56 pages 1 hour read

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1974

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Part 3, Chapters 30-34Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 30 Summary

Prideaux tries to treat his wound. He still has two bullets lodged in his shoulder from the failure of Operation Testify. He treats the wound with vodka, while also drinking from the bottle to numb the pain. After grading papers, he takes a walk through the grounds of the school. First, he visits the church and sits on a pew. He has a gun hidden safely in the church in case of emergencies. Roach tells him that a man has been asking after him. Prideaux is worried; he quizzes Roach for more information, but Roach struggles to provide any answers. Later that evening, Prideaux talks to the schoolboys about a rugby match. In the distance, he sees Smiley arrive in a car. Though his first thought is to take the gun from the church, Prideaux returns to his caravan. 

Chapter 31 Summary

Smiley talks to Prideaux in a cheap motel room. He begins by revealing to Prideaux that Control is dead and that the aftermath of Operation Testify resulted in Smiley being fired from the Circus, with Alleline now in charge. Smiley provides details on how Operation Testify failed, which involve the local agents having their identities blown. The local agents were killed and Prideaux was held responsible. Prideaux reveals his side of the story. He tells Smiley that he was summoned to a safe house by Control, whereupon Control revealed that the target for Operation Testify was General Stevcek, who wished to defect. Stevcek was among the high-ranking figures in the Czechoslovakian army. He wanted to meet a representative from the Circus in the forests surrounding Brno and offered to provide information to the British. Control believed that Stevcek held the key to finding out the identity of the Russian mole who worked at the Circus. Control has identified five possible people who could be the mole. He assigns each of them a codename based on a nursery rhyme. The potential targets are: Alleline (Tinker), Haydon (Tailor), Bland (Soldier), Esterhase (Poorman), and Smiley (Beggarman).

Prideaux recruited Max and traveled across Europe. During his travels, he realized that he was being followed. Despite this, he met with Max, altered the plan, and proceeded with the mission. Prideaux was driven into the forests around Brno by a driver who supposedly worked for Stevcek. Suspicious of his driver, Prideaux threatened the man with a gun and forced him to enter the meeting place first. The hidden Russian troops launched their ambush, chased Prideaux into the forest, and shot him twice in the shoulder. They then captured Prideaux and photographed him. 

Chapter 32 Summary

After being captured, Prideaux worked out how much he could reveal during interrogations. He was moved frequently by his captors and passed out on many occasions. Prideaux was not sure whether he had been set up by Stevcek, who may have been a plant to try and trap him. As such, he decided not to mention to his captors anything concerning Control, the possible existence of a mole in British intelligence, and the identities of the Czech spies who worked for the British. Instead, he hoped he could distract them by providing useless information that they would already have in their files. Prideaux wanted his captors to believe that they had successfully broken him and extracted everything they could. The interrogators seemed to know a great deal, including the location of Prideaux’s safe house. Prideaux’s entire plan to steadily unfurl a controlled amount of information was ruined, because the interrogator knew about “Control’s rotten-apple theory” (242).

Smiley understands that the mole, Gerald, had already told them about this. Prideaux remembers the short, intense man who questioned him while sitting calmly with folded hands. The man showed Prideaux the engraved cigarette lighter that Karla stole from Smiley many years before; Smiley knows that this man was Karla. After being tortured, Prideaux told them everything he knew. Prideaux was placed in a prison camp and allowed to recover. Eventually, he was returned to Britain, where he was placed in a recovery center. Esterhase eventually arrived and seemed informed about Operation Testify. Giving Prideaux a large sum of money, Esterhase ordered him not to mention Operation Testify or the mole to anyone. Since then, Prideaux has followed these orders and tried to forget what happened to him.

When prompted by Smiley, he selects photographs of high-level Soviet operatives whom he recognizes from his interrogation, including the man who may be Karla. Smiley returns Prideaux to the school. Meanwhile, Guilliam takes Tarr to Liverpool as part of a new mission. Tarr travels from Liverpool to Ireland and then to Paris. As he drives back to London, Guilliam reflects on his unstable paranoia. Later, he calls Esterhase and invites him for a “friendly chat” (252). 

Chapter 33 Summary

After talking to Prideaux, Smiley accompanies Lacon to meet the minister. When they share the information they have learned, the minister fears that there will be a public scandal. Lacon and Smiley suggest that they can apply pressure on the Soviets to try and keep the scandal about the mole from ever becoming public.

At the school, Prideaux announces that he will need to take a sudden leave of absence due to his mother being sick. His fellow teachers divide up his classes among them. Roach continues to be ill. His father angrily calls the school and threatens to take Roach out. 

