' problems, and therefore the destroyer of his blissful ignorance..