A Farewell to Arms by Hemmingway - Essay Example

The novel’s plot wholly conforms to the standard pattern of tragedy where the start, development, and conclusion of the plot structure are marked by the well-known stages of exposition, complication, climax, crisis, anticlimax, and denouement. The 41 chapters of the novel show the rising and falling action running through the various stages; beginning with the introduction and exposition of the action centering on Frederic (Chapters 1-3). It then leads to complications of the action by the new factor of love, which pulls the hero in the direction opposite to that of the war (Chapters 4-8). The rising action reaches a climax in the wounding of the hero on the war front (Chapter 9), then the action takes a downward journey leading to the crisis. The turning point in the fortune of the hero in his desertion of war in the Caporatto retreat (Chapter 30), then reaching the anticlimax of the falling action in the hero’s migration along with Catherine from Italy to Switzerland (Chapters 31-40).  It ends with the catastrophe or denouement in the death of Catherine leaving the hero alone and bitter. Thus, the novel’s patterning is modeled on the plot structure of a classic tragedy.

            The exposition is in the introduction where we are introduced to the novel’s setting, war-torn Italy, the major characters, their conflicts, and the dramatic tensions working against the characters. He builds up suspense through the arousal of the readers’ expectations followed by their ironic reversals. For instance, in the beginning, we are made to feel that Frederic’s fortune may be a repetition of the fortune of Catherine’s first lover who died in war (Hemmingway 23). Frederic’s duty as a soldier and his love for Catherine pull him in separate directions. The activating incident of Frederic’s wounding makes it possible for Catherine to nurse him and for the couple to fall in love. The rising action is marked by numerous coquettish games that Frederic and Catherine had. These fetish actions foreshadow their affection for one another. This is further demonstrated in their final days together, before Frederic’s departure to the front zero by the demands of love in competition with his life beyond their relationship. The rising action is also characterized by complications in the form of Frederic’s growing affection for Catherine, his injury, and her graveness. By the time Frederic is about to go back to the front, they realize that Catherine is three months pregnant (Hemmingway 149). Frederic sees a life he could have with Catherine as they live in Milan. Catherine’s pregnancy and the call to report to the front, however, divide Frederic’s loyalties, trapping him between two desires. The climax of the novel is the disastrous retreat at Caporetto and Frederic’s near-execution by the carabinieri, which utterly changes his attitude toward the war (Hemmingway 152). Frederic’s action during the Caporetto retreat becomes the turning point of the conflict between war and love. In shooting the Italian sergeant for desertion but then deserting the war himself, Frederic’s disillusionment with battlefield bravery is complete. He commits himself to his love for Catherine. The falling action comes when Frederic decides to flee and abandon the army marking his farewell to arms. Frederic and Catherine's idyllic time together in Stresa, an Italian town, may seem an odd setting for a story’s falling action. Nevertheless, as Frederic settles in with Catherine and fishes at the lake, the Stresa passage serves as a counterpoint to Book II where the couple first built their relationship in Milan (Hemmingway 132). Then, the war called Frederic to flee when Count Greffin warns him that Italian authorities will summarily execute him if they find him. Fredric dives into the water to rescue him, and later he and Catherine undertake a journey to a new life, it turns out to be the journey of death.

            There is a seemingly happy resolution as Frederic escapes with Catherine at night to the neighboring Switzerland. Despite the risk of being caught and shot by the war police who are in search of men forsaking the army, there is relief when the two lovers make a safe landing and succeed in hoodwinking the national Swiss guards. Nevertheless, the resolution is short-lived tension starts to build up with the pregnancy of Catherine maturing and with her increasing fear of dying in the rain. The denouement is the final tragedy; the grim tragedy of the death of Catherine and the baby leaving Frederic alone cursing the “they” who seem responsible for the tragedy (Hemmingway 292). Frederic tries, but cannot say goodbye and have it feel like anything. The story has such a desolate ending. Frederic can avoid death; however, he cannot aid Catherine to do it.

In conclusion, the plot structure of the novel is marked by the wholeness of an exposition, rising action, climax, resolution, and denouement. The tragic plot structure of A Farewell to Arms is made all more effective through a continuous, dramatic juxtaposition of the opposing characters and incidents, themes, and motives, which reveals through irony the dynamic tension the writer builds in the novel.