A Farewell to Arms written by Ernest Hemingway, is a love story set in Italy during World War I. When the story opens the narrator, a young ambulance driver named Frederic Henry, meets his future love interest, Catherine Barkley. Catherine Barkley is a nurses aide who had lost her fianc in battle a year earlier. Their relationship progresses and Henrys legs are injured when a mortar shell hits his unit. He is moved to a hospital in Milan, Italy. Catherine is transferred to his unit. She tells Henry she is pregnant.
He is diagnosed with self-inflicted jaundice and is forced to return to the front when another nurse, Miss Van Campen finds liquor bottles under his bed and in his armoire. Henry returns to the front and receives word to retreat. While the Germans are right on his tail, his vehicle gets stuck in mud. He takes flight on foot, and loses his engineers. Henry then is shot at and swims down a river to safety. He finds Catherine and they stay in a hotel on the lake. They find out that Henry is going to be arrested for running from service.
They paddle a boat to safety in Switzerland. They attempt to forget all about the war and mostly succeed in doing so. Catherine goes into labor and delivers a still born baby boy. She then dies of a hemorrhage. The war affects Catherine, Henry and their love each in different way. Catherine is affected emotionally. She has lost a loved one, she is under stress, and she is more pressured to move quickly in a relationship. Henry is affected emotionally as well as physically. He hurts his legs, he loses a loved one, and he has to risk his life.
Their young love is affected by the war in that it made things move quickly. The two both wanted someone to care for them. They both realize that the war is destructive and want not to think about it. This gives them a common background to base their relationship on. Catherine is affected by the war even before the story opens. A year before she meets Henry, her fianc and friend of eight years dies in battle. The reader is aware that she cared for him a lot when Henry compliments her hair and she says, I was going to cut it all off when he died, (19).
This action is a sign of devotion. It shows that she wanted to do something in memory of him. Her hair, as Henry says, is beautiful which makes the action she was thinking of more noteworthy. Catherine is also under a lot of stress now that she meets Henry. She worries about losing another person that is close to her to the war. The reader is aware of this through a lot of commentary in the story, but it is most evident when she says, I want us to be all mixed up. I dont want you to go away. I just said that. You go if you want to. But hurry back.
Why, darling, I dont live at all when Im not with you, (300). She says this when she is talking about how she wants to be exactly like him which again presents the deep love she has for him. She is also a little pressured to move more quickly in the relationship. Upon entering Henrys room in the hospital, Catherine said, Feel our hearts beating, and Henry said, I dont care about hearts. I want you. Im just mad about you. Do you really love me? Dont keep saying that. Come on. Please. Please, Catherine. (92). This case presents evidence that she felt pressured to love Henry.
She most likely did not want to rush things because of the good friend she had just lost. Henry is affected by the war in ways different from those of Catherines. Henry has a physical effect of the war. While on the front, his unit was hit by a mortar shell and he was unable to walk. He had to undergo surgery and was supposed to have a waiting period of six months before the surgery. Fortunately, his doctor took a risk and operated on him much sooner. He is also affected by the war because he has to risk his life. His life is in jeopardy when he is retreating from the grasp of the Germans.
His vehicle gets stuck in the mud and the engineers are unable to get it out. His group has to cross an open space to get to safety and the other members are shot. He escapes the gunfire and actually gets to safety. His entire journey until he arrives in Switzerland is a direct threat to his life. Life and death are touchy subjects in the war. This is revealed when Henry is speaking with Count Greffi and says, Would you like to live after death? I asked and instantly felt like a fool to mention death. (261). The war affects his mental state.
It seems that throughout the entire book he is incomplete. His and Catherines relationship also seem rather empty until the reader is shown that he actually loves her and their love is genuine. In essence, Henry loses a loved one as well. If it had not been for the war, he would have never met Catherine and because of the war he had met and lost her to a complication in her body. After this it seemed as though he was unemotional. He says, But after I got them out and shut the door and turned off the light it wasnt any good. It was like saying good-bye to a statue. 32).
He does not talk about how much he loved Catherine, although the reader knows he did. He does not express emotion. He just walks back to his hotel and the book ends. The war affects their love in a profound way. The love that Catherine and Henry have is essentially a coping mechanism, or at least begins this way. Their love is an escape from the present truth that the war is actually going on and it is killing people, destroying places, and killing loved ones. This is reinforced when Catherine says, You dont need to say a lot of nonsense.
I said I was sorry. We do get along. and Henry says, Yes, and we have gotten away from the war. (26). Later on in the book, they actually happen to love each other. The war makes their relationship move faster. They feel that they need to get things accomplished for fear they will lose one another. Catherine gets pregnant and the two are not married. All of these things caused by the war just make their relationship stronger. For the most part, it has a positive impact on their love and keeps them sane until they really are away from the war.
The war ultimately changed everything for the people involved. Henry and Catherine both needed something to get their minds off of the war and actually just grew to love one another. Hemingway illustrates the war as something that just happens. He does not make it prevalent in the story, but shows that it does not necessarily have a purpose or a positive outcome for either side. Another possible theme in this book is that nothing lasts forever and that everyone is looking for someone to share their life with.