A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is a typical love story.

A Romeo and his Juliet

placed against the odds. In this novel, Romeo is Frederick Henry and Juliet is Catherine Barkley.
Their love affair must survive the obstacles of World War I. The background of war-torn Italy
adds to the tragedy of the love story. The war affects the emotions and values of each character.
The love between Catherine and Frederick must outlast long separations, life-threatening war-
time situations, and the uncertainty of each others whereabouts or condition. This novel is a
beautiful love story of two people who need each other in a period of upheaval. Frederick Henry
is an American who serves as a lieutenant in the Italian army to a group of ambulance drivers.
Hemingway portrays Frederick as a lost man searching for order and value in his life. Frederick
disagrees with the war he is fighting. It is too chaotic and immoral for him to rationalize its
cause. He fights anyway, because the army puts some form of discipline in his life. At the start of
the novel, Frederick drinks and travels from one house of prostitution to another and yet he is
discontent because his life is very unsettled. He befriends a priest because he admires the fact
that the priest lives his life by a set of values that give him an orderly lifestyle. Further into the
novel, Frederick becomes involved with Catherine Barkley. He slowly falls in love with her and,
in his love for her, he finds commitment. Their relationship brings some order and value to his
life. Compared to this new form of order in his life, Frederick sees the losing Italian army as total
chaos and disorder where he had previously seen discipline and control. He can no longer remain
a part of something that is so disorderly and so, he deserts the Italian army.

Fredericks desertion from the Italian army is the turning point of the novel. This is the
significance of the title, A Farewell to Arms. When Frederick puts aside his involvement in the
war, he realizes that Catherine is the order and value in his life and that he does not need
anything else to give meaning to his life. At the conclusion of this novel, Frederick realizes that
he cannot base his life on another person or thing because, ultimately, they will leave or
disappoint him. He realizes that the order and values necessary to face the world must come from
within himself. Catherine Barkley is an English volunteer nurse who serves in Italy. She is
considered very experienced when it comes to love and loss since she has already been
confronted with the death of a loved one when her fiance was killed earlier in the war. The
reader is not as well acquainted with Catherines inner thoughts and feelings as we are with those
of Frederick. The story is told through Fredericks eyes and the reader only meets Catherine
through the dialogue between her and Frederick or through his personal interpretations of her
actions. Catherine already possesses the knowledge that her own life cannot be dependent on
another. She learned this lesson through the death of her fiance. Her love for Frederick is what
her life revolves around, yet she knows not to rely on him to be the order in her life. Had she
been dependent on Frederick for the order in her life, she would not have been able to allow him
to participate in the war for fear of losing her own stability with his death. The theme that
Hemingway emphasizes throughout the novel is the search for order in a chaotic world.
Hemingway conveys this through Fredericks own personal search during the chaos of World
War I.
Catherine has found strength within herself to lead her through life. This is what Frederick must
come to realize. Through his involvement with Catherine, Frederick slowly finds his own inner
strength. Fredericks affair with Catherine prompts him to leave his wild life of prostitutes and
drink. He becomes aware of an element of stability in their affair and realizes that the war that he
was involved in was too chaotic, so he deserts the army. He and Catherine make a life for
themselves totally isolated from everything and everyone else. Frederick believes that his life is
now completely in order and that his values are in perspective, yet he still seems discontented.
He continuously has to convince himself that he has a fine life. He has not yet reached
Catherines level that enables her to be perfectly happy in their love and yet not dependent on it
for all comfort and support. Frederick still has to find that within himself. Until the conclusion of
the novel, Frederick still relies on Catherine as the source of order in his life. With the end of
their affair when Catherine dies giving birth to their stillborn love-child, Frederick realizes that
he cannot depend on any one person, such as Catherine, or any thing, such as religion, war, or
frivolity, for order and discipline. Hemingway describes Fredericks enlightenment best in the
final paragraph of the novel when Frederick sees Catherines corpse for the first and last time.
Fredericks reaction was that it was like saying good-by to a statue. Frederick realizes that
Catherine was only a symbol of the order and strength in his life. Strength to face life must come
from within him and only he will be able to get himself through his own life. He will have to
learn to depend on himself.

Frederick realizes this and is able to get on with his life on his own. After a while [he] went out
and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain. He did not mourn or feel like his
own life had ended with her death, rather he was able to continue on with his new found inner
strength and face his world alone. This novel succeeds in getting Hemingways message across.
Fredericks realization causes the reader to reflect on his/her own life and on what institutions
they depend on in their own lives.

