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Illustrated portrait of Patrick

A character in The English Patient

Patrick

Hana's Canadian father, whose death from burns shapes her attachment to a patient injured in the same way.

What they want

To remain connected to Hana across wartime distance and return to the Canadian family life the war interrupts.

The book

Cover of The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The English PatientMichael Ondaatje, 1992

Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa while war, love, empire, and memory keep crossing the walls.

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At a glance

Nationality
Canadian
Child
Hana
Wartime location
Europe
Fate
Dies from burn injuries

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Patrick belongs to Hana's Canadian life before the villa. His relationship with her is remembered rather than played out in the 1945 present. News of him reaches Hana through war's delayed and incomplete communications.

He is wounded in Europe and dies from burns. Hana cannot reach him or care for him. The manner of death makes her devotion to the burned English patient emotionally direct without turning the patient into a literal replacement.

Patrick's absence also connects Hana and Caravaggio. Caravaggio knew the family before the war and recognizes how grief has narrowed Hana's life.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • Present through letters and memoryThe novel gives Hana fragments of a father at a distance rather than a continuous wartime portrait.
  • Canadian service in EuropeHis location ties Hana's home history directly to the Italian war she nurses through.
  • A father's private addressHana remembers relationship and voice beyond the official message reporting his fate.
  • Burn injuriesHe dies after being burned, a fact that changes how Hana sees the patient's body.
  • An absence inside the villaHe never enters its rooms, yet much of Hana's caretaking is organized around what she could not do for him.
  • A link to CaravaggioTheir shared Canadian past lets Caravaggio understand Hana's grief more personally than the other residents can.
Patrick's death and Hana's careHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Patrick dies after being burned in Europe. Hana's inability to nurse him contributes to her decision to remain with another burned man after the military hospital leaves.

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