Themes of A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

In “A Farewell to arms” Hemingway has intricately woven the two binaries i.e. love
and war in a brilliant manner. The book dwells on different facets of love and war
while commenting on the other related issues decline of religion, morality, alienation,
chaos, death etc. Henry who plays the role of the protagonist in the novel shows the
futility and desperation of war and rather than sacrificing his life for a cause he does
not believe in, he leaves. Life is shown to be an endless struggle in this novel the end
of which is death and pain. Hemingway has tried to find a clear meaning of life and in
the end proves that everything in this world is meaningless and human efforts mostly
go unrewarded. In spite of the futility of human efforts, pain and sacrifice the novel
celebrates the value of effort in face of defeat and the values of discipline and stoic
endurance.
Hemingway portrays his philosophy of life through Henry whose philosophy of life
evolves in the 5 books of this novel other characters serve as a foil to Henry’s
character who in addition to resolving their own philosophies help Henry in
formulating his own opinion and view of life and world.
Hemingway, was a cynic he believed that the universe is unordered one. There is no
God to watch over man, to set codes of morality, or to ensure justice. Instead, the
universe is indifferent to man's suffering. In the book, this indifference is best
exemplified by the war, an ultimately futile struggle of man against man. There are no
winners in a war, and there is no reasoning behind the lives which are taken.