Chapter 34 Summary

Guilliam waits for Esterhase at a safe house. When Esterhase is inside, Smiley arrives and sits down with him. He reveals what he has learned about Operation Witchcraft as Esterhase nervously attempts to dismiss the conversation. Smiley will not be dismissed. Smiley reveals his theory: Alleline wants Control’s job, so he willingly listens to news of a valuable Russian source that might be available. The source is brought to him by the mole, Gerald, who flatters Alleline and proposes an alliance that will land them both top jobs at the Circus. Gerald brings Alleline information from a group of sources, codenamed Merlin, in exchange for large sums of money. Merlin and Gerald become increasingly valuable sources of information, requiring a secret house in London to further their intelligence gathering. Polyakov is the intermediary and works with a team: Bland, Esterhase, Alleline, and Haydon. All of them meet with Polyakov, who passes them information. At the same time, they provide Polyakov with information of their own, scraps of useless intelligence that Polyakov can pass to his Russian bosses to show that he is still loyal. This information, Esterhase insists, was always “chickenfeed” (264), pre-approved intelligence that the British were happy for the Russians to know.

However, Smiley believes that the mole has been handing Polyakov essential, important information disguised as chickenfeed while receiving chickenfeed from the Russians in return. Karla has tricked the Circus into thinking that they have a high-placed double agent when the truth is the complete opposite. When Smiley asks for the identity of Polyakov’s mole inside the Circus, Esterhase tells him to look at the people at the top. He tells Smiley the location of the secret London safe house where they meet Polyakov. Smiley arranges to stay the night in the safe house. Esterhase will stay under the supervision of Smiley’s men. Smiley departs and Guilliam checks to see whether someone followed him. Later, he comes to believe that the shadowy figure of Prideaux was tailing him through the London streets. 

Part 3, Chapters 30-34 Analysis

The last and most important interview Smiley conducts is with Prideaux. The interview takes the form of a confession, in which Prideaux comes to terms with his mistakes and everything he has lost. His emotional struggles manifest in a physical sense, as he cannot sit still and feels uncomfortable in every environment. Smiley slowly encourages Prideaux through this process, functioning almost like a therapist rather than a spy. However, Smiley’s relationship with Prideaux is not unlike his relationship with Tarr. Both men are tools which Smiley uses to complete an objective. He needs Prideaux to speak, and he recognizes Prideaux’s pain and trauma, so he gently encourages him. Smiley’s actions appear sympathetic, but there is a practical, almost cynical undercurrent to his questioning. He does not relent, even when Prideaux is struggling, but carefully changes the subject, the environment, or the tone to help Prideaux provide the required information. Smiley’s gentle approach to Prideaux shows that he is fiercely determined to find the mole and that he will employ whatever methods needed to do so.

The contrast to Prideaux’s sincere confession is the anxious panic of Esterhase. Unlike Prideaux, whose loyalty and competence are never questions, Esterhase is a less trustworthy figure. He is regarded with contempt by the other characters, who view him as a weasel-like figure who will do whatever it takes to ensure his own survival. The presentation of Esterhase’s lack of trustworthiness speaks to the sense of English nationalism in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Esterhase’s Hungarian ancestry is frequently mentioned in the novel, with no one in the Circus quite able to fully trust someone who is not entirely British. This xenophobic paranoia shows how trustworthiness and Britishness are naturally conflated by the British characters. Alleline, Haydon, and Smiley occupy similar positions at the Circus, but neither their trustworthiness nor their ancestry is ever brought into question. Esterhase stands out because he is not considered trustworthy, but he is not considered trustworthy because he stands out.

As Prideaux recalls to Smiley, Control used a simple method to identify the suspects in his search for the mole. He employed a nursery rhyme and assigned each target with a code name: Alleline (Tinker), Haydon (Tailor), Bland (Soldier), Esterhase (Poorman), and Smiley (Beggarman). The use of these codenames illustrates the simplicity of the investigation. All Control needs is one name; his entire organization and the legacy he has built, as well as the future of the Circus, depends completely on the smallest amount of information possible. The complexity of the Circus’s area of responsibility is made redundant by the presence of the mole, so Control must build everything again from the ground up by inspecting the constituent parts of the machine for failure. A nursery rhyme is the musical equivalent of this search for a simple piece of information. The song has no real meaning of its own, beyond the sound of the words. It is a seemingly simple list, sung to a familiar tune. Likewise, the identity of the mole is a simple name, familiar to anyone who works in the Circus. Control’s decision to use the nursery rhyme to name his suspects reflects the desperation and the nature of his task, as he frantically searches for the one scrap of intelligence which can save his world. 

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