A Farewell to Arms: Analytical Essay Example

Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is a story about a soldier (Henry) and a nurse (Catherine) who fall in love, despite the hardships of the war setting that is around them. Throughout the story, readers/watchers notice themes that revolve around it. War, the most visible amongst all the themes, heavily impacts the couple's relationship, affects interactions with side characters, drives the story to its plot, rising climax, and conclusion, and supports other smaller themes in the story. The way Hemingway describes the struggles of Henry and Catherine all while trying to have a normal relationship gives readers/watchers a more in-depth view of what war is truly like, and the way war impacts the story as a whole. From beginning to end, war depicts the fate and destiny of the characters, and although the main characters despise it, attempt to avoid it, and try to look for distractions from it, it is something that cannot be avoided, as all of our characters have no choice but to carry on with the brutal event until it ends.

The mere title “A Farewell to Arms” means goodbye (farewell) to weapons (arms) and war. At the beginning of the story, the theme of war is immediately introduced, as this is the cause of Henry's arrival to Italy. Upon Henry's arrival, during his visit to the hospital to meet Catherine for the first time, he comments on the riding cope she carries. When she reveals that it belonged to a dead lover, this depicts that very early on into the story, war leads to tragic losses. As Henry tries to flirt with Catherine, she continuously counters it with her tragic loss from the past. As Catherine asks, “do you suppose it will always go on?” Henry replies “No”, and she emphasizes, “what's to stop it?” “It really doesn't matter, we die anyway” (Classic Movies, 00.14.36- 00.14.48). Henry is a bit at a loss with Catherine’s mood, and he attempts to reassure her by replying with “it takes a while”, and Catherine replies with, “you think so?”, and walks away (Classic Movies, 00.14.48- 00.14.51). Hemingway is attempting to show that Catherine has experienced the loss of a lover in the past due to war and does not want to experience that dread and heartbreak again by loving someone else again. Nonetheless, Henry tries to raise her hopes a bit, since Catherine believes that due to war, she has no reason to fall in love again. As Henry later goes into battle, he and his subordinate are hit by a bomb, and his subordinate is unfortunately killed. Hemingway’s choice of illustrating this fate for these characters is meant to show that war is unfair, and cruel, as these characters were not even engaged in battle, they were only bystanders, fearing for their lives. Later in the story, it is mentioned that Rinaldi, Henry’s best friend in the Italian army, has been operating on more wounded soldiers due to the increase in battles, and has been drinking and womanizing greater than before. This is yet another example Hemingway inserts into the story to show the desperate measures a character in the story will take to escape the war, indulging themselves in fantasy and distractions, rather than facing reality. Deeper into the story, as Henry attempts to escape the battlefronts, he rejoins with Catherine and decides to escape to Switzerland with her to officially disassociate himself from the war, which is why Hemingway uses this opportunity in the story to create a solution-like scenario for Catherine and Henry who want nothing to do with the war, but would only like to find a safe haven from it. All Henry and Catherine needed were each other to distract themselves from the war. Most of the time towards the end of the story, Catherine and Henry take a liking to the amount of time they can spend together, as well as the peace and tranquility from the war. Catherine does not have to worry about not falling in love again because of war, and Henry can be with the one person who helped him look forward to something other than the war. 

Henry and Catherine’s life in A Farewell to Arms, unfortunately, took a downturn at the end. The last depiction of war in the story was the internal war Henry had to battle, fearing and coping with the loss of Catherine. War did originally develop their relationship at the end of the story, and this proves that war is an important theme in the story due to the impact on the pasts, presents, and futures of the character’s lives. Some events in the story would have played poorly, and some wouldn’t have even occurred if it was not for war. War helped Henry and Catherine to find a distraction from it, which is what made them depend on each other. Because of the war, other themes such as love, loss, reality, and realization came into more light, and within the war, Henry found love, and Catherine found a new lover. Hemingway represents war as a cruel theme related to sadness, loss, madness, and destruction, although war can also be a reason a person can find something to look forward to in their life. Having to struggle through a setting you despise is unavoidable, and all things must come to a close at one point, but looking ahead can change that scenario entirely, just like Henry looked forward to seeing Catherine again.

Works Cited

“A Farewell to Arms (1957) Charles Vidor - Full Movie.” YouTube, uploaded by Classic Movies, 9 Feb. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-gnY_yr3aY. Accessed 19 Sep. 2021.