A Farewell to Arms

-Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms, a novel of love and war, tells a gripping story that has all
the ingredients of popular appeals- action, adventure, excitement, suspense, a
charming heroine, and a passionate lover who never tires of love-making.
Life history (Ernest Hemingway)
• Born: July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, US.

• Passed Away: July 2, 1961, in Idaho, US (suicide).

• Remarkable Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1953); Nobel Prize in

Literature (1956).

• Spouses: Hadley Richardson (1921-1927); Pauline Pfeiffer (1927-1940);

Martha Gellhorn (1940-1945); Mary Welsh (1946).

• Children: Jack, Patrick & Gloria.

• Signature:
 Prime Characters

Lieutenant Rinaldi
Lieutenant Frederick Henry
• An American volunteer to serve the Catherine Barkley • A skilled surgeon.
Italian ambulance unit in WW1.
• The nurse at British Hospital, whom
Frederick names ‘Cat’. • Frederick Henry’s jokingly cynical friend.
• Enjoys drinking, treats war as a
joke & visits brothels.
• Falls in love with Frederick. • Very fond of women, a typical
‘womanizer’; but teases Frederick about
• Falls in love with Catherine. Catherine, calling her a “cool goddess”.
• Not a complex person, but enjoys life,
especially good food, drink & love.

o Trivial Characters: Hellen Ferguson, Passini & Bonello, Count Greffi, Ettore Moretti.
Characterization

• Catherine Barkley is a static character as she continues to be the same personality that she was during her
introduction in the novel as well as at the end.

• Frederick Henry tends to be the dynamic character as he is the most swapping person throughout the novel.

• Helen Ferguson is the round character as her persona varies.

• “The Hemingway Hero”: One of the most remarkable & talked-about features of Hemingway’s novels is
what has come to be known as “The Hemingway Hero”. Hemingway created a figure
who has come out to be known as the “code hero”. The code hero is to be sharply distinguished from the hero.
His function is to balance the hero’s deficiencies and to correct the hero’s stance. The code hero does not
demonstrate self-pity, faces life with courage, and live by a certain code.
 Outline & Evaluation
• A Farewell to Arms is a novel by an American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian
campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American,
Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army.
• Hemingway’s own experiences with the Italian Army informed a lot of this novel. As we walk
through the book we can pull off Hemingway’s own life experiences, although there are lots of them :
Ernest Hemingway Frederick Henry
(a) American living in
Europe.
(b) Working as: Ambulance
drivers, for Italian Army.
(c) Getting injured in
WW1.
(d) Fell in love with
nurse.
• The character of Catherine Barkley has sparked a lot of debate amongst literary critics
particularly concerning what her character says about Hemingway’s attitude towards women.
• Catherine by Hemingway’s description is almost impossibly beautiful with the most amazing hair,
this side of Rapunzel.
• Feminist critics tend to find Catherine too submissive, too willing to do anything to make Fredrick
happy and keep his love.
“You see, darling, it would mean everything to me if I had any religion. But I haven’t any religion,
You’re my religion. You’re all I’ve got.”
• Frederick & Catherine first met before Frederick’s first injury; when Frederick was seeing his
friend, the surgeon, Dr. Rinaldi.
• Frederick of course isn’t pleased about his injury but is glad when he finds out that the hospital
he’s been sent to recover at is the same where Catherine is stationed.
• At this point their relationship is a little more than a mutual flirtation, heavy on game playing &
sincerity. Over time though their relationship develops both emotionally & physically to the
point that Catherine becomes pregnant.
• Not long after receiving the news of Catherine’s pregnancy, Frederick learns that he has to
return to the war, though Catherine & Frederick swear their love & fidelity before parting.

• Once back at the front a skirmish with German troops occurs & Frederick barely escapes with
his life. Despite the guilty for those who succumbed to death & were abandoned, his main
focus shifts on getting back with Catherine & living a happy normal family life together with
Catherine & the baby.

• The two eventually reunite & escape to Switzerland. It seems like they’ll live blissfully but
Hemingway turned the tables & made a melancholic end where Catherine & the baby both
die in a dramatic & horrifying delivery.

• The novel terminates when, Catherine says her final goodbye, slips into a coma, and dies. Thus,
helpless Frederic walks alone towards a hotel in night rain and thinks that this is the awful
price that he and Catherine had to pay for the “good nights” which they had shared.
(A gloomy person walking alone in rain is like a cliché. The rain is both depressing & cleansing
aspect, washing away this chapter of Frederick’s life & preparing him for the next whatever that
may be.)
 Prominent Themes

Religion
Love & War
Drugs & Alcohol
Self vs. Duty
Women & Femininity
Reality vs. Fantasy
• Love & War: Love and war are the two most prominent
themes in “A Farewell to Arms”, and throughout the novel,
they walk hand-in-hand with each other. Although war is
not glamorized in this novel; instead, it is presented in a
very real & horrifying fashion from the perspective of the
ambulance driver. Amidst all the warfare scenarios, the love
story of the ambulance driver serving the Italian army &
the nurse who cares for the wounded soldiers, sprouts &
grows day by day. Still, love overpowers war on the whole
throughout the novel.
• Reality vs. Fantasy: Throughout “A Farewell to Arms”,
• Women & Femininity: There aren’t very many women in
“A Farewell to Arms”, but the ones we do meet are
unforgettable characters. In many ways they fulfill
traditional female gender roles or even female stereotypes
– they are all either nurses or prostitutes. Yet, as they try to
find happiness and do the right thing in a war-torn world,
they transgress and challenge gender roles revealing
themselves as simply human – flawed, breakable, strong,
daring, and often full of love.
• Drugs & Alcohol: We can almost get drunk just
reading this book. There’s booze on almost every page.
One of the most provocative issues in the novel is the
use of alcohol on the battlefield by soldiers as a
temporary or partial buffer against the nightmare of
World War I. The novel also examines alcohol as it’s
used to buffer against heartbreak and loss.
Hemingway shows how the harsh truths of reality
always infiltrate and corrupt the distracting fantasies
that characters create to make themselves feel better.
In terms of war, Hemingway shows how ideals such as
glory and honor quickly fade when one is confronted
with the stark or absurd realities of battle—for
instance, when Henry is maimed by a mortar shell
while eating macaroni and cheese.
 Symbolism
• Concepts of ‘Home’ & ‘Not-Home’: The sub-surface activity of ‘A Farewell to Arms’
is organized connotatively around two poles: Home & Not-Home.

(a) The ‘Home’ concept is associated with mountains; snow; peace & calmness; love;
dignity; health; happiness; good life; and worship or at least consciousness of God.

(b) The ‘Not-Home’ concept is associated with low-lying plains; rain & fog; obscenity;
indignity; disease; suffering; war & death; and irreligion.
Chronological
Order Analepsis Prolepsis

Narrative Strategies
Places discussed in the novel
• Italy
• Gorizia
• Plava
• Milan
• Caporetto
• Taglamento River
• Stresa
• Switzerland