History Literature / TheQuestForKarla

* BadassBookworm: Smiley, who specializes in German poetry. In the office, he is typically a quiet, meek figure, whose demeanor belies the many, many successful operations that he ran. In ''Tinker Tailor'' he was the one called in to hunt down the mole; in ''Honorable Schoolboy'' he was responsible for largely rebuilding the Circus from the ground up. In ''Smiley's People,'' he's spending his retirement working on a monograph, but is again called out of retirement because his agents know that there is no one as good as he.

For the BAFTA-winning television adaptations of ''Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'' and ''Smiley's People''[[note]]''The Honourable Schoolboy'' was skipped due to budget constraints[[/note]], starring Creator/AlecGuinness as George Smiley and Creator/PatrickStewart as Karla, [[Series/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy see here]]. For the 2011 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]] of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', starring Creator/GaryOldman as George Smiley, [[Film/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy see here]].

* RiddleForTheAges: When and how [[spoiler: Haydon]] was recruited as a Soviet mole is never revealed. Smiley is shocked when [[spoiler: Haydon]] tells him that he and Karla had a lifelong relationship, but [[spoiler: Haydon refuses to elaborate further.]] Ultimately, revealing the identity of TheMole answers fewer questions than it creates, and Smiley is left with the unsettling realization that he never truly knew [[spoiler: Haydon]] at all.What also doesn't help is that [[spoiler: Haydon's]] MotiveRant appears to be so contradictory that the mole comes across as either a ConsummateLiar or a inconsistent CommieNazis at best, getting Smiley seriously annoyed by it after a while.

* RiddleForTheAges: When and how [[spoiler: Haydon]] was recruited as a Soviet mole is never revealed. Smiley is shocked when [[spoiler: Haydon]] tells him that he and Karla had a lifelong relationship, but [[spoiler: Haydon refuses to elaborate further.]] Ultimately, revealing the identity of TheMole answers fewer questions than it creates, and Smiley is left with the unsettling realization that he never truly knew [[spoiler: Haydon]] at all.What also doesn't help is that [[spoiler: Haydon's]] MotiveRant appears to be so contradictory that the mole comes across as either a Consummate Liar or a inconsistent CommieNazis at best, getting Smiley seriously annoyed by it after a while.

* RiddleForTheAges: When and how [[spoiler: Haydon]] was recruited as a Soviet mole is never revealed. Smiley is shocked when [[spoiler: Haydon]] tells him that he and Karla had a lifelong relationship, but [[spoiler: Haydon refuses to elaborate further.]] Ultimately, revealing the identity of TheMole answers fewer questions than it creates, and Smiley is left with the unsettling realization that he never truly knew [[spoiler: Haydon]] at all.What also doesn't help is that [[spoiler: Haydon's]] MotiveRant appears to be so contradictory that the mole comes across as either a Consummate Liar or a very inconsistent CommieNazis at best, getting Smiley seriously annoyed by it after a while.

* RiddleForTheAges: When and how [[spoiler: Haydon]] was recruited as a Soviet mole is never revealed. Smiley is shocked when [[spoiler: Haydon]] tells him that he and Karla had a lifelong relationship, but [[spoiler: Haydon refuses to elaborate further.]] Ultimately, revealing the identity of TheMole answers fewer questions than it creates, and Smiley is left with the unsettling realization that he never truly knew [[spoiler: Haydon]] at all.What also doesn't help is that [[Haydon's]] MotiveRant appears to be so contradictory that the mole comes across as either a Consummate Liar or a very inconsistent Commie Nazis at best, getting Smiley seriously annoyed by it after a while.

* RiddleForTheAges: When and how [[spoiler: Haydon]] was recruited as a Soviet mole is never revealed. Smiley is shocked when [[spoiler: Haydon]] tells him that he and Karla had a lifelong relationship, but [[spoiler: Haydon refuses to elaborate further.]] Ultimately, revealing the identity of TheMole answers fewer questions than it creates, and Smiley is left with the unsettling realization that he never truly knew [[spoiler: Haydon]] at all.

-->-- '''Ricki Tarr''', ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy''

# ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy''

For the BAFTA-winning television adaptations of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' and ''Smiley's People''[[note]]''The Honourable Schoolboy'' was skipped due to budget constraints[[/note]], starring Creator/AlecGuinness as George Smiley and Creator/PatrickStewart as Karla, [[Series/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy see here]]. For the 2011 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]] of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', starring Creator/GaryOldman as George Smiley, [[Film/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy see here]].

