A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway - Coursework Example

A Critical Analysis of Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961) was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899. He later criticized his parents for sticking closely to their morality and values. As a young man he began his career as a reporter on the “Kansas City Star”. He soon left for Italy to drive an ambulance for the Italian Red Cross during World War I. This was a war wherein the Italians allied with the Americans, British and French against Germany and Austria-Hungary. He transferred shortly to the Italian Infantry, his experiences later serving as inspiration in writing “A Farewell to Arms”. In 1918, a trench mortar struck him as he crouched beyond the front lines with three Italian soldiers. Although he embroidered the story, it is certain that he was transferred to a hospital in Milan where love entered his life in the person of Agnes von Kurowsky, a Red Cross nurse. There is no doubt that his relationship with her became the basis for the fictional relationship between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley in “A Farewell to Arms.” In 1921, he settled for a long residence in Paris as member of a group of expatriates of whom he wrote in “The Sun Also Rises”. This is the novel which first established his reputation as a writer and cae under the influence of Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. “His success was steady and great; he was regarded as the interpreter of the so-called ‘lost generation, and his stripped staccato style and the ‘punch’ of his dialogue had an enormous influence on the writers of his day.” (Groiler Encyclopedia 1961: 208). “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was an offshoot of his experience as a correspondent during the Spanish Civil War and “The Old Man and the Sea”, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Lieutenant Frederic Henry is the narrator and chief protagonist of Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms”. A young American ambulance driver in the Italian Army during World War I, Henry describes himself as a man of duty. He feels he has no sense of humor, nor does he expect any praise for his service. He shows courage in battle, but feels he has not earned any glory. His life displays no passion until the beautiful Catherine Barkley enters his life. Catherine is the novel’s female protagonist. She is an exceptionally beautiful English nursing aide who later falls in love with Henry. She possesses such beautiful hair that it becomes her “crowning glory”. Her grief over the death of her fiancé plunges her into a game of seduction with Henry which eventually develops into a serious relationship wherein she swears eternal fidelity to him. The minor character are as follows: Rinaldi, a toprate surgeon and Henry’s closest friend – naughty, wry and oversexed, his primary aim in life being the seduction of beautiful women. The priest is a kind, young fellow who doles out spiritual guidance to the soldiers. He responds good-naturedly to the jokes and taunts of the officers. Helen Ferguson is a dear friend of Catherine and is also a nurse’s aide like her. She often goes into hysterics over Catherine’s friendship with Henry and Rinaldi, thus revealing herself as a paranoid and anxious over her single state in life. Miss Gage is an American nurse who helps Henry recovers in the hospital at Milan. She is at ease with Henry and proves to be a really good friend. Miss Van Campen is the Superintendent of nurses at the hospital where Catherine works. She is a woman who exudes a cold, strict and unpleasant air about her. Dr. Valentine is an Italian surgeon coming to the American hospital and operates on Henry, proving that a six-month wait is unnecessary. Both he and Henry show self-assurance and confidence. Count Greffi is a more mature version of Henry’s character. Henry sees him as a father figure. He is ninety-four years old and has lived life to the fullest. Ettore Moretti is an American soldier from San Francisco fighting for the Italian army. A braggart, he is quick to start a fight to prove his courage by displaying the medals he has won. He feels that he deserves the honor and glory that Henry frowns upon. Gino is a young Italian whom Henry meets at a village in which a battle was fought. Unlike Henry, Gino’s patriotic belief is that his fatherland is sacred and must always be protected at all times. Ralph Simmons is a student of the Opera and is the first person Henry goes to for help after deserting the army. Simmons give Henry civilian clothing in order for him to travel to Switzerland without incurring suspicion. Emilio is a bartender at Stresa who helps Henry and Catherine to reunite, thus saving them from being arrested. Lastly, Bonello, an ambulance driver under Henry’s command. He shows himself to be ruthless, unloading a pistol round into the head of an engineer who refuses to obey Henry who has already shot him. As the title of the novel reveals, the theme of “A Farewell to Arms” concerns itself with the grim reality of war and the process by which Henry, the main protagonist, removes himself from