A Farewell to Arms takes place in Italy during World War I, and the lives of all the
characters are marked by the war. Most of the characters, from Henry and Catherine
down to the soldiers and shop owners whom Henry meets, are humanists who echo
Hemingway's view that war is a senseless waste of life. The few characters that
support the war are presented as zealots to be either feared, as in the case of the
military police, or pitied, such as the young Italian patriot Gino. To Henry, the war is,
at first, a necessary evil from which he distracts himself through drinking and sex. By
the end of the novel, his experiences of the war have convinced him that it is a
fundamentally unjust atrocity, which he seeks to escape at all costs with Catherine.
The setting of the novel creates its first theme, war. Hemingway shows the hardships
and horror of war through his descriptions of those who died and how they die. He
also shows how relationships are formed through such a trying time. The men and
women serving keep a hope of what could come. This is seen in Henry and
Catherine’s plans for the future and to have a child together. The characters also often
debate the different viewpoints of the war. The destruction of war and breakdown of
human spirit are directly proportional to each other in this novel. This novel has been
named as “one of the best American novels to emerge from World War I. One of the
reason for this is because it gives us a description of the war not usually given – rather
than describing constant battles or action, the novel shows us the emotional turmoil
that war puts us through. Just as the war destroys countryside in which it is fought, it
also destroys the will and spirit of those fighting it. Even at the beginning, we come to
know that nobody likes the war; however, they are optimistic about the outcome and
feel that they can win. As the novel progresses, the war becomes bigger and bloodier,
people become weary of it and eventually believe that there is no victory – everyone
is already “cooked,” as one of the captain put it. As Rinaldi says: “This war is killing
me … I am very depressed by it … If I was away I do not believe I would come
back.” His view was shared by almost all other characters in the book. Henry explains
this deterioration of will in following lines “If people bring so much courage to this
world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world
breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that
will not break I kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave
impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will
be no special hurry.” Henry believes that people aren’t in control of their future, but
rather they are subject to destructive forces in the world, such as the war. He believes
that the war kill everyone mentally, Hemingway certainly shows a very new
perspective on the war by describing this emotional pain and how it affects and is
affected by the war – this is one reason this book is such a unique description of war.
Though the First World War only lasted four years, from 1914 to 1918, a relatively
short war by comparison to other historical events, Hemingway makes a point of
showing how the war feels endless to those living in it.  A conversation between
Henry and the ambulance drivers he is injured within the trench includes the
statement, “‘It doesn’t finish. There is no finish to a war.’” After Catherine tells
Henry she is pregnant they have the following conversation:
“Where will we live after the war?’”
“In an old people’s home probably,’ she said. ‘For three years I looked forward
very childishly to the war ending at Christmas. But now I look forward till when
our son will be a lieutenant commander.”
“Maybe he’ll be a general.”
“If it’s an hundred years’ war he’ll have time to try both of the services.”
While speaking with the priest after returning to Gorizia, Henry says,” ‘Then you
think it will go on and on? Nothing will ever happen?’” Over and over emphasis is
placed on how it feels to be locked into a life dependent on distant battlefields.
Hemingway presents three main ideas regarding love. Firstly he gives a cynical view
of love and annihilates the perfect fantastical bubble of true love. The relationship of
Henry and Catherine, portrays the shortcomings of love. Henry doesn’t believe in love
and only elopes with Catherine as an attempt to distract himself from the death and
disaster of war. “God knows I had not wanted to fall in love with her. I had not
wanted to fall in love with anyone. Catherine has her on reasons for her involvement
with Henry. She is so desperate to find love that she accepts whoever comes her way
and shows a little interest in her but in her heart she knows that whatever she is doing
is to forget her dead fiancé. Catherine reminds Henry several times that their courtship
is a game. “This is a rotten game we play, isn’t it?” Catherine comments early on.
Both acknowledge the fact in the beginning that they are not aiming for true love and
whatever happens is just a distraction from the dilemmas of their live “You don't
have to pretend you love me.”
Despite of the cynical start Hemingway does acknowledges the importance of love
not only in the conversation between the priest and Henry in which the priest explains
to Henry that you can’t be happy unless you love, and you can’t know happiness until
you truly have it. At this point, Henry openly admits that he doesn’t love anything but
eventually love turns out to be a safe harbor in such trying times for both Catherine
and Henry. Their mutual trauma gives them enormous understanding of each other’s
personalities. The couple’s feelings for each other quickly pass from an amusement
that distracts them to the very fuel that sustains them. Henry’s understanding of how
meaningful his love for Catherine is outweighs any consideration for the emptiness of
abstract ideals such as honor, enabling him to flee the war and seek her out. Henry is
embarrassed by the words as “sacred, glorious and sacrifice”.  Reunited, they plan
an idyllic life together. Far away from the decimated Italian countryside, each intends
to be the other’s refuge. However they cannot escape the cruel clutches of their dark
destiny as Catherine unfolds her inner fear: "I'm afraid of the rain because
sometimes I see me dead in it".  Toward the end of the book, in his conversation
with Count Greffi, Henry says that what he valued most in the world was the one he
loved, showing that love had transformed his life and was the most important thing in
it. So, we can see a change in his view on love which becomes a part of his overall
philosophy of life.
Another importance aspect of love which has been presented is the loneliness which
accompanies love. When Catherine and Henry are together, they often want to feel
isolated and away from others. For example, when they go to the race track in Book II
Catherine wants to go outside because there are too many other people inside, and
when they are in Switzerland they try to be alone whether in the country or in a large
town. Part of the reason for this is that prior to being together, both of them were
lonely: Henry was an American serving the Italian army and Catherine was a British
nurse serving in Italy who had recently lost her fiancé. In each other they found
comfort and a relief from loneliness, so they wanted to be alone together to escape
outside problems and be happy. As Henry ponders“We could feel alone when we
were together, alone against the others … but we were never lonely and never
afraid when we were together.” So they could never be alone when they were
together, but their connection works the other way too: they were always lonely when
they were apart, no matter who they were with. So even when Henry was reunited
with the priest and Rinaldi and his other friends at the front, all he could do was lay in
bed thinking of Catherine because he was lonely without her. We also find one of the
ironies of the novel in this regard that the love between Henry and Catherine blossoms
in war but withers in peace. They are left lonely in the cruel world one way or the
other which gives the notion that true love doesn’t mean that the loved ones
accompany each other in flesh rather it demands loneliness to prove the worth of love.
Moreover, without the specter of loss threatening them from every side, Henry and
Catherine would not have had to fight so hard to be together.

