Bond’s True Love?

James Bond has only had one true love that we know about.  He met his true love during the early part of his career.  Bond found true love in the most complicated and emotionally devoted girl who worked for the British Government.  Her name was Vesper Lynd which could be a play on words for a “viper who lied” which should have been a warning to Bond’s sense of danger.  Vesper was initially put off by Bond’s arrogance only to fall deeply in love with Bond after he was tortured by the villain Le Chiffre.  In the background there remained many hidden past secrets in her relationship with Bond.  Ultimately it will be her complex background complete with blackmail and another lover’s life at stake which will result in her own death.  She may have died to end the burden of her guilt from her complex life or perhaps it was out of true love to protect Bond from haunts from her past life which she knew would never go away.  It is through tragic love that Bond finds his inner sense of purpose in life to devote his life to MI6 and his country as the greatest secret agent the world would ever know. 

In the novels, Ian Fleming has Vesper working for Section S of the British Secret Service which is devoted to the Soviet Union.  She has a lover from the Polish Freedom Fighters but he has been in Soviet custody since the end of World War II.  She is blackmailed into providing key intelligence to the Soviets to keep her long lost lover alive.  It is her guilt about the death of her lover and the suffering Bond has with Le Chiffre which results in a burden she cannot handle and she kills herself with sleeping pills.  Bond is heartbroken and he vows to go after the threat behind the spies. 

In the motion picture version, unlike the novel version, Vesper’s character and Bond’s love of Vesper are developed only to end tragically.  Vesper officially works for the British government where she is an International Liaison Officer for the Financial Action Task Force of Her Majesty’s Treasury.  Her experience is with illicit banking practices and has been sent to ensure that government funds used to finance Bond in a high-stakes poker game with the Bond villain Le Chiffre are frugally used.  She even denied funds to Bond when he over played his hand and Bond’s long-time friend Felix Leiter had to come to Bond’s rescue to provide the required funds to stay in the game.  Vesper meets Bond at a point in her life where she is venerable, still wearing an Algerian love known necklace which was a gift from her French – Algerian lover.  She is an orphan, just like Bond.   However in her case, this tragedy was committed by her father killing her mother and then himself in a murder/suicide.   Unknown to Bond, Vesper has been blackmailed and tricked into working for Mr. White for two reasons.  She was led to believe that her lover was kidnapped through Mr. White’s terrorist network that will only save her lover’s life by her cooperation with Mr. White.  Secondly, she made a deal to save Bond from death by Le Chiffre’s torture by promising to return the winnings from the high stakes poker game to Mr. White through his associate Gettler.  Although Vesper never completes the blackmail transaction, she cannot continue to live knowing what she almost did.  Bond’s love for Vesper was so great that he resigned from his life-long love: MI6 only to return after he discovers her deception and gets to watch her die through self-inflicted drowning in a locked Venetian elevator cage in front of Bond.  In this version you can almost personally feel the pain in Bond’s heart and understand why he represses love into love of work.

As in any tragic love story, this story ends with a purpose.  Even though Bond lost his one true love under very emotional and tense circumstances, he recovered with an internal drive and sense of purpose.  Bond is scared for life on the inside and his heart which was opened but for a short time is now shut permanently.  The sense of pain Bond felt is shown in his famous quote to M that “the bitch is dead.”   Bond now has the ability to rise to any challenge and take on any foe with winning being the only outcome for Bond.  Perhaps the greatest secret agent is still devoted to his only true love and doesn’t care if he dies knowing that he will meet her again in heaven.