A Farewell to Arms

Main themes
The grim reality of war
The novel concerns itself primarily with
war, the process by which Frederic Henry
removes himself from it and leaves it
behind.
The few ones who support the war are
Ettore Moretti and Gino, two Italian
soldiers, while the majority of the
characters is ambivalent about the war;
the only one who is surely against the war
is the priest. For example in CHAPTER IX
can be found some reflections on the idea
of war.
The novel cannot be said to condemn the
war, whereas Hemingway (whose ideas
are expressed by Frederic Henry) regards
the war as the inevitable outcome of a
cruel, senseless world; according to him
the war is the extension of a world that
refuses to acknowledge, protect or
preserve true love. CHAPTER XXXIV

The novel offers many masterful

descriptions of the conflict’s
senseless brutality and violent
chaos: in the scene of the Italian
army’s retreat at Caporetto in
1917 ,in fact, Henry shoots the
engineer for refusing to help free
the car from the mud.
The murder of the engineer can
be apparently justified because
it is an inevitable byproduct of
the war’s violence, brutality and
disorder.
Only in the end of the novel
Frederic expresses the idea that
war is an unjust atrocity.
NATURALISM
Naturalism is another important theme in the novel, in
fact Nature is different to human problems, particularly to
the reality of war. Human life is insignificant and it is
characterized by absurd happenings and events.

EXISTENTIALISM
A loss of belief in God can also be found in the novel; the
emphasis is focused on human existence and on the here
and now, not on life beyond death.
There is no God to watch over man to dictate codes of
morality or to ensure justice, because there is no God.
There are no universal or moral codes, no abstract values
such as “justice” or “glory” and certainly there is no need
for moral conventions.
Chapter XXVI: Reflections about the war and God
between Frederic and the priest
CHAPTER IX
Frederic: “I believe we should get the war over”
“ It would not finish if one side stopped fighting.
It would only be worse if we stopped fighting”
Passini:” It could not be worse” “There is
nothing worse than war”
Frederic: “Defeat is worse” […] “I know it is bad
but we must finish it”
Passini: “It doesn’t finish. There is no finish to a
war”
Frederic: “Yes there is”
Chapter XXXIV
Frederic:“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 it 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”.
CHAPTER XXVI
Priest: “Then you think it will go on and on? Nothing will
ever happen?”
Frederic: “I don’t know. I only think the Austrians will not
stop when they have won a victory. It is in defeat that we
become Christians”
Priest: “The Austrians are Christians”
Frederic: “I don’t mean technically Christian. I mean like
Our Lord” “We are all gentler now because we are beaten.
How would Our Lord have been if Peter had rescued him
in the Garden?”
Priest: “He would have been just the same”
Frederic: “I don’t think so”
Priest: “You discourage me”.
Love and Pain
Love, between Henry and Catherine, is one of
the main themes of the novel.
At the beginning, this feeling is only a
distraction, a refuge from the outside world. For
Henry, love is a refuge from the uselessness of
war, from the emptiness of war’s values. On the
other hand, for Catherine, love is an alternative
from her pain and solitude, caused by the death of
her fiancé, so it becomes a simple game of
seduction.
After Henry’s wound,
both protagonists start
falling in love deeply,
making their feelings
the centre of their
lives, the only religion
of world, and also
more important than
Henry’s duty in war,
although he feels
guilty about his
abandonment.
“«Then
nothing worries you?»

“«No, darling. I won't ever leave you for

some one else. I suppose all sorts of
dreadful things will happen to us. But you
don't have to worry about that.»
[…] «I'll have to go back to the front pretty
soon.»
«We won't think about that until you go. You
see I'm happy, darling, and we have a lovely
time. I haven't been happy for a long time
and when I met you perhaps I was nearly
crazy. Perhaps I was crazy. But now we're

«Only being sent away from you.

You're my religion. You're all I've
got.»"
“I was crazy about her. I could not believe she
was really there and held her tight to me. “
“«I feel like a criminal. I've deserted from the
army.»
«Darling, please be sensible. It's not
deserting from the army. It's only the Italian
army.»
[…]
«You don't feel like a criminal do you?»
«No,» I said. «Not when I'm with you.»"
Love, pain, humanism, heroism
But love cannot live in such a materialistic and empty world, and
although the feelings of Henry and Catherine are true, they are
intended to be temporary.
The same title of the novel gives importance to this aspect: in “A
farewell to arms” the farewell could be meant both to war, to the
army, but also to love, because of the death of Catherine.
Therefore, love is inseparable from pain, and, like everything in
this empty world, it will be destroyed at the end.
This tragical ending, after a deep and intense love story,
underlines the pessimistic conception that Hemingway has about
world and men’s life. In fact, there are no true values apart from those
of the war (like honour, sense of duty…), that he considers pointless.
This leads to a meaningless existance, in which man has no power
and can only realize his disillusionment, that brings him to create a
new and different heroic code (not a religious one). In “A farewell to
arms” heroism means living pains through more personal values,
without complaint and fighting the meaningless of life trough love,
that is the unique religion.
Thus, love, oneness, real emotions could be spiritual
substitutes of the other values:

“«[…]Oh, darling, I want you so much I want to be you too.»

«You are. We're the same one.»
«I know it. At night we are.»
«The nights are grand.»
«I want us to be all mixed up. I don't want you to go away. I just
said that. You go if you want to. But hurry right back. Why,
darling, I don't live at all when I’m not with you.»
«I won't ever go away,» I said. «I'm no good when you're not
there. I haven't any life at all any more.»
«I want you to have a life. I want you to have a fine life. But we'll
have it together, won't we?»"
Chiara Coriddi
Silvana Godente