Willy Loman is a salesman living in New York City in the late 1940's. He lives with his wife,
Linda, in the same house for the last twenty-five years. The house once sat apart from other
homes, now it is surrounded by apartment buildings, which makes Willy feel closed in.

Willy is having trouble concentrating on driving and often makes mistakes such as crossing the
white line, driving off the road, and running red lights, while stopping for green lights. He has
begun to talk to himself more and more, which causes concern for Linda. He, at the beginning of
the play, has come home from a business trip because he has had trouble with his driving. He is
also concerned, because his sons are not progressing in the business world the way he had hoped
they would. His son Happy does have a job and lives in his own apartment, but his son, Biff,
rambles from job to job, as a farmhand, never making much money.

Willy has been demoted from a salary employee to a commission employee at his job. This
means he makes less money to support himself and his wife. This combined with the constant
driving and lackluster sales, causes Willy so much stress, that he begins to hallucinate. He thinks
he is living in an earlier time in his life. He speaks to people who aren't there and he disturbs his
friend, Charley, who comes over to play cards with Willy. During the game Willy thinks his
dead brother, Ben, is in the room with them. He is talking to Ben and Charley at the same time,
which causes Charley and Willy to have a disagreement about the card game. Charley leaves, but
Willy is still talking to Ben asking him how he made his fortune. Ben had gone to Africa and
worked in the diamond mines, this is how he became rich. Willy also needs Ben to tell him he is
proud of Willy and his sons. During this hallucination the boys are teenagers and Biff is the
sports star at his school. Willy sees a very bright future for his son, but in reality this does not
come to pass. Willy is not as proud of Happy, who does all he can to garner some attention from
his father. He is constantly telling his dad about the weight he has lost, but Willy instead of
praising his son, tells him more ways in which to lose weight.

Biff and Happy are surprised at the turn their father has taken. Happy knew his father would
often talk to himself, but did not know he was so loud about it and how often it occurred. Biff,
meanwhile had no idea his father was behaving in this manner. Now their mother tells them the
car accidents Willy has been having, are in fact attempts at suicide. The boys agree to try to stay
closer to home and start a business together. Biff decides to ask his former boss for a loan to help
start the new business.

At the beginning of act two, Willy and Linda are full of hope for their family's future. Willy is
going to talk to his boss, Howard, and try to change his job from that of traveling salesman to
floor salesman in the store. They are also hopeful about Biff and Happy's future business
venture. If Biff can receive the loan from his former employer, than it will mean a bright future
for the boys. Biff at age 34, needs to settle down and make a career for himself, he sees that and
so does his parents.

Willy tries to talk to Howard about the job change, but Howard tells him he just doesn't have a
position open for him in the store. He needs Willy to keep selling to the clients in the New
England area. Willy becomes angry with Howard and starts to yell at him. Howard after trying to
calm Willy down, eventually has to fire him.
Biff is left waiting in his former boss, Bill Oliver's office for six hours and he only sees Bill, as
he is leaving for the day. It is clear that Bill either doesn't remember Biff or doesn't want to speak
to him. Biff, after all, did steal some basketballs from Bill's business. Biff in a pique of anger
enters Bill's office and steals his pen. As he is making his escape from Bill's office he realizes he
and Bill never did have a real relationship and he has made a mess of his life.

Biff and Happy have made plans to meet their father in a restaurant to celebrate the anticipated
good news from the day. Instead, it is all bad news and Willy is not willing to accept the truth
from Biff. The two boys meet some girls and leave Willy alone in the restaurant, which causes
Willy to have another hallucination about a woman he had used to cheat on Linda.

At home, Linda is furious with the boys for leaving their father behind at the restaurant. She tells
them it would be better if they left and never returned, because they causes so much stress for
their father. Willy and Biff finally tell each other how they feel, which makes Willy understand
that his son loves him. Willy decides the insurance money of twenty-five thousand dollars would
benefit his family. He talks to Ben and decides to kill himself. Afterward, Linda has a hard time
dealing with Willy's death. She cannot bring herself to cry, because she keeps on waiting for him
to return from another business trip. She is sad, because finally the house is paid for and now she
does not have a husband to share it with.

