Casino Royale (novel) - Characters and Themes

Characters and Themes

The lead character of Casino Royale is James Bond, an agent of the "Secret Service". For his protagonist, Fleming appropriated the name of James Bond, author of the ornithology guide, Birds of the West Indies. Fleming explained to the ornithologist's wife that "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born". He further explained that:

When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument ... when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, (James Bond) is the dullest name I ever heard.

According to a Fleming biographer, Andrew Lycett, "within the first few pages Ian had introduced most of Bond's idiosyncrasies and trademarks", which included his looks, his Bentley and his smoking and drinking habits. The full details of Bond's martini were kept until chapter seven of the book and Bond eventually named it "The Vesper", after Vesper Lynd.

'A dry martini,' he said. 'One. In a deep champagne goblet.'

'Oui, monsieur.'

'Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?'

'Certainly monsieur.' The barman seemed pleased with the idea.

'Gosh, that's certainly a drink,' said Leiter.

Bond laughed. 'When I'm ... er ... concentrating,' he explained, 'I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold, and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I think of a good name.'

Speaking of Bond's origins, Fleming said that "he was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war", although Fleming himself gave many of his own traits to the character. Bond's tastes are often taken from Fleming's own, as is some of his behaviour: Fleming used the casino to introduce Bond in his first novel because "skill at gambling and knowledge of how to behave in a casino were seen ... as attributes of a gentleman". Lycett sees much of Bond's character as being much "wish fulfilment" by Fleming. Continuation Bond author, Jeffery Deaver says that Bond "is a classic adventure-story hero. He confronts evil. Simple as that." Deaver also clarifies the point, saying that Bond is not a superhero, but that he is very human, doubting himself and making errors.

Bond's number of 007 was assigned by Fleming in reference to one of British naval intelligence's key achievements of World War I: the breaking of the German diplomatic code. One of the German documents cracked and read by the British was the Zimmermann Telegram, which was coded 0075, and which was one of the factors that led the US entering the war. Another reason for using the 007 number was the polymath and Elizabethan spy, John Dee, who would sign his letters to Elizabeth I with 00 and an elongated 7, to signify they were for her eyes only.

Bond's superior, M, was largely based on Fleming's superior officer in Naval Intelligence during the war, Admiral Sir John Godfrey; Godfrey was known for his bellicose and irascible temperament. One of the likely models for Le Chiffre was the influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley, whose physical features are similar to Le Chiffre's; his tastes, especially in sado-masochism, were also akin to those of Le Chiffre and, as Fleming biographer Henry Chancellor notes, "when Le Chiffre goes to work on Bond's testicles with a carpet-beater and a carving knife, the sinister figure of Aleister Crowley is there lurking in the background."

Casino Royale was written shortly after, and was heavily influenced by, World War II. As the power of British Empire was beginning to decline, journalist William Cook observed that "Bond pandered to Britain's inflated and increasingly insecure self-image, flattering us with the fantasy that Britannia could still punch above her weight." In 1953, when Casino Royale was published, coal and many items of food were still rationed, and Bond was "the ideal antidote to Britain's postwar austerity, rationing and the looming premonition of lost power", according to historian and The Times journalist Ben Macintyre. The communist influence of Le Chiffre, with the overtones of a fifth column struck a chord with the largely British readership as Communist influence in the trade unions had been an issue in the press and parliament at the time. Britain had also suffered from defections to the Soviet Union from two MI5 operatives who were part of the Cambridge Five spy ring that betrayed Western secrets to the Soviets, thus Lycett observes that Casino Royale can be seen as Fleming's "attempt to reflect the disturbing moral ambiguity of a post-war world that could produce traitors like Burgess and Maclean".

The question of Anglo-American relations was also raised within the novel, where Bond and Leiter's warm relationship was not mirrored in the wider US-UK association. Christopher Hitchens observed that "the central paradox of the classic Bond stories is that, although superficially devoted to the Anglo-American war against communism, they are full of contempt and resentment for America and Americans". Fleming was aware of this tension between the two countries, but he did not focus on it too strongly. Academic and writer Kingsley Amis, in his exploration of Bond in The James Bond Dossier, pointed out that "Leiter, such a nonentity as a piece of characterization ... he, the American, takes orders from Bond, the Britisher, and that Bond is constantly doing better than he".