Relationships In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms

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:

After going through bad times, there is a moment of reflection in which beliefs change. In the novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an English ambulance driver for the Italian army in World War I, after escaping into the river from the battle police who are interrogating and murdering innocent officers, realizes that Catherine Barkley, an English nurse, is the love of his life and his only priority. This incident leads to a rude awakening in the train ride to Milan of how awful it was when his own army did not hesitate to take his life, and it eradicates his obligation to serve in the war. Thus in his novel, Ernest Hemingway uses the illuminating incident of when Henry escapes his execution and then desires

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.

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is a story about love and war. Frederic Henry, a young American, works as an ambulance driver for the Italian army in World War I. He falls tragically in love with a beautiful English nurse, Miss Catherine Barkley. This tragedy is reflected by water. Throughout the novel Ernest Hemingway uses water as metaphors. Rivers are used as symbols of rebirth and escape and rain as tragedy and disaster, which show how water plays an important role in the story.

Ernest Hemingway wrote A Farewell to Arms, a celebrated historical fiction, amidst a time of war and personal suffering. Hemingway believed at this time that “life is a tragedy that can only have one end” (Hemingway, VIII). He continues further, calling war a “constant, bullying, murderous, slovenly crime” (Hemingway, IX). Hemingway also suffered at home, in addition to his issues regarding the state of the world. His wife had just endured a difficult pregnancy and delivery, which contributed to the last bitter chapter of his story. Keeping in mind the tortured and surly mental state of Hemingway, it is difficult to swallow the idea that he would write a wholesome, well founded love story that attracts people. To some readers, A Farewell to Arms tells of a whirlwind romance between an ambulance driver and a nurse that is based on an unbreakable foundation of love, trust, magnetism, and compassion. Anxious modernists, like Trevor Dodman who are cited in Joel Armstrong’s nonfiction text, will come up with a remarkably different outlook on this tragedy. With aid from “‘A Powerful Beacon’ Love Illuminating Human Attachment in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms”, the loveless relationship between Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley will be seen as rushed, meaningless, and mentally destructive to the parties involved.

To start with, love is a necessity amongst the characters in the novel. Henry and Catherine find one another amidst the First World War. Both of them longly desire to find something that will pull them away from the war and into something greater. Henry is in search of love, there is a deep void in his heart that Hemingway implanted in him, although it might not seem as if it is prevalent at the start of the novel, it protrudes itself periodically. When Henry and his good friend Rinaldi frequently attend brothels, it is to attempt to fill the emptiness that war has drawn from them. When Henry and Catherine are apart they share a feeling of being aloof and gloomy. "Why darling, I don 't live at all when I 'm not with you." (Hemingway Pg 38). Henry and Catherine begin to have an affair out of wedlock due to the amount of frequent visits amongst each other, during this time having pre-marital sex was looked down upon

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.

The foundation of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms is based on lies. Hemingway exposes the reality, or truth, of love and war by presenting the story of Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, lives ironically entrenched in lies. Henry in particular assumes a different role at every turn, pretending, for example, to be a soldier, a civilian, a doctor or Barkley's dead fiancé.

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.

Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms covers a romance that takes place during World War I. The novel itself came out shortly after the war, and was the first of Hemingway’s books to become a best-seller. Essentially, the novel contrasts the horrors of war with the romance of Henry and Catherine. Throughout the plot, Hemingway, a World War I veteran himself, uses the events of the book to make a statement about his thoughts on war. The core message of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is that war damages the soldiers who fight in it both physically and emotionally, which is primarily illustrated by the number of deaths caused directly and indirectly by the war, the actions Henry is forced to take over the course of the book, and Henry’s growing cynicism towards war.

Frederic chooses to spend his time in the city rather than Abruzzi, although that is where he "had wanted to go…" (Hemingway 13). Frederic realizes that there is a moral and religious way of life, which the priest represents, and he respects these values of the priest. He acknowledges the fact that the priest has a code to live by. On the other shoulder sits Rinaldi, the satisfied, self-assured surgeon with whom Frederic also tries to identify. Rinaldi seems fulfilled, but as the war progresses he falls into a world of despair and disease. Although he cannot see it, Rinaldi too closely resembles Frederic's dilemma and therefore is unable to tutor him (Waldhorn 69-70). Tremendously significant, Frederic Henry's exchanges with the priest and Rinaldi play a strong role in his development because he is unable to solely identify with either of them.

As a first point, love is a key aspect in creating a sense of belonging and stability between Catherine and Frederic in the novel, playing the role of an anchor in the midst of a gruesome plot of war. In his commentary, Armstrong notes that “... the development of Barkley and Henry’s relationship from casual lovers to de facto wife and husband confirms the strength of their love and that love’s power to illuminate

In WWI nearly 37 million people died, Ernest Hemingway was not one of them. Hemingway was an ambulance driver in the Italian army until he was eventually injured by an artillery shell. Once Hemingway returned home he began writing a book based on his experiences of WWI. That book is A Farewell to Arms. In 1929 he published this book and it was met with mixed feelings and calls for it to be banned. I believe that A Farewell to Arms should not be banned because it brings to light many different viewpoints about the war as well as strong literary strategies beneficial to good writing.