%%* TheAlcoholic: Connie Sachs, most notably.
* AllThereInTheManual: Some of the events of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' come across much, ''much'' differently if you've read ''Literature/TheSpyWhoCameInFromTheCold'' and ''The Looking Glass War.'' In particular, [[spoiler: Control's]] fate starts looking like LaserGuidedKarma.

** One of the few times we see him provoked into anger (he stands up! and raises his voice!) is when Connie [[NotSoDifferentRemark compares him to Karla]] one too many time in "Smiley's People"
%%* BewareTheQuietOnes: Smiley.

%%* {{Blackmail}}: Extremely important in ''The Honourable Schoolboy'' [[spoiler: where it leads to disaster]] and ''Smiley's People'' [[spoiler: where it works as planned]].

** Hilary in ''Smiley's People,'' who had some sort of mental breakdown while working for the Circus. It's not clear what prompted it, though.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Connie Sachs in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' and Toby Esterhase throughout the series. He constantly bitches and moans about resources and his work load, is cold and rude to his colleagues, runs scams and has an extremely strange way of speaking. However, whenever he's shown on the job he's utterly professional and gets it done. There's a reason he's the only member of the senior staff Smiley keeps on in ''The Honourable Schoolboy''.

* CodeName (Karla in particular, whose real name we never find out.)
** In ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', the mole suspects are allocated code names by "Control" based on the nursery rhyme "Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor; rich man, poor man, beggarman thief". when he sends Jim Prideaux to find out from a Czechoslovak general: "Tinker" for Percy Alleline, "Tailor" for Bill Haydon, "Soldier" for Roy Bland, "Sailor" and "Rich Man" are skipped as the former sounds too similar to "Tailor" and the latter seemed inappropriate, "Poor Man" for Toby Esterhase and "Beggarman" for George Smiley.
* CoolTeacher: Prideaux becomes a prep school teacher in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,'' and befriends a student, Bill Roach, to whom he acts like a friendly, older brother figure. When he realizes he's training the boy to become a spy, like he was, he shoos him away.

* DepravedBisexual: Bill Haydon. At the end of ''Tinker Tailor'', he gives Smiley a four-figure cheque for a woman and what is assumed to be his kid, while asking him to pay off a male sailor. The book also heavily implies that Haydon and Prideaux were lovers, and that [[spoiler: Prideaux murdering him]] is in response to a lover's betrayal as much as a professional one.

* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:Bill Haydon]] in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy''.

* HypercompetentSidekick: Haydon to Alleline in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.''

* MandatoryUnretirement: Smiley has been brought out of retirement, albeit in an informal or advisory capacity, to clean up various messses made by his former colleagues in the security services. [[spoiler: Twice.]]

* TheMole: The main plot of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' is finding the mole. The novel is also the TropeCodifier; it popularised a term that has been around since at least the 17th century, though it was a very obscure one. Le Carré though claimed it was a [=KGB=] term.
* MurderByMistake: [[spoiler: Luke]] for Jerry Westerby in ''The Honourable Schoolboy.''
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In the introduction to the reprint edition of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', Le Carré notes that TheMole is partly based on Kim Philby (the Philby affair brought an end to Le Carré's own [=MI6=] career).

* NotNowKiddo: In ''The Honourable Schoolboy,'' Peter Guillam keeps having this problem when he tries to explain to George Smiley that [[spoiler: Sam Collins and Martello]] are probably conspiring against him. At the end of the novel, Guillam begins to wonder if [[spoiler: Smiley knew all along, and allowed himself to be done in]].

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Several members of the Foreign Correspondents' Club in ''The Honourable Schoolboy''--the Dwarf, Deathwish the Hun, and the Canadian Cowboy--are only ever referred to by their nicknames.

* PuppetKing: In ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,'' Control is rendered politically impotent by Percy Alleline's powerful connections in Whitehall. Percy himself becomes this as Circus Chief. [[spoiler: Bill Haydon was really in control through him, using Operation Witchcraft to funnel Western intelligence to Karla.]]

* RedHerring: Because of the setting of ''The Honourable Schoolboy'', several characters naturally assume that Karla wants to infiltrate the British colony of Hong Kong with Chinese aid--or even to outright wrest it from British control. In truth, his plan is a bit less ambitious. [[spoiler: He wants Drake Ko's help in smuggling Ko's brother Nelson--a loyal Soviet mole--out of Communist China.]]

