Bertrand Welch

Character Analysis

No one incites more hatred in Jim than Professor Welch's son, Bertrand. If Professor Welch is Jim's nemesis, then Bertrand is his arch-nemesis. He's an obnoxious, pompous braggart who fancies himself to be a sophisticated artist and a pacifist. Worse yet, he's got a beautiful girlfriend, Christine. The more Jim knows about Bertrand, the more he despises him and the more he's determined to steal his girl.

Our first description of Bertrand is as:

[…] a tall man wearing a lemon-yellow sports coat, all three buttons of which were fastened, and displaying a large beard which came down further on one side than another, half-hiding a vine-patterned tie. (1.12)

Right off the bat, Jim sees Bertrand as a ridiculous person trying to make some kind of point with his unconventional appearance. And from the very first time we hear Bertrand speak, we can tell that he's pretty full of himself. When asked about his work, he replies:

"I am a painter. Not, alas, a painter of houses, or I should have been able to make my pile and retire by now. No, no; I paint pictures. Not, alas again, pictures of trade unionists or town halls or naked women, or I should now be squatting on an even larger pile. No, no; just pictures, mere pictures tout court, or, as our American cousins would say, pictures period." (4.24)

Jim's convinced that this pseudo humble speech had been rehearsed and given many times before. Check out the French phrase Bertrand sneaks in there. As an artist, he identifies with the French and always wears a beret, which Jim finds as laughable and showoff-ish as the Professor's fishing hat. He's the worst kind of snob:

"But it's very pleasant to come down here and to know that the torch of culture is still in a state of combustion in the provinces." (4.18)

As the story continues, the evidence that Bertrand's a self-absorbed jerk just keeps piling up. Whenever we glance across a room we see him monopolizing the conversation and being the center of attention.

Bertrand dominated the central group, doing a lot of laughing as he told some lengthy story. (4.15).

Even his loud, "baying" voice and put-on accent irritates Jim. Bertrand says:

[…] I happen to like the arts, you sam."

The last word, a version of "see", was Bertram's own coinage. It arose as follows: the vowel sound became distorted into a short "a", as if he was going to say "sat." This brought his lips someway apart, and the effect of their rapid closure was to end the syllable with a light but audible "m". (4.130-131)

When Jim first meets Bertrand and his girlfriend, Christine Callaghan, Jim mistakenly thinks that Christine is Bertrand's former GF. This totally sets Bertrand off until he's "going red in the face" and "leaning towards [Jim], struggling to swallow half a bridge roll and speak" (4.31). Bertrand's temper flares up at Jim throughout the novel as he suspects Jim of putting the moves on Christine.

Bertrand rose to his feet again and faced Dixon […] his teeth were clenched. "Just get this straight in your so-called mind. When I see something I want, I go for it. I don't allow people of your sort to stand in my way. […] I'm having Christine because it's my right. Do you understand that? If I'm after something, I don't care what I do to make sure I get it." (20.20)

Talk about a sense of entitlement…

He continues:

"If you ever tell this tale [about B's affair with Carol] to Christine, I'll break your neck in so many…" (20.26)

So much for pacifism.

And despite his progressive lifestyle and flamboyant appearance, he's politically conservative and opposes the government's efforts to help out the poor.

And shall I tell you what else I happen to like? Rich people. I take pride in the contemporary unpopularity of that statement." (4.123)

So much for progressivism.

In sum, Bertrand represents everything Jim detests: pretentiousness, hypocrisy, entitlement, and put-on airs. That's what makes the ending of the book such sweet revenge.