it and leaves it behind. The characters who support the effort are Ettori Moretti, a dull braggart and Gino, a naïve youth. The rest come across are resentful of the terrible destruction that war causes and doubtful of the glory that supposedly comes about. The novel contains masterful descriptions of the senseless brutality and violent chaos of war. “The short first chapter in which Frederic Henry describes his situation on the war front, is one of the most famous descriptive passages in American literature. Hemingway sketches the description with a detached, almost journalistic prose stule that is nevertheless emotionally poignant. ‘The trunks of the trees, too, were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves…’ With relatively few but remarkably fe details, Hemingway captures life on the battlefront of a small Italian town during World War I.” (Philips & Hopson 2007: n.p.) Henry’s shooting of the engineer for refusing to help free the car from the mud shocks the reader. The violent outburst seems at odds with Henry’s coolly detached character. The murder of the engineer seems justifiable since it is an inevitable by-product of the spiraling violence and disorder of the war. Readers of Hemingway’s fiction will notice a consistency in his description of a certain kind of man – domineering, competent and virile. Our novel includes male characters as examples of fine manhood: Rinaldi – a faithful friend but a womanizer, no less; and Dr. Valentine with his bold competence that labels him as a really good surgeon. Some readers are dissatisfied with Hemingway’s depiction of women which, according to Fiedler, tend to fall into one of two categories – overly dominant characters like Lady Brett in “The Sun also Rises” and overly submissive characters like Catherine in “A Farewell to Arms”. It is easy to see how Catherine’s blissful submission to domesticity might irritate contemporary readers with such lines as “I’m having a child and that makes me contented not to do anything.” (Hemingway 1995) This suggests a bygone era wherein a woman’s work centered around maintaining a home and filling it with children. A subordinate theme of the noel is the relationship between love and pain. No sooner does Catherine tell Henry that she is in mourning over her dead fiancé, then she begins a game meant to seduce Henry. The reason is that she wants to distance herself from the pain of her loss. Henry, too, intends to get away as far as possible from talk of the war. Together they plan an idyllic life that promises to act as therapy for the damage inflicted by the war. If they are to achieve physical, emotional and psychological healing, they have found a place in the safety of the Swiss Alps. The tragedy here is the fact that their love, even though real and true, can never be anything but temporary in the world. Catherine’s hair, though not a recurring symbol, is an important one. In the early days of their relationship, Catherine would let down her hair, and let it cascade around Henry’s head. This would remind Henry of being enclosed in a tent or behind a waterfall. This lovely description stands as a symbol of the couple’s isolation from reality. With the war raging around them, they are able to achieve blissful seclusion imagining themselves as being protected by something as delicate as hair. Later, while living in peaceful Switzerland, they learn the cruel lesson that love in the face of life’s harshness, is as fragile and ephemeral as hair. In “Farewell to Arms”, rain is a powerful symbol of the inevitable disintegration of life’s happiness. Listening to the storm beating on the roof, Catherine confides to Henry that she is afraid of the rain and believes that rain has a tendency to destroy things for lovers. Catherine’s fear proves to be prophetic for the couple’s story does end in tragedy. When Catherine dies in the hospital, Henry stays as long as he can to bid her farewell, but cannot bring himself to do it. The reader sees him grieving, walking back to the hotel in the rain. Hemingway believes in the notion that loyalty and abandonment apply equally to love and war. The novel suggests, however, that loyalty is more a requirement of love and friendship rather than the causes and philosophies of war. Critics agree that “A Farewell to Arms” is Hemingway’s most accomplished novel. It offers powerful descriptions of life during and following World War I. The novel, like much of Hemingway’s prose, has aided in establishing a picture of himself as a master of many trades aside from that of writer: as a soldier, boxer, bullfighter, big-game hunter. Hemingway’s writing, however, deteriorated after World War II when his health declined. In 1955, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Not one of the honors he earned could assuage the effects of a lifetime of depression. On July 2, 1961, Hemingway committed suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho. Works Cited Grolier Encyclopedia, New York: Grolier Incorporated, 1961 Hemingway, E. A Farewell to Arms. Scribner, 1995 Phillips, Brian and Hopson, David. SparkNote on A Farewell to Arms. 9 Nov. 2007 . 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