The Effect of torture and defeat on the human mind

Both Colonel Nicholson and Major Warden are very similar, career Military men who have tasted the humiliation of defeat and surrender, and than torture. They have been taught as career soldiers to revel in the pride and honor of the glorious history of the british military, yet by the late 1930s all that was changing. Their proud Military was being humbled in battle after battle.
Surrender and humiliation changes both men. Nicholson creates a self-delusion, he fashions Victory out of defeat, but it is all a lie. He refuses to admit that the British army could be humbled by what he perceives as an inferior race, so he must show the Japanese the skill and ingenuity of the Bristish. This is his Victory and the Bridge comes to symbolize that. the fact is-that the Sun was setting on the British Empire, soon new World Powers would emerge and Britain would no longer be a World Power, and truth be told =without the help of America, Britain would have been defeated, its home Island invaded.

For major Warden things are much worse. He doesn't even know he is a broken man, and there is nothing left of him. He buries himself in a mission that he deems of vital importance, to destroy a Bridge. When he finds out that train full of Japanese troops and dignitaries is to cross the bridge, he sees this as elevating the mission, the destruction of the bridge is now worth the lives of all involved. The William Hoilden character does not see the urgency nor importance of the mission, he knows the Bridge is destined to be rebuilt, and that Bridge or no Bridge it will have no major significance on the War, the War will be won or lost with or without that Bridge, and he sees his life as well as the life of Warden and the rest as much more important than the bridge, but being an honorable man he knows it is up to him to complete the mission, because he knows if they fail, that will just send more good men to die-to blow up that damned Bridge. Warden is so far gone he doesn't even know he is a monster, he even tells Lt Joyce at one point-if you were injured i would leave you behind without hesitation. only in the end, when his Mortar kills Shears and Nicholson does he realize that he is no hero-just a murderer looking for vengeance, and good men had to die-just so he could reap that vengeance on the Japanese. the Bridge will be rebuilt, but Joyce, Nicholson and Shears are gone forever.