A Farewell to Arms

By Ernest Hemingway

World War I began in 1914 and ended on Nov. 11, 1918. Fought primarily between the
Triple Alliance powers of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Triple Entente
countries of England, France, Russia, Italy, and the U.S. (Italy defected from the Triple Alliance
in 1915; the U.S. joined the war in 1917), the Great War, as it was called, with its vast scope,
modernized weaponry, and vague political struggle over land, laid waste to Europe's landscape
and population. Roughly half of the 70 million men and women serving in the war were killed,
injured, or taken prisoner.
A Farewell to Arms is greatly informed by Hemingway's own wartime experience.
Rejected from the U.S. army for his poor eyesight (which he later falsely claimed was due to
boxing), Hemingway's determination to join the war effort landed him a post with the Red Cross
as an ambulance driver on the Italian front. He jumped at the chance to be a canteen-provider on
the front lines, handing out chocolate and cigarettes to the troops during battle, and on July 8,
1918 he was hit in the leg by an Austrian mortar shell. Despite the wound, he managed to carry
an Italian soldier to the nearby command post. However, machine-gun fire struck him in the knee
and foot, and he was eventually sent to a hospital in Milan, Italy. A similar injury befalls Henry
in the novel.
During his convalescence, the 19-year-old Hemingway had an affair with an American
Red Cross nurse seven years his senior, Agnes von Kurowsky. This experience inspired Henry's
romance with Catherine in the novel, though Hemingway most likely embellished it; most
scholars believe Agnes, a committed nurse, never let him move beyond kissing and did not
reciprocate his intense feelings. Though she did not die during the war, as Catherine does, Agnes
eventually rejected Hemingway via a letter.
The painful emotions of a broken body and heart no doubt embittered Hemingway. A Farewell to
Arms (1929), which some critics consider the finest novel to come out of the war and
Hemingway's personal best, reflected the widespread disillusionment with war - and with a
world that allows such barbarity - of Hemingway's young but weary post-WWI "Lost
Generation."

A Farewell to Arms Character List

Lieutenant Frederic Henry
The protagonist and fairly aloof narrator, Henry is a young American ambulance driver
with the Italian army. However, he does not feel strongly about the cause, and certainly is not out
for glory. He turns from the horrors of war to a passionate, escapist love affair with Catherine
Barkley, and the all-consuming love helps distract him from the brutality around him. Still, he is
good at his job; a cool-headed, unselfish man who exercises grace under pressure when he is
injured and when he must shoot a deserting engineering officer, Henry fulfills the code of the
"Hemingway hero." He makes his "separate peace" when he decides that he no longer has any
obligation to the army and that his loyalty is to Catherine.

Catherine Barkley
A British Voluntary Aid Detachment (a second-tier nurse), Catherine is in grief over her
fiancé's recent death at the start of the novel. Henry offers a tempting rebound, and she dives into
this new diverting love. She later admits that she was slightly "crazy" when she first met Henry,

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and her behavior backs this up: she gives herself so readily to a near stranger, and her games of
flirtation and teasing border on the juvenile. However, she gains some measure of independence
later on, as when she helps Henry row the boat across the lake for their escape, but she is
typically submissive and eager to please with Henry (thought, to her credit, so is he with her).
Like Henry, she believes the world is out to destroy people's happiness.

Lieutenant Rinaldi
Henry's Italian surgeon roommate, Rinaldi is an alcoholic womanizer who does not
believe in romance and love as Henry does. Instead, he proclaims himself in love with nearly
every woman he meets, then quickly discards the idea as he finds the next one. He appears to
have something of a crush on Henry, or at least engages in what literary criticism refers to as a
"homosocial relationship," a bond between men that borders on homoeroticism.

Priest
The unnamed priest in Henry's unit is the butt of all jokes by the others, but Henry,
though he is not religious, treats him kindly. They have several deep discussions, and the priest
encourages Henry to find love and be happy.

Helen Ferguson
A Scottish nurse, Helen is Catherine's best female friend in the war. She is also friends
with Henry at first, but later grows jealous of his and Catherine's relationship and fears Catherine
will abandon her.

