I think
it’s become obvious by now that almost every single nation embodies a good balance
between likeable and dislikeable traits. As such, it’s important to lay out
some essential characteristics if we’re to understand who England is as a
person, his motivations, his faults, and his highpoints.

While
England can be invariably cruel and pessimistic – especially towards America–
this stems from a latent insecurity that he keeps within himself. He pre-emptively
spites others to protect himself from the rejection he’s historically
experienced. In modern strips, his temper has calmed considerably, and this
spitefulness has transformed more into sarcastic banter and blunt teasing.

Nonetheless,
what this post will account for is why England’s loneliness caused him to have
such a volatile temperament, not to mention poor relationships with others.

The
following character notes are of utmost importance in preventing England’s
personality from being misinterpreted. [x]

He’s quite bad
at expressing himself. He himself knows that people often misunderstand him, he
uses this fact for self-depreciating jokes. 

He could easily
be the most pitiful one in this webcomic. 

His temper was
quite stormy during the decades after America’s independence. 

Put
another way: England’s historical isolation caused him to develop a poor sense
of self-worth. To compensate for this, he worked hard to improve his nation and
external image of himself. Meanwhile, the insecurity remained even as he
emerged as a world superpower. Because he was so used to being teased and
berated, England treated others in a similar manner, only for this to work to
his own detriment.

Arrogance
and boastfulness quickly got the best of him. He fell hard and even deeper into
isolation after the American Revolution. His violent temper towards America is
a manifestation of his strong fear of rejection. What you’ll see is that
England is deeply considerate of others and wants to befriend them, but
unfortunately closes up and defensively makes scathing remarks to protect his
fragile self-image.

With all
that said, let’s tie this back to the strips and go through some examples.

We know
that having America as a ward helped ease England’s temper. He even admits
to this.

What’s
important to point out here is that this was during a time when America was
England’s primary ally.

England escaped the alienating
atmosphere of Europe by visiting America. America’s unconditional love was England’s security blanket. 

This
security blanket was lost after the Revolution, thus explaining why England’s
temper explodes in the following years. He was all alone again.

England wants to be friends with America, but has trouble overcoming his loneliness. His crippling fear of rejection is often the cause.

In fact,
England can be quite shy at times. If anything, it proves how skeptical he is
to open himself up to others, let alone make the effort to get them to see him
for who he really is.

He embarrassedly
offers to be America’s friend when he realizes that the latter doesn’t have
any, only to defensively fall back on anger when America rejects him.

It’s a cruel
cycle of desiring to be close to another person, opening himself up, and either
1) rudely spiting them, inciting rejection or 2) politely engaging them as a ‘gentleman’,
only for this to incite rejection as well.

His anger
is a shell – it’s a tough habit to break, even though he woefully recognizes
how problematic it is in impacting how others perceive him.

The fact
that he doesn’t expect positive reactions from others is chiefly illustrated with how embarrassed he gets when he does receive praise.

Nonetheless,
England keeps trying to mend things with America to the extent that these efforts are excessively nosy.

He’s
skeptical that Lithuania will be treated well in America’s house, and takes it
upon himself to visit them. Curiosity is a form of caring, however skewed and
counterproductive as it may be.

Point is,
England’s covertly reaching out to America here, likely because he knows
firsthand what it’s like to be directly rejected by the latter. It’s the next
best thing he can do.

As
touched on above, it’s not just America that England’s isolated from. He’s not
referred to as the Black Sheep of Europe for nothing, after all.

During
the Splendid Isolation Period, and having experienced many political rejections
as a result of tensions with Russia, he desperately tries to convince himself
that being alone isn’t all that bad.

Eventually,
he’s able to successfully form an alliance with Japan. Of particular emphasis is
the strip’s title: 

“The anglo-Japanese alliance between two lonely people.”

I really don’t think it can get more explicit than that.

Further,
this alienation among the other nations is a repetitive theme in the series.
England’s often left out of excursions and activities.

One
example that best demonstrates this is when Italy, Germany, and Japan take it
upon themselves to interview other nations about their Christmas traditions.
The whole strip entails England hiding in the background, fidgeting nervously
as he waits to be interviewed, only to be forgotten about.

Interestingly,
it’s Japan who remembers to interview England at the last minute. The two share
an implicit, but undeniably deep understanding of each other.

Another
way that England compensates for his loneliness is by turning to the
supernatural – his fairie friends. America thinks he’s crazy, but what he doesn’t
realize is that England likely summons these friends to mitigate his
loneliness, and therefore prevent himself from going mad.

The
imagery of a child-like imagination is later used to describe England’s love of
and desire to live in a world entirely made up of fantasy. He lives in his mind
because it’s safe. Similarly, he talks to his [real] fairie friends because he knows
that they’re safe too; they won’t ever reject him.

I’ve
brought this up before, but I think this is a good note to end on. During the
Anglo-Japanese alliance arc, which focuses on the subject of loneliness, why is
it that England is given the Kappa’s Miracle Cure?

It’s a
medicine said to cure any illness…

…but what
illness is there to cure if you’re an immortal being that will automatically
recover from illness anyway?

It seems
to me that the cure was intended for something less tangible, yet just as hard
to cure:

Heartsickness
and accompanying feelings of loneliness.