Farewell To Arms

     There is great power in being an author; you can make things happen which do not necessarily occur in real life. Hemingway felt throughout his life, powerless, and so to escape this, he created alternative lives by writing stories. Hemingway, who fell in love with Agnes, an American nurse, seven years older than he, while wounded in Milan, was deeply hurt after she didn't return his affections. While the beginning of A Farewell to Arms, up until this point is similar, this is where the story changes. In the book, Frederic and Catherine are both in love with each other. Hemingway continued his affair with Agnes through Frederic and Catherine. He put his dreams of what his faded love affair would have been like in the love scenes between Catherine and Frederic:

While their exterior appears tough and apathetic, their interior has emotion and can love another. It changes the work as a whole, as Henry's denial to love and other non-masculine subjects are no longer trust-worthy. Henry's denials are just to be seen as cover-ups for his own sake. Hemingway exhibits the change of a man through his thoughts, but also proves the pressures on that man

    There are two major themes in A Farewell to Arms that Hemingway clearly conveys: war and love. The war theme is obvious because the book is set during the World War. The theme of love is less obvious, it begins faintly because of the uncertainty between Frederick Henry and Catherine Barkley. Neither desire love or commitment to anyone, but act upon their desires of passion. As the story progresses, so does their love. The strength of their love is enforced by various understandings and agreements. Love is the theme that closes the book, leaving a final allusion of what their love is about.

No,no- do not say so. Well, go on” (Austen 150). Henry does not continue and allows Catherine to use her own imagination to imagine what terrors await her. Realizing that her emotions have gotten away form her, Catherine is rather embarrassed with herself, and Austen writes, “Catherine, recollecting herself, grew ashamed of her eagerness, and began earnestly to assure (Henry) that her attention had been fixed without the smallest apprehension of really meeting with what he related” (Austen 150).

After Henry had stopped receiving letters from Keiko, Ethel came into his life. He did indeed move on quick, and he did propose to Ethel after five months of dating. Some readers may point out that Henry’s lack of patience are showing during these crucial moments as he acts quickly. “‘Will you marry me?’ No sooner had Henry said it than alarms went off in his head. The realization that words aren’t toys to be played with, and hearts were at stake” (260). He may have proposed and moved on quickly, but, Henry takes Ethel’s innocence and heart into consideration when he proposed, there was no going back for Keiko now: “If he took another step toward the hotel, he knew he’d break Ethel’s heart, and he knew she didn’t deserve that” (264). He made a commitment to Ethel to marry her, and he was determined to fulfill it, unlike his courtship to Keiko. Henry shows a strong sense of responsibility and maturity as he sacrifices his love for Keiko for the sake of others. “Walking home with Ethel, Henry knew he

This quotation's importance on author Earnest Hemmingway is reflected in his modern Romeo and Juliet novel entitled A Farewell to Arms. The recurring tone of the novel suggests that the only reality is the harsh truth which is anything but romantic and proves that in the end, all is futile. This generation in which Stein spoke of to Hemingway is the generation of romantic war times. This idea is symbolized in the character Catherine Barkley's vision of her wartime love where she states

The novel explains Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley’s lives before they came to Italy clearly by stating that Henry wanted to be an architect before the war and Catherine has always been a nurse. Henry is an American who was studying architecture in Rome. On page 242, it clearly says this when Henry told Catherine, “I wanted to be an architect.” Henry joined the war because he was already in Italy and he knew how to speak Italian. Catherine had always been a nurse, but she was previously in England because that is where her home is. These examples show the past lives of both Frederic and Catherine and how their lives came to cross.

Whereas Frederic is passionate about the love of his life, even declaring Catherine as his religion, Catherine never truly commits to the idea of marriage, stalwartly defending her independence. Henry views a formal marriage as a necessary action to solidify his relationship with Catherine, although she believes that they are already personally married. Catherine claims that “there’s no way to be married except by church or state” (Hemingway 115). Catherine is unreligious, so her refusal to married by state is justified. However, her refusal to be married by state showcases her true intentions. After Henry continues to pester her with the idea of marriage, her attitude towards him turns hostile, as she accuses Henry of being jealous of her past marriage with another man. This dramatic change displays Catherine’s willingness to challenge obstacles, such as Henry, that are a threat to her autonomy.