Bonello
An Italian ambulance driver, Bonello happily kills off the engineering sergeant that Henry
shoots. Bonello, like his fellow drivers, does not believe in the cause of the war, and he leaves
the group during the Italian retreat to become a prisoner.

Ettore Moretti
An Italian-American soldier in the Italian army, Ettore boasts of his medals and rank
while insulting others. In this regard, he is the opposite of Henry, who does not care at all about
personal glory.

Dr. Valentini
A brash, fast-talking doctor who successfully operates on Henry's knee, Dr. Valentini is a
good example of the masculine Hemingway hero, especially in comparison to the effete,
incompetent doctors who first diagnose Henry.

Aymo
An Italian ambulance driver who is shot and killed during the retreat.
Ralph Simmons An opera singer Henry knows, Simmons gives Henry food and civilian clothing
after Henry escapes from the army.

Miss Gage
A young, pretty nurse Henry befriends with while he recovers in the Milan hospital. She
appears to be attracted to Henry.

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Miss Van Campen
The shrewish superintendent of the Milan hospital, she takes an immediate disliking to Henry.

Emilio
The bartender at the hotel in Stresa, Emilio warns Henry of his impending arrest and
provides him with his boat to escape.

Count Greffi
A rich elderly man Henry knows who plays billiards with Henry at the hotel in Stresa.
Count Greffi does not believe in the war, and Henry values his other mature opinions.

Captain
The Captain of Henry's unit frequently mocks the priest.

Major
The Major of Henry's unit frequently mocks the priest, as well.
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A Farewell to Arms Summary

Lieutenant Frederic Henry, a young American ambulance driver with the Italian army
during World War I, takes a winter leave from the front. When he returns, he meets and quickly
falls in love with Catherine Barkley, an English nurse's aide in the town's British hospital. She
mourns the death of her fiancé from the war last year, and she eagerly enters the pleasurable
diversion the game of love offers with Henry. Henry, too, is revived by love after the horror he
has seen of war.
Henry's knee is badly wounded during an artillery bombardment, and he is sent to a
hospital in Milan for an operation. Catherine transfers to his hospital and helps him recuperate
from the surgery. They spend all their free time together, and their love deepens as they gradually
acknowledge that they stand alone against the cruel world. Before Henry returns to the front,
Catherine reveals she is pregnant. They are both pleased with this, however, and cannot wait to
see each other again.
Back at the front, the Germans and Austrians break through the Italian line, and the
Italians are forced to make a lengthy retreat. Henry travels with some other drivers, two Italian
engineering sergeants, and two Italian girls. When the sergeants abandon the drivers when their
car gets stuck, Henry shoots one of them, and another driver finishes him off. Later, the trigger-
happy Italian rear guard mistakenly shoots one of the Italian drivers. One of the drivers deserts
the group, choosing to be taken prisoner rather than face potential death. At a bridge over a
flooded river, the corrupt Italian military singles out Henry as a lieutenant and accuses him of
treachery leading to the Italian defeat. Knowing he will be executed, Henry jumps into the river
and escapes with the current.
Henry manages to get out of the fast-moving river and jump a train to Milan. He thinks
he has made a "separate peace" and is no longer attached to the military. He finds Catherine in
the town of Stresa and, prior to Henry's arrest for desertion, the two make a daring nighttime
escape by a borrowed boat to Switzerland. They enjoy an idyllic, isolated life that winter in the
Swiss town of Montreux, spending time outdoors and preparing for the arrival of their baby;
Henry is not completely without guilt, however, for abandoning his friends at the front.

