Hemingway’s, A Farewell to Arms: Does The Film Do Justice To The Novel?

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is a book about love and war set in Italy during WWI. The book begins with Lieutenant Frederick Henry working as an ambulance driver along the front lines. He soon meets Catherine and they begin to have feelings for each other. Soon after Frederick is injured by an artillery shell and sent to a hospital in Milan. Catherine who is a nurse in the English army transfers to the hospital to be with him. Throughout their time in Milan they begin to fall in love, and Catherine soon becomes pregnant with Frederick's child. Frederic eventually becomes healthy again and is sent back to the front lines of northern Italy. Shortly after he arrives the Austrians break the Italians front lines at the Battle of Caporetto and the Italians are forced to retreat. During the retreat many of the soldiers refuse to fight again, and the Italian battle police start executing

     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:

His decision to "desert [..] the army" exhibits how the atrocities he faces during war makes him want to leave it behind so that he can be fully devoted to Catherine (Hemingway 251). As a result, the war, with all its melancholy, brings the couple close together. The importance of the title of book, A Farewell to Arms, is demonstrated when Henry willingly gives up fighting in the army so that he can be with Catherine all his life. He faces many terrors in the war such as getting injured, being sent back to the front, and most importantly almost getting arrested. As a result, Henry and Catherine distract each other from these brutal things in the world by living in their own world away from people. Henry, rashly, regards Catherine as an escape from the hopeless war. However, Henry's dependence on Catherine to take his mind away from the war makes him vulnerable at the end of the novel when she dies, demonstrating that relying on someone excessively can be harmful. In the midst of the horrors in the world, love is a shining light of hope that both Henry and Catherine turn to in order to get through the hard

Within the book, Hemingway teaches the stories of love, pain and war. When mentioning the war, a character named Passini states, “There is nothing as bad as war. We in the auto-ambulance cannot realize at all how bad it is. When people realize how bad it is they cannot do anything to stop it because they go crazy.” (43) Hemingway goes to teach us about how the war affects people. Once a soldier comes back from fighting, he is never the same. Hemingway understands this first hand and tries to convey his point throughout the book. Another major theme is love and what people will do when in love. Henry and Catherine fall for each other so hard that their whole lives change as a result. Hemingway wrote, “When you love you wish to do things. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.” (62) In a way, love is destructive to one’s individuality and the author tries to show this point. “When I saw her I was in love with her. Everything turned over inside of me,” said Henry. (80) He feels so deeply about Catherine that he physically feels it. They are both fleeing from emotional situations in their lives, Henry from the war and Catherine from her dead fiance, that they find solitude in each other. They turn to each other to forget all the bad. Later in the book,

A Farewell to Arms is a novel by Ernest Hemingway about an American ambulance driver in Italy during World War I, and the nurse, Catherine Barkley, with whom he falls in love. The story is narrated by his driver, named Frederic Henry. Whether or not this book is truly an anti-war novel is debatable, but it well depicts the effects an ongoing war has on soldiers and how the men try to numb this pain. Henry's close friend at the front, Rinaldi, forgets the war with the help of sex and seduction, the priest takes comfort in God, the Captain has humor and jokes about the priest, and almost all drink profusely, taking wine and brandy like water. But the most important and notable attempt to escape from the pain of war is Henry and

Ernest Hemingway’s novel of A Farewell to Arms depicts the harsh veracities of World War 1, based on Hemingway’s personal accounts. His novel, written with simplicity and sensory detail, develops a zealous affair between an injured ambulance driver and his nurse. Hemingway’s illustration of lovers amidst a war allows readers to create their own interpretation of how the story evolves. His writing entails the reader to examine the chaotic circumstances throughout the novel. For example, on page 172, Hemingway writes, “Well, we were in it. Everyone was caught in it and the small rain would not quiet it. ‘Goodnight, Catherine,’ I said out loud. ‘I hope you sleep well. If it’s too uncomfortable, darling, lie on the other side,’ I said. ‘I’ll get you some cold water. In a little while it will be morning and then it won’t be so bad. I’m sorry he makes you so uncomfortable. Try and go to sleep, sweet!’ I was asleep all the time, she said. You’ve been talking in your sleep.” Hemingway collaborates all the lovers’ troubles into a simple understanding. He allows the reader to acknowledge frustration and concern in daily life and plan how to overcome such obstacles. On page 169 he writes, “When we were out past the tanneries onto the main road the troops, the motor trucks, the horse-drawn carts and the guns were in one wide slow-moving column. We moved slowly but steadily in the rain, the radiator cap of our car almost against the tailboard of a truck that was loaded high, the load

    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.