This play shows how false perceptions of ourselves and others can bring about the ruin of a
person. If a life is based on a lie, then eventually the truth can be too much to endure.
SHORT PLOT/CHAPTER SUMMARY (Synopsis)

In the spring, Nick Carraway, a young, moral, and conservative young man from the Midwest,
has come to New York to learn the bond business and to escape the confining small town
environment of his youth. He rents a small bungalow on West Egg, next door to the mansion of
Jay Gatsby and across the bay from the home of his cousin, Daisy Buchanan. Shortly after his
arrival, Daisy invites him to come for dinner with her, her husband, Tom, and her friend, Jordan
Baker. When he arrives at their home, Nick is amazed at the size of it; he is also amazed at the
purposelessness of their lives. Daisy, always dressed in white, seems to float about without a
serious thought or any ability to plan anything meaningful; Jordan is no better. Tom seems to
care only about his polo ponies and his mistress. When he leaves the Buchanan's, Nick feels
disgusted and unsettled by what he has seen. When he arrives home, he spies his neighbor, Jay
Gatsby, for the first time. He is standing out back, looking across the bay with his hands
outstretched towards a green light at the end of some dock in East Egg.

Your browser does not support the IFRAME tag.

In July, Nick finds himself on the train into the city with Tom Buchanan. When they stop near
the Valley of Ashes, Tom insists that the two of them get off the train so that he can introduce
Nick to his mistress, Myrtle Wilson. It is decided that they will all go in to the city and have a
party at Myrtle's apartment, which Tom keeps for their affair. Nick tries to get out of it, but Tom
is insistent that he joins in the fun. Several people come to the party, and it gets out of hand with
too much liquor being served. Even the moral Nick admits he has too much to drink. It is Tom
and Myrtle, however, who seem the most inebriated. When she taunts her lover by shouting
Daisy's name to him, he hits her and breaks her nose. Nick is repulsed by the violence.

Later in the month, Jay Gatsby sends his chauffeur over to Nick's house with an invitation for
him to attend a party the next Saturday night. Nick accepts and arrives at the party with great
curiosity. He is amazed at the lavishness he sees. A full bar, with a brass rail, has been set up,
and the back yard has been turned into a ballroom, complete with orchestra. Nick carefully
surveys the crowd, trying to find the host, whom he has never met. He wanders through the
house, encountering several strange characters including a drunken man in the library whom he
calls "Owl Eyes." Not finding his host, however, he is relieved to see Jordan Baker. They spend
most of the evening together. At one point, as they are seated at a table, they are joined by a
young man in his thirties. He seems to recognize Nick, and they discover that they were in the
same division in the army. When the newcomer asks Nick to take a hydroplane flight with him
the next day, he discovers he is talking to his host and neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Nick had imagined
him to be much older.

Not long after Nick's first experience at a Gatsby party, his host comes for a visit in order to take
Nick into New York for lunch. It is obvious that Gatsby has something on his mind. During their
journey, he gives Nick information about his past, trying to impress him by saying he won war
medals and attended Oxford. He also reveals that he has a favor to ask of Nick, but says that
Jordan Baker will tell him what it is. Nick is a bit miffed, for he cannot understand why Gatsby
does not just ask himself, and he does not want to spend his evening with Jordan discussing
Gatsby.

At lunch, Nick is horrified to learn that Gatsby's other guest is Meyer Wolfsheim, the man who
fixed the World Series in 1917. He is also horrified that his host slips away without saying a
word of good-bye when they bump into Tom Buchanan. Nick departs and goes to meet Jordan
Baker for tea. She tells him that Gatsby's request is for Nick to invite his cousin Daisy over to his
house and invite Gatsby as well. Daisy, however, is not to know that Gatsby is coming. Jordan
then tells Nick that Daisy had dated Gatsby when she was eighteen and he was a soldier
stationed in Louisville. When he received orders to leave Louisville and go to Europe to fight in
the war, Daisy planned to run away and marry him, but her parents stopped her. For awhile, she
remained faithful to Gatsby; soon, however, she tired of waiting and began to date Tom
Buchanan, a wealthy young man from a socially prominent family in Chicago. Before long, she
accepted his proposal of marriage and wrote Gatsby a letter to end their relationship.

On the day of the tea to be held at Nick's bungalow, a very nervous Gatsby arrives, worried that
Daisy will not come. When she drives up in her convertible, Gatsby can hardly stand it; in fact,
he runs out of Nick's house to gain control and to allow Daisy to come inside. He then comes
from the back to ring the front doorbell. The first few minutes are very awkward, but the two of
them are soon talking about old times. Gatsby insists that he take Daisy on a tour of his house
and asks Nick to come along. Gatsby seems to rejudge the value of everything in his house
according to Daisy's reaction to it. He simply cannot believe that after all these years of waiting
and planning his dream girl is actually in his home.