To humans, life is beautiful, and wonderful, and yet it is also tedious, miserable, and fleeting, but there is always supposed to be love, and love is considered a feeling so essential to life that it is universally wanted and craved, but at what cost? How much harder does life become when one’s love is the cause of their suffering. Winterbourne is in love with a girl who will never love him, and Arthur Dimmesdale’s love and sin was the cause of his death. Santiago loved the giant marlin who was eaten before he could use him to stop his unluckiness. Tom Buchanan loved Daisy and he loved Myrtle and led to Myrtle’s and Gatsby’s demise. John Proctor loved Abigail, and Abigail’s continuing love for him brought upon his death and jeopardized his wife’s life. Each book demonstrates how life is agonizing and terrible for its characters all because of someone they loved.

The symbolism in “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway is vivid and dynamic, and in the novel the rain and other factors, symbolize despair. The symbols all are presented in varying forms. The other symbolic factors include; lakes, rivers, snow, ice, mountains, plains, night, seasons, weather, Catherine’s hair, Frederic’s beard, officer stars, riding crop, the painted horse and the silhouette cutter. The symbolic concepts are; the baby, war, love, wounds, and the enemy. The different symbols have an effect on each character in the novel, in a special way. When a reader opens up the novel from the first page to the last page some of the symbols are made obvious, while some symbols are insightful.

This contrast between romantic vision and cold reality can be seen early in the novel, with Henry's departure from home. Driven to a "prolonged ecstasy of excitement" by the rejoicing crowd, Henry enlists in the army and says good-bye to his mother with a "light of excitement

Her marriage was tuff, although she loved him, Henry was more in love with his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, which he spent most of his time with. Diane gained a lot of influence in the governing of France. This bothered Catherine, but she kept her personal feelings to herself.

Catherine is so wrapped up in her fictional world of reading that she becomes ignorant of her real life issues with Henry Tilney, for whom she has been love-struck since their introduction. She entertains herself with wild imaginings about his life and family. Catherine's imaginings foreshadow her eager desire for mischief as Austen's story develops. Catherine is endowed with a vivid imagination, but she has not yet learned to use it in concert with her perception, especially in understanding the interactions between people.

Initially, the relationship was a game of love with the sole purpose of distracting them from unpleasant circumstances. This passage demonstrates this game but also one of the illusions their entire relationship is built upon. Catherine and Henry are both acknowledging the lie. This dialogue establishes the importance of illusion in Catherine and Henry 's relationship. By accepting the illusion, Catherine furthers her position as and idealization rather than a realistic character. Catherine 's hair is a significant symbol in the novel. Henry 's description of her hair in chapter XVII has become a well-known passage. He says, "I would watch her while she kept very still and then take out the last two pins and it would all come down and she would drop her head and we would both be inside of it, and it was the feeling of inside a tent or behind a falls." (Hemingway 114). This description stands as a symbol of the couple 's isolation from the world. Henry allows himself to believe that they are protected from the outside world by something as delicate as hair. In this description we are reminded of Catherine 's alluring beauty as well as her innate ability to be exactly what Henry needs at any given point.

Moreover, henry is aware of Catherine’s feelings and knows how to control them as we observe when he recounts to her the horror story about the abbey. Additionally, Mr. Tilney influences her thoughts and makes her think what he thinks as we see on p.186 when he utters, “what have you been judging from? Remember the country and the age in which we live” which she resumes in the next chapter on p.188 “ Catherine dared not doubt beyond her own country, and even of that, if hard pressed, would have yielded the northern and western extremities”. Henry has a high esteem of himself and doesn’t hide his intellectual