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 They move to the town of Lausanne in the spring to be close to its hospital, and Catherine
soon goes into labor. The pregnancy is lengthy and painful, and the baby, delivered through a
Caesarean, is stillborn. Catherine dies soon after of multiple hemorrhages with Henry by her
side. He tries to say goodbye to her, but it is like saying goodbye to a statue, and he walks back
to his hotel room in the rain.
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A Farewell to Arms
Themes
Love as a response to the horrors of war and the world
Hemingway repeatedly emphasizes the horrific devastation war has wrought on everyone
involved. From the opening account of cholera that kills "only" 7,000 men to the graphic
description of the artillery bombardment to the corrupt violence during the Italian retreat, A
Farewell to Arms is among the most frank anti-war novels.
But Hemingway does not merely condemn war. Rather, he indicts the world at large for
its atmosphere of destruction. Henry frequently reflects upon the world's insistence on breaking
and killing everyone; it is as if the world cannot bear to let anyone remain happy and safe.
Indeed, whenever Henry and Catherine are blissful, something comes along to interrupt it
- be it Henry's injury, his being sent back to the front, his impending arrest, or, finally,
Catherine's death from childbirth. With such misery confronting them at every turn, the two turn
to each other. Catherine, especially, plunges almost too easily into love when she first meets
Henry. She admits she was "crazy" at first, most likely over the fairly recent death of her fiancé,
but Henry, too, succumbs to the temptations of love. Love is a pleasurable diversion (see Games,
below) that distracts lovers from the outside world; the two often tell each other not to think
about anything else, as it is too painful. Hidden within the shelter of Catherine's beautiful hair,
Henry and Catherine feel protected from the cruel outside world.
The major problem with such escapist love is, as Henry and other characters point out
several times, one does not always know the "stakes" of love until it is over, or that one does not
know about something until one has lost it. Henry hardly allows himself to think of life without
Catherine while he is in love, and once he does lose her, it seems unlikely that he will recover.

Grace under pressure and the Hemingway hero

Although less important in this novel than in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises,
Hemingway maps out what it means to be a hero. Chiefly, the "Hemingway hero," as literary
criticism frequently tags him, is a man of action who coolly exhibits "grace under pressure"
while confronting death. Henry's narration is certainly detached and action-oriented - only rarely
does he let us into his most private thoughts - and he displays remarkable cool when shooting the
engineering sergeant. Characters in the novel strive for this grace under pressure in an otherwise
chaotic world. Even when the men eat spaghetti (and especially when they eat macaroni in the
dugout during the artillery bombardment), they try to exercise mastery over a single skill to
compensate for the uncontrollable chaos elsewhere. Dr. Valentini is another example of a skillful,
confident Hemingway hero.
The Hemingway hero also eschews glory for a more personal code of honor. Unlike the
selfish and boastful Ettore, Henry is not greedy for accolades, nor is he stupidly sacrificial. He
judiciously determines what is worth the sacrifice, and decides that the war is no longer
worthwhile. Even after he makes his "separate peace," however, he feels slightly guilty over
letting his friends continue the battle without him.

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Rain and destruction
From the first chapter to the last word, the novel is flooded with rain and other images of
water. The rain almost always heralds destruction and death; it impinges upon whatever
momentary happiness Henry and Catherine have and turns it into muddy misery. Ironically, rain
often signifies fertility in literature but here stands for sterility, as it does in much post-WWI
literature.
However, water is positive in other ways. Henry receives symbolic baptisms when he
bathes and, more prominently, when he twice escapes from the authorities via a river and a lake.
Frozen water is kinder to him and to soldiers in general; snow usually prevents fighting, and
Henry and Catherine are happiest during their snowy winter in Switzerland.

Diversions
Nearly all the characters in the novel try to divert themselves with pleasurable activities
from the horror of war. The soldiers play card games, drink heavily, and carouse in brothels;
Rinaldi is the poster-boy for this hedonistic excess. Henry goes along somewhat, but his biggest
diversion is love itself; he and Catherine treat it like a game at first, flirting and teasing each
other. Above all, ignorance is prized during the war; if one does not think about the war, then one
cannot be unhappy during the ongoing pursuit of games and diversions.

Abandonment
The novel deploys several instances of abandonment, intentional and forced, in the
realms of love and war. After the death of her fiancé, Catherine understandably fears
abandonment by Henry, and he makes every attempt when separated to reunite with her. Even
Helen fears abandonment by Catherine. In the war, we see several cases of abandonment: the
engineering sergeants, who abandon Henry and the other drivers; Bonello, who abandons the
drivers to give himself up as a prisoner; the Italian retreat, a large-scale abandonment; and
Henry's escape from army. However, Henry's abandonment is completely justified (he was going
to be executed if he did not), and it is less a desertion that what he calls a "separate peace."
Ultimately, he decides that not abandoning Catherine is far more important than not abandoning
the war, though he does feel guilty over leaving behind Rinaldi and the others at the front.

