A Farewell to Arms: An Unhappy Ending "I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I picture myself dead in it" (P 126). This is a short quotation from, A Farewell to Arms, (1929), by the award winning writer, Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms has a very unexpected death in the end. The reader sympathizes with the main character as he matures from the beginning to the conclusion of the novel. A Farewell to Arms is a love story during World War I. The novel is centered on Lieutenant Fredric Henry, an American who has volunteered for the Italian army driving ambulances in Europe because the United States has not yet entered the war. Fredric is known as being a lost man searching for order and value in his life. He is very subdued and does not care about himself or about the war. In the first book of the novel, Fredric is characterized, along with the other characters. Throughout the first book, Fredric takes a leave of absence from the war and travels the country looking for his purpose in life. During the second book, Fredric returns to the warfront town and meets with his closest friend, Rinaldi, who introduces Fredric to Catherine Barkely. Catherine is a French nurse with whom Fredric falls in love immediately. Fredric finds commitment with her, and they start to spend time together. Their relationship brings order and value to his life. He starts to care more about himself and Catherine. Being away from the war, Fredric feels safe with Catherine. When they are together, the war seems to not exist. "The war seemed as far away as the football games of someone else's college," says Fredric (P 63). Catherine is experienced when it comes to love and loss since she lost her fiancé in an earlier war. She cannot depend on another person so she tries not to depend on Fredric to bring order to her life and less chaos. This then allows her to be emotionally stronger when Fredric has to go off to war again. While off at war, Fredric and his other driver friends are sitting in a cave, when the Austrians attack. Fredric is hit in the knee while trying to help his friend, who dies. Fredric is taken to the hospital in Milan. When he arrives at the hospital, Rinaldi and Catherine come to visit him. During his recuperation from having knee surgery, Catherine becomes one of his nurses. Fredric and Catherine's love affair starts again. They now get to spend more time together and isolate themselves from everything and everyone else. Book three is when Fredric realizes he doesn't want to be part of the war, but only with Catherine. Fredric convinces himself that he has a "fine life" (P 298). Catherine then finds out that she is pregnant with Fredric's baby. After a few months, Fredric is sent back to the warfront and has to leave Catherine. While at war, Fredric leaves his troops because they did not follow his orders. German troops are looking for Fredric for leaving his troops. "Along the top of the stone bridge, I could see German helmets moving" (P 211). Floating down the Taglimento River, Fredric goes through the Venetian fields and then rides a train to safety. Returning to Milan, in the fifth book, Catherine is not at the hospital and has gone to Stresa for time off. They stay in a motel and find out that Fredric will be arrested if they stay there. Leaving during the middle of the night, they travel to Switzerland to find safety. There they live in the mountains above Montreaux until Catherine gets closer to having the child, and then they move into a hotel in Lausanne. Until the end of the novel, Henry relies on Catherine for order in his life. Catherine's and Fredric's love ends when Catherine dies of hemorrhages while giving birth to their stillborn baby. When Fredric sees his baby boy, he feels no sense of fatherhood and only wants to be with Catherine. During the last paragraph, Hemingway characterizes Fredric, when he sees Catherine's dead body lying on the hospital bed for the first and last time. Henry's response was, "it was like saying good-bye to a statue" (P 332). Fredric then realizes that Catherine was the only symbol of the order and strength in his life. "If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brace impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry." Hemingway describes the separation between Catherine and Fredric, in this quotation. People deal with death in very different ways. In this novel, Fredric has to learn how to live without Catherine in his life. Finding strength from within will allow Fredric to go on with his life. "After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain" (P 332). Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. New York.
Henry and Catherine hold a steady, loving and trustworthy relationship even through the tough times of war. Even though there are disputes on whether Henry and Catherine really loved each other, they held a good relationship. They tended to each others needs. Catherine took it slow while Henry wanted to rush into things to quickly. "Hello," I said. "When I saw her I was in love with her. Everything turned over inside of me." (91) Catherine and Henry were inseparable. Throughout the novel, their relationship became more serious and Henry had finally decided that he was in love with Catherine Barkley. "I really love you. I'm crazy about you." (92) This quote displays how Henry just can't get enough of Catherine how he wants to rush into things to quick. Henry doesn't like Catherine for who se really is but is taken over by the power of her looks.
The characters of Lewis, Ed, and the hillbilly rapists can be examined in terms of the circles of Hell found in Robert Pinsky's translation of "The Inferno of Dante." Each circle of Hell is reserved for a particular type of sinner with very specific punishments. When the characters from James Dickey's "Deliverance" are viewed from the perspective of Dante's nine circles of Hell, their actions seem to be much more sinister then when they are taken in the context of Dickey's novel alone. What could be viewed as justifiable homicide in Dickey's world suddenly places Lewis and Ed in the pits of Hell, right alongside the rapist, murdering hillbillies.
Considering that there are many different levels of realism, I have chosen to focus on Neuromancer by William Gibson and We so Seldom Look on Love by Barbara Gowdy. The stories explore the boundaries of realism by using similar elements. The most obvious one is the margin between life and death, which these two stories address. The main characters separate themselves from society's idealistic realism. Nevertheless, where is their identity placed when living in a different realism? How does one understand the reality of a person with a fragmented mind?