In 1917 the United States had entered World War 1, which had begun three years
earlier. Despite the fact that Hemmingway’s eyesight was not very good, he had this
strong urge to go to war. It was during those times that he was struck in the legs by
Australian shrapnel burst. Near him lay a screaming man, gravely wounded, whom
Hemmingway helped without caring about his own injuries and while helping the
other man, he took two machine guns rounds, one in the knee, the other in the foot.
He was treated and evacuated into a hospital.
From his own experiences, Hemmingway created his fictional character Frederic
Henry’s wounding in Farewell to arms. His suffering enables him to describe Henry’s
with telling physical detail. But his literary use of the wounding goes deeper than the
merely physical. For a while, Hemmingway superficially recovered from his wounds,
psychically he seems never to have gotten over them. His view of the world was
permanently damaged by his youthful encounter with death and we see this pain very
clearly in almost all of his novels.
The second pain very evident in Farewell to arms is that of an emotional hurt, a faded
love affair. When he was recovering from his wounds in a hospital, he fell in love
with a nurse there. They were both in love for quite a long time and he even had
intension of wooing her but was very shocked by the bluntness in her attitude
towards him which was later found out that she’d fallen in love with an Italian. She
wished him well but it was over. Hemmingway’s way of forgetting her was to indulge
himself in booze and prostitutes. The hurt was too deep. The same behavior we see is
that of Fredric Henry in A farewell to arms. He always drinks and chases women and
he also fell in love with a volunteer nurse Catherine.
The third hurt was a social one- alienation from his family. Hemmingway’s parents
were God fearing Christians and Hemmingway thought them boring. He chooses to
live in other countries instead of living with his parents. His characters too are usually
far from home. They have no family or facing family troubles. Henry in farewell to
arms sends only cryptic postcards to his family, and speaks of a home full of quarrels.
Henry like Hemmingway ends up as an empty cynic who takes life as well as he can.

Throughout A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway shows how the harsh truths of reality
always infiltrate and corrupt the distracting fantasies that characters create to make
themselves feel better. In terms of war, Hemingway shows how ideals such as glory
and honor quickly fade when one is confronted with the stark or absurd realities of
battle. Many characters create escapist fantasies to make the war around them easier
to bear. Catherine pretends that she and Henry are deeply in love to escape the pain
of her fiancé's death in battle. Henry's fellow officers celebrate America's entry into
the war by drinking in a hospital that is being cleared out to make room for casualties.
Most tragically, Henry and Catherine retreat from the world to live an idealized
private life in the mountains of Switzerland, only to have the specter of reality return
when Catherine and her baby die during childbirth.
Henry is a classic Hemingway man: a stoic man of action with a personal code of
honor who also enjoys the pleasures of life.
"I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it.’”
Death is a constant in the story beginning with Passini's violent demise in the dugout
and continuing through Aymo's death during the retreat. Both these deaths are from
the war and are, in Frederic's estimation, random and unavoidable. Frederic cheats
death twice in the story; first, when he survives his wounds and second, when he
escapes the executioners.
People deal with death in very different ways. In this novel, Fredric has to learn how
to live without Catherine in his life. Finding strength from within will allow Fredric to
go on with his life. "After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked
back to the hotel in the rain"
Another important theme in the novel is the theme of isolation. Henry and Catherine
are always isolated from reality, whether they are in the hospital or deraming off a
perfect life together. They continuously seek isolation so that other don’t see the
fallacies and the disturbances in their relationship. This isolation can be evident when
they meet during late night hours in Henry’s isolated room and are uncomfortable in
large crowds. However, in retaliation to their isolation, Ferguson tries to separate them
which does not work. And so, although some try to separate Henry and Catherine,
they choose to constantly be together and prefer to be alone so the illusion of their
relationship can be maintained.
Nature serves as a fundamental structure for the plot and events that occurred in the
novel. It also serves as a source of symbols that often replace human feelings or
emotions. Hemingway constantly uses symbols to completely omit feelings and
emotions of his characters. For instance snow represents safety and peace. His use of
themes also makes A Farewell to Arms a classic novel. Hemingway uses themes to
reveal hidden messages. An example of this is his use of love and war to show that
war can destroy anything, even one of the most beautiful things on earth, love.
A Farewell to Arms is truly one of the most powerful pieces of literature when it
comes to the effects of war on humanity.

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