Farewell To Arms Qualities

A Soldier putting love above duties
“A Farewell to Arms” is a story about how a lieutenant, Frederic Henry, who leaves his duties behind to chase the love he feels for the british nurse, Catherine Barkley. The story unfolds during World War I at the Italian front, where Henry is working in the ambulance corps. His best friend and roommate, Rinaldi, introduces him to the Catherine. Henry and Catherine fall in love but their love is challenged and tested before the two manage to escape from the war only to meet a tragic ending in the safety of Switzerland. Through all the war’s hardships Henry’s true character is revealed. He is portrayed as an honest, selfless and determined person, who through the story develops into being loving and affectionate.

This is demonstrated in how Henry handles his and Catherine’s love affair in the beginning. A night when Henry is coming to see Catherine to convince her of his love, he states: “ ‘Yes,’ I lied. ‘I love you.’ I had not said it before.”(Hemingway 30). Henry is forced by his high morals to be honest with us, but because his relationship with Catherine at this point is nothing more than a game, it does not require the same standard. Henry follows up with uttering: “I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her” (30).
Henry’s helpfulness and selflessness are displayed in how he puts other before himself. An example of this is when Henry is back at the front and they are attacked. Henry’s friend Passini gets hurt gets hurt and all Henry can think of is helping him and not about his own injury: “I tried to get closer to Passini to put a tourniquet on the legs but I could not move” (55). Henry does not acknowledge his own injury before trying to help his