Characterization in A Farewell to Arms - Research Paper Example

Outline Introduction: How Hemmingway uses characterization Thesis: The paper will essentially focus on the art of characterization of Hemingway through the central characters contribute largely to the building of the novel’s theme. Body: Discussion of the major and minor characters of the novel to build the themes Focus on the central character Henry and how the author makes him realistic Focus on Catherine’s idealistic character in comparison with Henry’s realistic impression Conclusion Summary of the discussion and reinforcement of the purpose of the paper Characterization in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms [Name] [Course] [Professor’s name] [Date] The theme of immortality of love and its universal appeal has received a unique dimension through A Farewell to Arms (1929). The story deals with the same theme of immortality of love no matter how adverse or hostile the situation is. His semi-autobiographical work centered on his romantic involvement with a nurse during his work with Milan hospital. The characters of the British nurse and the Italian Lieutenant symbolizes the woman he was involved with and the man for whom she betrayed Hemingway respectively. Hemingway in this work represents the central character in different interactions with other characters such that the readers come in contact with different sides of the character. He also unfolds events, which are used as a tool for characterization. Normally he does not bring himself into his narratives and it is the same in this case as well. The novel brings out the best representation of the author’s art of characterization. Thought he main characters Henry and Catherine make the most of his art, the novel also brings out different characters like those of Frederic Henry, Catherine Barkley, the Priest, doctor Valintine, Van Campen etc who takes part in significant roles which remain in the memory for long. The paper will essentially focus on the art of characterization of Hemingway through the central characters contribute largely to the building of the novel’s theme. Amongst the different characters in the novel, the major characters comprise the “foreground” and the other significant but minor characters are a part of the “background” of the story. The main characters include Henry, Catherine, Rinaldi and the priest. The latter two help in supporting the roles of the two main characters. Helen and the other nurses play roles, which represent opinions that are against the viewpoints of Catherine such that the complex character of the heroine is brought out. Henry who is the protagonist and the lead character is the one around whom the story revolves. The novel is essentially the story of Frederic as it underlines his alterations in fate through the path of the novel. As represented by Dahiya, “Henry is the only characer who remains before our eyes from the beginning to the end of the novel’s action, ho dominate the proceedings of the novel, who gains our admiration, in whose fortunes we get involved and who appears close to the writer’s view of life”. (Dahiya 52) The other characters play local roles and have limited functions. Though the demonstrations of the theme of love, the novel actually represents an emotional affair between a man and a woman, but the novel finally transcends over the realm of individual love and provides a universal dimension of love to a reader. Ben Stoltzfus observes, “A Farewell to Arms is the story of a young man who narrates certain events. Frederic writes about the war, his love for Catherine Barkley, and her death, in order to sort through the devastating nature of his experience.” (Stoltzfus, 66) The themes of love and war have overlapped and juxtaposed in such manner that on one hand it gives impression of platonic love between both the lovers and on the other hand, it shows after Catherine’s death how the life of Frederic is scattered. “The love between Frederic and Catherine recalls the Greek philosopher Plato’s theory that love is the unity of two separate halves of one being.” (Tyler, 67) Finally, with the death of Catherine the sense of unity is destroyed. In this context of unity Aristotle has observed, “…a thing whose presence or absence makes no visible difference is not an organic part of the whole.” (Butcher, 16) Thus, the concept of existence for Aristotle is an organic unification and the very sense of organic unification is lost with the death of Catherine. It implies at the macrocosmic dimension that Catherine is actually the universal figure of love and her death actually puts the whole existence within the dark abyss of nihilism. The title A Farewell to Arms finally symbolizes that realizing the prevailing doom over existence the human beings have bid a farewell to the brutal business of warfare and attempts to embrace eternity through the paths of love. The cosmos of A Farewell to Arms embodies such a situation where there is abundance of violence and devaluation of humane feelings. The only light amidst the darkness is the love of Frederic and Catherine. It may seem due to the death of Catherine that the light is lost finally but with her death the eternal spring of compassion and love starts re-flowing. Finally through the farewell to arms the humankind redeems itself and the concept of love as a supreme virtue has been reinstated. Henry is therefore a ballpark figure of the author’s experiences in life along with his ability to embark upon the experiences. The character represents a contemporary awareness with a direction towards rational thoughts about life. He is able to rescue himself from submerging into the blind faiths and religion or ritual and traditions. He also saves himself form getting lost on the chaos of skepticism, which is a character of the “lost generation”. The hero of the novel outperforms others in all respects of life and occupies a position of admiration in the mind of the readers. He acts selflessly and bravely with humane character and moderate approach. The fact that Henry comes from America to serve as a volunteer in the army and aid the injured soldiers show how he is committed to social causes. He escapes form self praise and does not want attention in this respect. He provides vague replies when he is asked about the reason for joining the war. He does not