The protagonist in this story is Lt. Frederic Henry who happens to be the narrator is an American ambulance driver who is in the Italian army during WWI. Although he is courageous and heroic, Henry does not want any part in boasting about medals and such. Henry meets a girl named Catherine and it changes his aspect on love, and we see his character transform into new perspectives throughout the book. Henry is a good caregiver and leader among his peers also.

I. Ernest Hemingway shows the prosaic and fruitless nature of war and how the outcomes of war can affect people by using damaged characters. II. In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway uses Henry’s life story to show how war can lead to a tragedy. The war is nothing but a cause of destruction and deaths. People begin war in order to live their further life in peace, but instead, war just leads to unexpected concerns and problems.

Seeing as there can be a number of different themes in a story, Ernest Hemingway does not hold back from ever giving the reader a chance to fall in love with the story. The reader’s first glimpse of reality in the story is shot through the depths of the theme. One of the most common themes in the book is war. War marks and defines the characters in the book. It is the death in their eyes and fear in their hearts. The reader knows this. Because the reader can easily define war as one of the major themes in this book, the reader can also feel the loss and pain that the characters experience throughout the story as well.

In terms of characters and characterization (versus plot and theme), A Farewell to Arms is the story of Lieutenant Frederic Henry and the way he grows and changes, lives and learns, in order to catch up to the Nurse Catherine Barkley with respect to experience and the wisdom that it brings. Especially considering that Ernest Hemingway has been accused of misogyny, it is fascinating to note that Catherine is the more mature of the two characters when they meet; therefore, it is Henry who must struggle to match her level of maturity. Returning from his leave near the start of the novel, Henry knows he should have traveled to the priest's home region of Abruzzi, a "place where the roads were frozen and hard as iron, where it was clear and cold

Catherine’s life before Italy was very difficult for her considering the grief she carries with the memories she left. Catherine worked and lived in France and unfortunately her fiancée died in battle, “He was going to marry me and he was killed in the Somme” (Hemingway 18). She discusses that her initial move to Italy was out of solidarity for her dead fiancée. Catherine continues to pursue her medical career as a V.A.D.. When Frederic is asked why he, an American, is working for the Italian army, he claims that “There isn’t always an explanation for everything” (Hemingway 15). Frederic’s past is shielded from the novel but more is revealed later on while he is staying at his friend Simmon’s home. He is asked why he used to live in Rome to

Novels published after a major war are often the most deeply emotional, profound ruminations on human nature. The authors of these novels were once soldiers, living in fear and enduring sleepless nights. These authors channel their experiences and emotions into their work, often creating masterpieces of literature. A Farewell to Arms is one such novel. Its author, Ernest Hemingway, was in the Italian ambulance corps in World War I, much like the protagonist of A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry. The themes in A Farewell to Arms reflect his mentality and the typical soldier’s disillusionment in the institutions and values he had always held close. A Farewell to Arms explores the far-reaching disillusionment that seems to plague Frederic. The theme of Frederic Henry’s disillusionment of all that he believes in appears through his desertion of the war, the deterioration of his relationship with Catherine, and his thoughts on life.

At first look, Catherine Barkley, the woman from Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, appears to be an example of a dream girl. She emerges as a mindless character who asks nothing of her man and exists only to satisfy his needs. Therefore, it has been propounded that Catherine's character is demeaning to women. By analyzing the actions of only one of the characters, however, the special relationship that exists between Frederic and Catherine is overlooked. If Catherine is Hemingway's manner of demeaning women then one must also examine the manner in which Frederic is described, for he too is very dependent and dedicated to Catherine as she is to him. The mutual love between Frederic and Catherine

Ernest Hemingway's WWI classic, A Farewell to Arms is a story of initiation in which the growth of the protagonist, Frederic Henry, is recounted. Frederic is initially a naïve and unreflective boy who cannot grasp the meaning of the war in which he is so dedicated, nor the significance of his lover's predictions about his future. He cannot place himself amidst the turmoil that surrounds him and therefore, is unable to fully justify a world of death and destruction. Ultimately, his distinction between his failed relationship with Catherine Barkley and the devastation of the war allows him to mature and arrive at the resolution that the only thing one can be sure of in the course of life is death