Characters and Themes
Author of the "continuation" Bond stories, Raymond Benson, noted that in "The Living Daylights" Bond's thoughts on killing are examined once again, showing that although 007 did not like doing it, he considered that he must as part of his duty to complete an assignment. Once the mission is completed, with Bond deliberately not killing the assassin, there is an attitude of complacency with Bond shrugging off his colleague's complaints about the incident. Academic Jeremy Black sees the colleague, the officious Captain Spender, as the antithesis of Bond and an echo of Colonel Schreiber, the head of security at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), who appeared in "From a View to a Kill".
In the act of not killing the assassin, the theme of disobedience is raised in "The Living Daylights", with Bond calling what he has to do as "murder" and subsequently dismisses his actions by saying "with any luck it will cost me my Double-0 number". Raymond Benson considered that "Octopussy" was a morality tale, with greed bringing repercussions years later to the main protagonist, Dexter Smythe.
Read more about this topic: Octopussy And The Living Daylights
Famous quotes containing the words characters and, characters and/or themes:
“The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents; and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Unresolved dissonances between the characters and dispositions of the parents continue to reverberate in the nature of the child and make up the history of its inner sufferings.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)