Thematic Elements of A Farewell to Arms

“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 brave impartially” (Hemingway, p 280). Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms is rife with themes that are centered on love and war. The novel paved the way for Hemingway to become the great modern American writer he has become known for. The novel was based on some of Hemingway’s own experiences with war and love. In 1929 A Farewell to Arms was released and quickly became a bestseller. The success of A Farewell to Arms allowed it to become adapted for both the stage and screen several times. These adaptations occurred over many years due to the resounding quality of the novel as well as the historical events of the time. The paper will examine the thematic elements of A Farewell to Arms for not only a deeper understanding of the novel but also to understand why the novel resonated with so many people and continues to do so to this day.

A Farewell to Arms is set in Italy during World War I. The protagonist, Frederic Henry is a lieutenant in the Italian army as part of the medical crew who rescues soldiers. Despite his presence in the Italian army, Frederic is not Italian, rather he is an American who has been living in Italy for a number of years allowing him to have an alternate perspective to the war that his fellow Italian soldiers do not have. Frederic is loyal to the duties he has been given and does not seek any glory as a part of being in the war. The novel also explores the romance between Frederic and Catherine Barker who he falls in love with after both a simple flirtation and then a long seduction while he is recovering from a wound inflicted during a battle. “But with Catherine there was almost no difference in the night except that it was an even better time.” (Hemingway, p 280).

This romance is set against the brutality of war as Frederic must face not only threats from the enemy combatants but also threats from his own military unit as well. Frederic must also come to terms with his feelings for Catherine and what their relationship will be like after the war is over. These two themes of love and war drive the narrative and actions of the character in the novel. Much of the narrative in A Farewell to Arms is centered around Frederic Henry and his experiences with war and thoughts on Catherine Barkley. After experiencing the brutality of his army regime Frederic manages to escape from the war with Catherine to Switzerland and they have a few idyllic few months together. However their happy ending was not to be as she dies after giving birth to their stillborn child. This tragic ending is a part of the numerous themes of love, war, pain, trauma, memory, and illusion that will be explored throughout the paper to further understand the elements of the novel.

One of the novel’s prominent themes is the harsh reality of war. The novel was written during a time where war was glorified and viewed as honorable for men to give up their lives for their country. This nationalism of the time prompted this loyalty to the cause as it was believed you were risking your life for their countrymen. Many of the soldiers in the novel have long abandoned the glorious war opinion as they continue to attend to their duties because they have to not for the higher ideal of honor. Frederic is similar to the other soldiers as he is aware that the war will not bring him honor or glory. He simply wants to complete the job that he is there to do. When praise or medals are attempted to be given to him, Frederic shuns them as he just focuses on the cities they have been in and the number of towns that have been destroyed. “Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates” (Hemingway, p 107). Throughout the novel, Frederic finds himself withdrawing further and further away from the war efforts. This occurs at first when he shoots an engineer in his army for defying his orders and then as he escapes from the deadly interrogation that would have ended his life. This final escape from the army to the arms of his life signifies an escape from the ideals of war.

One of the major contrasting themes to the disillusionment with war is the exploration of love. In A Farewell to Arms love is portrayed as a way to escape from the pain of life. Catherine begins her involvement with Frederic as a sort of game. Her intention was to attempt to escape the pain of her fiancé’s death. Frederic, in turn, attempts to escape from the pain of war by falling in love with Catherine. While at first their relationship is one of mutual escape, they eventually are consumed with each other and the purpose of the relationship is no longer escape but the love that they have for each other. Although they are able to escape both the pain and conflicts they experienced the characters realize that love does not solve any of their problems, as love is only temporary no matter how deep the feelings exist. “Poor, poor dear Cat. And this was the price you paid for sleeping together. This was the end of the trap. This was what people got for loving each other. Thank God for gas, anyway. What must it have been like before there were anesthetics?” (Hemingway, pg. 320). Frederic discovers this as a result of Catherine’s death, which occurred because of their love that resulted in her pregnancy and the birth of their stillborn child.

Catherine’s treatment of her relationship as a game is a part of a theme of distraction and illusion that is continued in the novel during the depiction of their relationship. Catherine does not take Frederic seriously at the start of the novel as he is just a distraction for her from the death of her fiancé. In contrast Frederic later uses the war as a distraction from Catherine when their relationship moves past simple flirting to passionate longing. Illusions also persist in their relationship as Catherine often turned away from Frederic despite falling in love with him as she wanted to maintain the opinion that the relationship was just a game for her. Hemingway demonstrates how the main characters have fallen in love with each other through the depiction of objects in certain events in the book.

Willhelm (2006) discusses how the focus on these objects pushed the story along as we were able to understand the depth of their passion. “Hemingway's repeated focus on objects, especially in certain passages framed as still-life compositions, performs as a strategy for revealing characters' hidden desires, motivations, and anxieties.” (Willhelm, p. 63). This focus on objects also occurs during Hemingway’s depiction of the war. “Then the truck stopped. The whole column was stopped. It started again and we went a little farther, then stopped” (Hemingway, p. 170). This depiction of the army stopping and starting demonstrate the frustration experienced by Frederic in the army as it was taking him nowhere. Hemingway continues the use of objects to highlight the desires of Catherine and Frederic especially to discuss their dreams. Both Catherine and Frederic fill their time together to discuss their dreams of what their life will be like far away from the war. The couple continues to have illusions of what their life will be like even when they finally escape from the harsh realities of war.