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Nelson Ko in ''The Honourable Schoolboy''. He only appears--very briefly--in one of the very last scenes of the novel, but he's [[TheGhost mentioned constantly]] before that, and nearly all of the novel's plot indirectly revolves around him. [[spoiler: It turns out that Drake Ko only gets involved with Karla in order to smuggle him out of Communist China.]]

* SpySpeak: One of the most famous examples, with the trilogy's influence leading to some {{Defictionalization}}.

* ThemeNaming: In addition to the code names taken from the "tinker, tailor" rhyme in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', there's also Drake and Nelson Ko from ''The Honourable Schoolboy''; both were named after famous British admirals (Sir Francis Drake and Lord Horatio Nelson, respectively) after being christened by Jesuit missionaries in China.
* ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim: This is Smiley's arc during ''Smiley's People,'' despite the BigNo (see above).

* VerbalTic: Jerry Westerby's "Super" (with optional "Gosh") and Martello's "ah" in ''The Honourable Schoolboy.''

* TheWatson: Peter Guillam in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy''.

* KnewItAllAlong: When TheMole is finally identified in ''Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'', Smiley ruefully reflects that not only did he know all along, but ''everyone'' else in the Circus did, too - instinctively, if not empirically, since [[spoiler:Bill Haydon]] was the only one of them for whom being a traitor would be in character, but all of them chose to just [[SafetyinIndifference put it out of their minds]], ''"like an illness they hoped would go away if it was never owned to, never diagnosed."''

* DisappointedByTheMotive: Questioning [[spoiler:Haydon]] about his motives for becoming a traitor, Smiley is conscious that he is being told only half the truth, and that half consists largely of ''"half-baked political assertions"''. Later on the train to see Ann, Smiley turns over a half-dozen different motives in his head, ranging from political (genuine disappointment at the United Kingdom's diminished role in world affairs, and its eclipsing by the United States as the dominant superpower in the Cold War) to personal (embracing communism as a poor substitute for a ''"loveless childhood"'' with an abusive father). Smiley ultimately decides that only Karla saw ''"[[MatryoskhaObject the last little doll]]"'' inside the traitor, and besides, that original motive likely faded into insignificance along with the rest of his youthful idealism:

* DisappointedByTheMotive: Questioning [[spoiler:Haydon]] about his motives for becoming a traitor, Smiley is conscious that he is being told only half the truth, and that half consists largely of ''"half-baked political assertions"''. Later on the train to see Ann, Smiley turns over a half-dozen different motives in his head, ranging from political (genuine disappointment at the United Kingdom's diminished role in world affairs, and its eclipsing by the United States as the dominant superpower in the Cold War) to personal (embracing communism as a poor substitute for a ''"loveless childhood"'' with an abusive father). Smiley ultimately decides that only Karla saw ''"the last little doll"'' inside the traitor, and besides, that original motive likely faded into insignificance along with the rest of his youthful idealism:

* TheAlcoholic: Connie Sachs, most notably.

* [[TheAllegedCar The Alleged Plane]]: Jerry Westerby has to take a nail-biting flight in a tattered, rusty, and practically collapsing plane in ''The Honourable Schoolboy.''

* BadassBookworm[=/=]BadassBureaucrat: Smiley, who specializes in German poetry. In the office, he is typically a quiet, meek figure, whose demeanor belies the many, many successful operations that he ran. In ''Tinker Tailor'' he was the one called in to hunt down the mole; in ''Honorable Schoolboy'' he was responsible for largely rebuilding the Circus from the ground up. In ''Smiley's People,'' he's spending his retirement working on a monograph, but is again called out of retirement because his agents know that there is no one as good as he.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: Smiley.

* {{Blackmail}}: Extremely important in ''The Honourable Schoolboy'' [[spoiler: where it leads to disaster]] and ''Smiley's People'' [[spoiler: where it works as planned]].

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Jerry Westerby is astonished when the Thai colonel he's interviewing turns out to speak perfect English with a strong American accent.

* DepravedBisexual: Bill Haydon. At the end of ''Tinker Tailor'', he gives Smiley a four-figure cheque for a woman and what is assumed to be his kid, while asking him to pay off a male sailor.

* WorthyOpponent: Dicussed and invoked. The Minister worries that the exposure of a spy will lead to a scandal the Soviets may exploit, but Lacon (and Smiley, in the TV adaptation) explain that the Soviets won't disgrace their enemy because it'd reflect badly on their own offensive efforts against them.

[[caption-width-right:350: ''“It's the oldest question of all, George. [[WhoWatchesTheWatchmen Who can spy on the spies?]]''']]

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