The Theme of War and Love in Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms

Abstract

A Farewell to Arms, in the first place, deals with Hemingway’s personal experiences of the First World War. The theme of war enters in the novel, A Farewell to Arms, through Frederic Henry. Frederic Henry is the hero of this novel. He is an American who has enrolled himself in the Italian army that is fighting against the combined armies of Austria and Germany during the First World War. Henry is posted on the Italian-Austrian border, and is a Lieutenant in the Italian Ambulance Corps. As we find him in the beginning of the novel, he is a person who is fond of food and fun, music and sex, who wants to visit brothels rather frequently, who has absolutely no faith in religion or in the other final values of life, and who doesn’t seem to be taking life at all seriously. The theme of love enters in the novel, A Farewell to Arms, through Catherine Barkley who is the heroine or principal female character in the novel. Although we meet her somewhat late in the novel, she leaves a deep impression upon us by virtue of the strength of her character. In the company of Catherine, Frederic is a changed man at the end of the novel whose attitude towards life has undergone a complete metamorphosis.