Another major theme of the novel is that of loyalty to country or family. While many of the other soldiers in the army felt a loyalty to their country or their troop, Frederic’s loyalty lay with Catherine. This abandonment of the ideals of war for love demonstrates Hemingway’s views that loyalty should be reserved for friends and family rather than for political causes. Hemingways’ political views come through the novel in other forms as A Farewell to Arms could be considered as an outcry against fascism. “In addition to the novel's emphasis on the Caporetto retreat, the subtexts in A Farewell to Arms were guilty of befouling two of Fascism’s most important symbols: a military uniform and the glory of Rome” (Sanderson, p. 103). Frederic’s lack of commitment to the army and his eventual escape from it demonstrates not only his lack of allegiance to the fascist cause but also as a rejection of the fascist ideals presented in the army.

Numerous other themes are explored throughout the novel that revolves around the basic themes of love and war. Throughout the reflection of war, Hemingway has a consistent theme of masculinity throughout his novel. The men who are celebrated in the novel are those who are dominant, sexual and the epitome of the macho man. Many of the men who are portrayed positively in the novel fit this stereotype of what a masculine man should be, such as Rinaldi and Dr. Valentini. Men who are seen as weak, such as the engineer, are portrayed negatively or even killed. Despite the overarching masculinity in A Farewell to Arms, it is a woman who drives the narrative as Catherine is the one who takes action to engage in the seduction of Frederic.

Hatten (1993) depicts how Catherine drives the story along not the male characters in the novel. “... shows her as subtly being the "prime mover" in the love story, and that her perseverance and loyalty in their love offer Henry an alternative version of heroism to the failure of the potential for heroism in war that he experiences." (Hatten, p. 76). Despite this perseverance, Catherine is portrayed as a submissive woman as a contrast to the celebrated dominant men in the novel. Catherine is more than happy to just be a mother and wife once she realizes she is pregnant as if she was just defined by her ability to fit a role prescribed for her. These notions of masculinity and femininity drive the theme of the novel as it could be viewed that war is reserved for the masculine while love is only for the feminine. However, Frederic’s abandonment of the army for a life with Catherine contrasts this stereotypical view of what it is to be masculine or feminine.

Despite the masculinity of Frederic and other male characters, the post-traumatic stress effects of war weighs down upon them and they struggle with the aftershocks from the war. Throughout the novel, both Frederic and Catherine have wounds that they try to heal through their relationship with each other. In his analysis of the thematic elements of the novel, Dodman (2006) found that the novel was a sort of trauma narrative as the theme of being wounded occurs throughout the novel. “A Farewell to Arms nonetheless testifies to the persistence of wounds both visible and invisible. Frederic's particular narration of the events and experiences that mark his wartime years must be understood in such terms, for his entire narrative inscribes a continued struggle with the debilitating aftereffects associated with shell shock.” (Dodman, p. 249). He also found that in Frederic’s recollection of events that were not traumatic his narrative would be one of being a survivor. The trauma narrative will appear to continue in Frederic’s life as he deals with the death of his true love and their child at the end of the novel as he faces his life without the distraction of war.

The trauma that Frederic experiences is also associated with another theme in the novel, that of the memory. The story is told as a recollection of Frederic’s memory. “A Farewell to Arms is, as most readers readily perceive, a novel of memory...The value of Frederic's memory then, lies in its utter truthfulness to the empirical moment” (Prescott, p. 41). Many other minor characters in the novel also portray their memories when they discuss their homes or the lives they long to go back to. The accuracy of these memories could also be called into question as these soldiers continue to fight a war that keeps them away from their loved ones. The depiction of the events throughout the war and his relationship with Catherine hints at the trauma that he felt as a result of both of these experiences. We can consider that years after the events of the novel have ended, Frederic is still haunted by the memory of Catherine and the memories of the atrocious acts Frederic committed as a cost of the war. As Frederic may blame himself for the people he killed in the war, he will also blame himself for falling in love with Catherine and leading her to her death. Frederic leaves the novel with the view that falling in love was what led Catherine to her demise.

The novel’s overarching themes of love and war serve to not only drive the story but allow numerous other thematic elements to take part and expand on the storytelling. As love and war can encompass many meanings the theme tends to broaden throughout the story. The elements of memory, trauma, pain and illusion tie into both themes of love and war simultaneously. The interconnectedness of these themes may indicate how both love and war are as similar as much as they are thought to be different. Both love and way in the novel lead to death and suffering for the main protagonist. These elements help the reader to develop an understanding of the characters. They also assist the reader in building empathy and support for the characters. The conflicts that arise between loyalty to war or love are ones that resonate with the reader. A Farewell to Arms continues to reverberate with modern readers as the themes of the novel continue to ring true. “The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one." (Hemingway, p 305). A Farewell to Arms was considered one of Hemmingway’s greatest novels because of the themes that ring true throughout. "It is a moving and beautiful book" (Hutchison 1).

References

Dodman, Trevor. "" Going All to Pieces":" A Farewell to Arms" as Trauma Narrative."Twentieth-Century Literature 52.3 (2006): 249-274.

Hatten, Charles. "The Crisis of Masculinity, Reified Desire, and Catherine Barkley in" A Farewell to Arms"." Journal of the History of Sexuality 4.1 (1993): 76-98.

Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Scribner Classics, 1997.

Hutchison, Percy. "Love and War in the Pages of Mr. Hemingway." The New York Times 29 Sept. 1929: Web. 17 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/04/specials/hemingway-farewell.html>.

Prescott, Mary. "" A Farewell to Arms": Memory and the Perpetual Now." College Literature17.1 (1990): 41-52.

Sanderson, Rena, ed. Hemingway's Italy: new perspectives. LSU Press, 2006.

Wilhelm, Randall S. "Objects on a Table: Anxiety and Still Life in Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms." The Hemingway Review 26.1 (2006): 63-80.