Journalistic style of omission

As is typical in a Hemingway work, Henry's narration is spare, detached, and journalistic.
Contrary to what the reader might expect, the effect often heightens emotion. For example,
Hemingway ratchets up the connotations of death and violence by omitting explicit mention of
blood when it drips on Henry in the ambulance.
Hemingway shows his range when he occasionally uses a near "stream-of-consciousness"
narration for Henry. In these few cases, Henry's thoughts are ungrammatical, awkwardly worded,
and repetitive - much as the mind works, especially under such chaotic circumstances. A notable
example is the long second-person narrative passage in Chapter XXXII after Henry has divorced
himself from the army. By addressing himself as "you," Henry shows how he has separated from
his former self through his "separate peace."

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Ernest Hemingway
Biography Author (1899–1961)
Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway is seen as one of the great American 20th century
novelists, and is known for works like 'A Farewell to Arms' and 'The Old Man and the Sea.
Born on July 21, 1899, in Cicero (now in Oak Park), Illinois, Ernest Hemingway served in World
War I and worked in journalism before publishing his story collection In Our Time. He was
renowned for novels like The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and
The Old Man and the Sea, which won the 1953 Pulitzer. In 1954, Hemingway won the Nobel
Prize. He committed suicide on July 2, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho.
Early Life and Career
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Cicero (now in Oak Park), Illinois.
Clarence and Grace Hemingway raised their son in this conservative suburb of Chicago, but the
family also spent a great deal of time in northern Michigan, where they had a cabin. It was there
that the future sportsman learned to hunt, fish and appreciate the outdoors.
In high school, Hemingway worked on his school newspaper, Trapeze and Tabula, writing
primarily about sports. Immediately after graduation, the budding journalist went to work for the
Kansas City Star, gaining experience that would later influence his distinctively stripped-down
prose style.
Military Experience
In 1918, Hemingway went overseas to serve in World War I as an ambulance driver in the Italian
Army. For his service, he was awarded the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery, but soon sustained
injuries that landed him in a hospital in Milan.
There he met a nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky, who soon accepted his proposal of marriage,
but later left him for another man. This devastated the young writer but provided fodder for his
works "A Very Short Story" and, more famously, A Farewell to Arms.
Still nursing his injury and recovering from the brutalities of war at the young age of 20, he
returned to the United States and spent time in northern Michigan before taking a job at the
Toronto Star.
It was in Chicago that Hemingway met Hadley Richardson, the woman who would become his
first wife. The couple married and quickly moved to Paris, where Hemingway worked as a
foreign correspondent for the Star.

Personal Struggles and Suicide

The author continued his forays into Africa and sustained several injuries during his adventures,
even surviving multiple plane crashes.
In 1954, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Even at this peak of his literary career, though, the
burly Hemingway's body and mind were beginning to betray him. Recovering from various old
injuries in Cuba, Hemingway suffered from depression and was treated for numerous conditions
such as high blood pressure and liver disease.
He wrote A Moveable Feast, a memoir of his years in Paris, and retired permanently to Idaho.
There he continued to battle with deteriorating mental and physical health.
Early on the morning of July 2, 1961, Ernest Hemingway committed suicide in his Ketchum
home.

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Legacy
Hemingway left behind an impressive body of work and an iconic style that still influences
writers today. His personality and constant pursuit of adventure loomed almost as large as his
creative talent.

When asked by George Plimpton about the function of his art, Hemingway proved once again to
be a master of the "one true sentence": "From things that have happened and from things as they
exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something
through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true
and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality."

In August 2018, a 62-year-old short story by Hemingway, "A Room on the Garden Side," was
published for the first time in The Strand Magazine. Set in Paris shortly after the liberation of the
city from Nazi forces in 1944, the story was one of five composed by the writer in 1956 about his
World War II experiences. It became the second story from the series to earn posthumous
publication, following "Black Ass at the Crossroads."