A Farewell To Arms: Themes
There are three major themes in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. The first themeis enduring love ended only by mortality. The second, the effects of war on a man’s ideals
and morals, things which people can and do believe during war. The last and most
important theme is Frederic Henry’s disillusionment.
Hemingway shows that love can persevere in a world ruined with war. Frederic is
not looking for love, and when Rinaldi introduces him to Catherine Barkley, he thinks of
her as merely a sexual conquest. Henry considers his flirting with Catherine “like moves in
a chess game.”. Henry thinks Catherine is a little bit crazy, and both admit they are acting.
At the front, Henry realizes he is lonely without her and misses her. But it is not until he
meets her, after he is wounded and sent to an American hospital, that he realizes he loves
her. Henry admits he didn’t want to fall in love with her, but even so he has. Their love
continues to grow during his stay at the hospital. Their relationship is unusual since they
rarely argue. Their ideal relationship provides them with refuge from the war. However,
love, has it’s limit, mortality. Henry leaves for the front again he suggests that their
romance is only ended by death. He notices because of his love he has become gentle.
When he deserts and returns to Catherine he finds comfort, order, and courage. He says,
foreshadowing the end of their love, “If people bring so much courage to this world the
world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them.”. Henry has become
dependent on Catherine. His love for her is strong enough to ease his disillusionment In
Chapter 41 their baby is born dead. Henry hopelessly watches as Catherine dies and he is
left without comfort or hope.
Henry’s ideals and morals change during the novel. He begins to question the legal
and immoral theories of the war and replace them with illegal but moral ideas. For
instance, in Chapter 7 Henry meets a soldier who wants to be taken to a hospital which is
against the rules. At first Henry objects, but when the soldier asks him “You wouldn’t
want to go in the line all the time, would you?”, he answers no and decides to return later
and pick him up. Henry has been unable to find new morals, since he has lost faith in what
the leaders proclaim. Another example is the Romantic ideology of the time, the belief
Henry is given a choice to destroy the village or get fired from his job working at the
...o at the end, it does not proved that Henry does not give up on Keiko too easily as it is just a sweetness in the bitterness.
Henry for himself is when he is alone. He seems to stop acting and let
...s inner self. What is seen as a relationship amongst these two young men is now torn apart by the transformation of Henry caused from his witnesses during warfare.
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.
and Ethan were never in love. It was no more than a failing shot at
Suddenly, it enters your thoughts and streams throughout your mind; you begin to think, you are in a stream of consciousness. You are in your own world of random words and sentences, amounting to nothing, and at times making all the sense in your world, a world that only exists within your mind. That is exactly how a stream of consciousness works, according to Charles Bohner and Dean Dougherty (1216). Ernest Hemingway himself traverses into three streams of consciousness of his own in order to develop Henry's character and the over all theme of A Farewell to Arms, war and love and all feelings in between. For instance, while Henry is not really required to go to war, he volunteers, without thinking of the consequences and horrors of war. However, along the way, he manages to encounter love, incur physical pain, and realize the horrors of war. And so, having to face a possible death while at the front, Henry finds himself in an extraordinary position. He is somewhere between life and death and while between these two extremes his experiences shapes him into a more mature character.
Henry is trying to tell Bates that the King is not responsible for whatever happens to a soldier at war just because he has sent him, and uses the example above to illustrate this.
Henry suffers from retrograde amnesia due to internal bleeding in the part of the brain that controls memory. This causes him to forget completely everything he ever learned. His entire life is forgotten and he has to basically relearn who he was, only to find he didn’t like who he was and that he didn’t want to be that person. He starts to pay more attention to his daughter and his wife and starts to spend more time with them.
Henry has just witnessed the death of one of his best friends and yet the only thing that he can think of is what Nora said. Another example is his at the start of the novel, following his break up with Nora where he is getting drunk and wandering the streets. Henry is ill prepared for single life and his escape from the control that Nora had over him confuses him. This makes it very clear that Nora’s presence in Henry's life has been nothing but toxic to him and so the loss was necessary in order for him to grow. To be able to realize his poor state of mind, Henry must suffer another
Henry’s father, a strict, war-obsessed man essentially dictates Henry’s life, distancing the two as Henry continues to oppose his father’s views. Because of his father’s controlling ways, there is little love to be lost between the father and son. This animosity between them can be seen when Henry is about to leave his apartment to retrieve the family photos of his Japanese friend Keiko. His father tells him that should Henry leave to help Keiko, he “[is] no longer part of this family” (Ford 185).
...y emotional moments where men were saying their final farewells to their wives because they ultimately knew what their fate was. They knew that this noble deed of theirs was a death sentence for them, but that’s what is expected of men, they are to give up their lives for women.
Oftentimes, the idea of romance between people is greatly misunderstood. The never-ending thoughts and concepts about falling head over heels to someone have always been significant—and most of the time, people, no matter what their position in the society is, find themselves wondering about the possibilities of finding their own soulmate. In William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” the poet tells a tragic love story about two young lovers. A story that depicts one’s emotions and how relationships among people are vastly influenced by their impulsive
In Book I, the army is still waiting for action, and the world is one of boredom with men drinking to make time go by and whoring to get women. War itself is a male game; ”no more dangerous to me myself than war in the movies” (34). Love is also a game. When Henry meets and makes his sexual approach to Catherine Barkley he is only trying to relieve war’s boredom; ”I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley or had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards” (28).
The state of affairs and the grim reality of the war lead Henry towards an ardent desire for a peaceful life, and as a result Henry repudiates his fellow soldiers at the warfront. Henry’s desertion of the war is also related to his passionate love for Catherine. Henry’s love for Catherine is progressive and ironic. This love develops gradually in “stages”: Henry’s attempt at pretending love for Catherine towards the beginning of the novel, his gradually developing love for her, and finally, Henry’s impas... ...