In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Fredric Henry gets involved with Catherine Barkley to escape the insanity of war. Frederic loves Catherine. Catherine loves Frederic. The extreme situation of war and fate allowed both of them to be thrown together and fall in love. This love for one another was an escape into another world for Frederic. It provided him emotionally with a private place, where he could go to separate and evade the horrible realities of war occurring in and around him. Under any other normal circumstances this love probably would have never happened, but the pitcher had the curve ball in for Frederic from the first throw. He wanted him out.
In this essay, some characteristics of this view of women, often called "The Cult of True Womanhood", will be explored with reference to Thomas R. Dew "Dissertation on the Characteristic Differences Between the Sexes (1835). Some of the feminist developments arising in conflict with this ideal will also be traced. Then, in accordance with my view that literature and culture is often interrelated, I will proceed by with an analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" as a critique of the gender roles of the time, commenting on its symbolism as well as its plot development.
While Frederic Henry may be the main focus of the novel, we cannot forget that Catherine Barkley is the original Hemingway Code Hero that helped Henry mature to the hero he is at the end of the novel. Without Catherine’s heroism, Frederic Henry would still be an immature ambulance driver that frequents brothels without much meaning to his life. Catherine forces him to grow up and face the world, and that is why she deserves her title as a Hemingway Code Hero.
...o be correct. Hemingway uses rain as a sign of death, sadness or to give one of his characters the state of being afraid. The despair brought by rain, Frederic says „ good-bye to [Catherine], and then „[leaves] the hospital and walk[s] back to the hotel in the rain". The rain described as he walks home represents again a cleansing in which Tenente will be forced to start a whole new life now.
Catherine in the book says that everything ends in death and it was raining when she was in the hospital and when Henry comes out. Albert Pike once said “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” Henry was our main character and we followed his story, but Henry is forever changed by the rain and he will never forget her even if it will rain for the rest of his life.
Religion played a significant role in Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. The attitudes that the character had towards the war and life were closely associated with their views on religion. Due to extreme circumstances of war, moral standards were obscure for the characters. Almost everything related to the war violated the normal code of morality, which led many to feel disenchanted. Those who viewed the war as senseless had no faith in God or religion. For the character of Fredrick Henry it was clear that his faith in God was a subject of conflict. Henry was a character that understood religion, but did not love God. His love for Catherine was the most religious feeling that he had. Though Fredrick Henry lacked faith in God, he comprehended the power and control that God has.
Heathcliff and Catherine have loved each other since their childhood. Initially, Catherine scorned the little gypsy boy; she showed her distaste by “spitting” at him (Brontë 27). However, it was not long before Heathcliff and Catherine became “very think” (Brontë 27). They became very close friends; they were practically brother and sister (Mitchell 122). Heathcliff is intent upon pleasing Catherine. He would “do her bidding in anything” (Brontë 30). He is afraid of “grieving” her (Brontë 40). Heathcliff finds solace and comfort in Catherine’s company. When Catherine is compelled to stay at Thrushcross Grange to recover from her injury, she returns as “a very dignified person” (Brontë 37). Her association with the gente...
Also, to reinforce his hero’s understandings about life and what comes after it. Says Catherine, “I’m afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it (118).” Her great distress of the rain reflects her feelings toward the war, and the knowingly constant threat of death that Frederic Henry encounters. As she feared bereavement in the rain, it represents the Hemingway hero’s theories that death is the cold ending of everything. Hemingway also hints at more hard times ahead for Catherine and Frederic saying, “Outside the rain was falling steadily (117).”
The Christian belief is that no matter what you do wrong or to what extent, you are always able to be forgiven. As long as you are able to realize and admit to what you've done wrong and are willing to pay for your sins and repent, you will always be forgiven in the eyes of God. In "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the mariner is willing to repent. After committing his sins against nature, he comes to realize that it is not to be taken for granted. By realizing and expressing the beauty that nature is, the mariner is granted his forgiveness in return for penance; his telling of this story.
The writing is typical to Hemingway’s style and depicts Frederic as being lonely and isolated after Catherine, who is described as being “his other half” has died leaving him alone. I have shown this by using the motif of the rain, which is featured throughout the novel. This is an important motif as it is used in A Farewell To Arms to foreshadow Catherine’s impending future as she explains “sometimes I see me dead in it” .The effect of this is that whenever the rain is mentioned, the reader will be wary as Hemingway creates a clear link between death and rain even in the first Chapter of the book , “At The Start of the Winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came chlolera….in the end only seven thousdand died of it in the army”. I have continued to include the rain to show that the ...
Oedipus is depicted as a “marionette in the hands of a daemonic power”(pg150), but like all tragic hero’s he fights and struggles against fate even when the odds are against him. His most tragic flaw is his morality, as he struggles between the good and the evil of his life. The good is that he was pitied by the Shepard who saved him from death as a baby. The evil is his fate, where he is to kill his father and marry his mother. His hubris or excessive pride and self-righteousness are the lead causes to his downfall. Oedipus is a tragic hero who suffers the consequences of his immoral actions, and must learn from these mistakes. This Aristotelian theory of tragedy exists today, as an example of what happens when men and women that fall from high positions politically and socially.
The more Henry and Catherine spend time together, the more attached he got to her. Throughout the novel Henry’s love for Catherine grows as they go through many things together. Yet, it’s nearly close to the end of the novel when one really get to see the change in Henry’s character. As Catherine is close to her death, Henry exclaims, “ Oh, God, please don’t let her die. I’ll do anything for you if you won’t let her die” (Hemingway 282).