want to talk about his noble goal of working for propagation of democracy, individual freedom, and human dignity. For instance a nurse asks him about the reason of serving in Italy, and he replies that he is here because he knows Italian. The real reason lies in the fact that Henry is a character that is moved towards social interaction with deep inclination towards matters related to human dignity and personal liberty. This sense of morality and ethics may be expressed in his words, “I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious has no glory and the sacrifices were life the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it” (Berridge and Hemingway 23). The character here attaches sacredness to the individual freedom and is prepared to sacrifice his life for the cause. Rinaldi’s superficiality in his engagement with the war highlights the sincerity of the involvement of the central character. A dialogue between the two characters (Rinaldi and Henry) taking place in a comic mode brings out the irony of the medals and the reason why they are awarded to the soldiers. Rinaldi overlooks the fact that Henry is severely injured and justifies his oncoming reward saying “I think we can get you the silver….Look how you are wounded. Look at your valorous conduct in asking to go always to the first line. Besides, the operation was successful” (Hemingway 63). Henry’s humility in dealing with such praise has always been evident as he denies the credit of carrying anybody on his shoulders. The author carefully frames the main character by juxtaposing the idealism with the later desertion of Henry to provide a touch of realism. He also keeps a balance between his deep love for Catherine and his earlier visits to the brothels. This portrays realistic characteristics in the character. He retains his composure throughout the novel even in the toughest of situation where is deserted and compelled to leave the war and have his uniform and badge removed. He accepts his life as it comes and takes it as a lesson instead of turning into a tragic hero like Hamlet. He is left alone on the personal front as well as he loses both Catherine and his newborn son. Catherine Barkley is important counterpart of Henry in giving shape to the theme and story. Unlike Henry she is portrayed with dreamlike characteristics of sentiment, a motherly figure and dedicated mistress instead of a realistic complex character. She has been simplified into a two dimensional character. She has been in love with a man for eight years before he dies and she carried his stick since then. She even says to Henry that she was going to cut her beautiful hair when he died. She needed the vacuum to be filled with some companion and Rinaldo provided that for a while unless Henry entered and Rinaldo despite declaring his love tells Henry that she likes him better. Dahiya observes that critics have often filtered some of Catherine’s words to prove that she has no individual personality or self worth and is a diffident person who says, “There isn’t any me. I’m you. Don’t make up a separate me” (Hemingway 107). As she fears of being separated from his love she tries to evade the prospect of marriage – “What good would it do to marry now? We’re really married. I could not be any more married to you” (Hemingway 107). Hemingway portrays the characters in terms of their actions and intentions and presents each personality as the result of interactions between actions and reflections. This is different from the idea of naturalists who would give much importance to heredity and environment. Yet he adds parentage and nationality to the major characters such that they seem realistic. He also uses change in style of writing as he tries to portray the changes of mind that an individual undergoes – he sometimes uses a modified stream-of consciousness technique, a method for spilling out on paper the inner thoughts of a character” (Berridge and Hemingway, 20). For instance when Henry is drunk he adds the required impression in his words as he pours out his nostalgic thoughts talking of the dark and being with someone unknown – “not caring in the night, sure that this was all and all and all and not caring” (Hemingway 19). This makes the readers involved with his mood fluctuations and changes in feelings. Therefore, Hemingway’s semi-autobiographical story, ‘A Farewell to Arms’ helps in developing his own philosophy through the character of Henry who realizes like him that there were no God to keep a watch over man’s actions and there were only two kinds of men – some who liked war and others who would not wedge war. The later suffers at the hands of the former. There were no moral codes to dictate the actions of man and there was no justification behind war, it is just a futile attempt to turn man against man (Glasser, 453). Hemingway portrays a central character, which earns the admiration of readers and does not turn into a tragic hero; rather, suffers the pains of life with reason and acceptance. He has his imperfections and a blend of different sides of his personalities is brought out through his interactions with different characters. His complementary character Catherine is more idealistic with her individual intelligence and perception on one side and her dedication to her love on the other. However here Hemingway shows how the life’s challenges win over their love. It seems as if the author gains a certain pleasure in ending his stories with a note of futile love between a man and a woman but the story has more meaning to it than what it tells literary and his tool of characterization has helped in building the themes and the inner meaning more profoundly. References 1. Butcher, Samuel Henry, Aristotle, Poetics, Courier Dover Publications, 1997 2. Dahiya, Bhim S. Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms: a Critical study, Academic foundation, 1992 3. Berridge, Howard R. and Ernest Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to arms. Baron’s Educational series, 1984. 4. Glasser, William A. “A Farewell to arms”, The Sewanee review, 7.2 (Spring 1966): 453-469 5. Hemingway, Ernest, A Farewell to arms, Simon and Schuster, 1997 6. Stoltzfus, Ben, Lacan and literature: purloined pretexts, SUNY Press, 1996 7. Tyler, Lisa, Student companion to Ernest Hemingway, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001 Read More