Strength in Weakness

Many stereotypes have been made about Catherine Barkley and the roles she plays as a female in “A Farewell to Arms”; however, despite all things, it is clear that with everything she encounters, she faces them with different approaches.  Hemingway’s use of her lustful relationship adds to her strong and ability to create what she wants through it while her bygone era qualities suggest that Barkley is an extremely weak and submissive character.  Time and time again she proves through some of her actions that she is a slave to the men and her job is not complete until men are happy but in other scenarios Catherine demonstrates times of encompassing a strong backbone and standing firm in the way she acts towards Frederic Henry.

Throughout the novel, the readers witness the love, or lust, between Catherine Barkley and Frederic Henry grow quite strong. As Catherine walked into his hospital room, Henry said “when I saw her I was in love with her” (Hemingway 91). This is the perfect example to provide evidence to confirm that their relationship was superficial. Henry was physically attracted to her and did not know much more about the person she was, just knew that he wanted her because she struck him as beautiful. Catherine sees through this shallow surface because she recognizes “that is not love. That is only passion and lust” (Hemingway 72). However, that seems to be all that Catherine was interested in too because she expressed before that being in love and getting married to one’s significant other is phony and unjust. Readers sense her strength her ability to do as she pleases and understand the world around her but choosing to ignore the ways of it.

However along with her strength comes weakness. With this love, Catherine does not seem to act as most women of today would behave. In fact, she seems to be more like a housewife from the bygone era. One sees this through her need to please the men around her and do as she sees fit. For example while on her death bed Barkley regretfully states, “I’m sorry I go on so long” (Hemingway____). While she apologizes to the doctor for wasting his time with her illness, a doctor’s job is to take care of his or her patients until there is nothing more one can do but because Catherine is a woman, she feels responsible for laying on the hospital bed when she could be attending to the needs of men or more importantly, those of Henry or using up space in the hospital that could be talking care of someone of higher importance. As Judity Fetterley  claims in “‘A Farewell to Arms’: Hemingway’s “Resentful Cryptogram”; Abbreviated’’, Catherine does not put any blame on anybody but herself because she believes that “conception like contraception, is her doing” (Fetterley). Although it takes both, a male and female to conceive a child, Catherine makes it solely her responsibility and blames herself for the unexpected pregnancy. She also just sees it as another life cycle that is key for the women of her day because as she states, "people have babies all the time. Everybody has babies. It's a natural thing." (Hemingway 138). Catherine views this pregnancy as just taking on one of her key duties as a woman.

Catherine Barkley can be seen as being either a powerful womanly figure or as an incredibly fragile character in differing situations that she encounters. Although, whether strong or weak and no matter what argument side is taken, it is safe to say that Catherine Barkley is an extremely unique character and brings much personality to the table in this renowned novel. Hemingway used both traits found in her as a source of entertainment and the yearning to relate to a woman of those experiences and of that time period. The main young lady in “A Farewell to Arms” never seizes to surprise or grasp the attention of its readers.

“Blow Her Again to Me”: The In-Depth Analysis of Frederick Henry’s Passion for Catherine Baker

Throughout A Farewell to Arms there is a common theme of love and passion shown that demonstrates the main character, Frederick Henry’s, longing for his newly found other half, Catherine Baker. However, being in the middle of a war, Henry is forced to spend multiple days and nights without her during his long journey on the warfront. With his fired-up love for her staying strong, it causes great pain being separated so with the help Alfred Lord Tennyson’s esteemed poem “Sweet And Low”, the audience is better able to grasp the true feelings Henry experiences. The idea of his passion is reinforced through Hemingway and Tennyson’s use of weather and religious references as well as lines of comfort and reassurance to sooth the family is found commonly throughout to create a the well-built meaning of love.

Weather poses as an extremely important source for Frederick Henry to express his infatuation with Catherine which is strongly supported by the allusion to “Sweet and Low”. The term ‘blow’ is seen throughout the text over and over again. Henry says “blow, blow, ye western wind…blow her again to me” which is a key allusion to Tennyson’s line “low, low, breath and blow wind of the western sea…blow him back to me.” (Hemingway 197) (Tennyson line 3-4 and 7). This line is vital to this scene in the novel because based off of the loving vibe given off by the poem, readers are able to value the seriousness of Henry’s words and his longing for his loved one. Rain also played a key part especially with his wishing “that [his] sweet love Catherine down might rain” (Hemingway 197). Through the references made about weather, it describes more in depth Henry’s need for Catherine to be with him where he is and with the help of the “Sweet and Low” allusion it creates a much stronger affect and better understanding for the reader.

Throughout a few different scenes in the novel and in this poem, the reader can see a strong since of religious references being used quite often. When asking for Catherine to be ‘blown’ his way or ‘rained’ down on him he also carries it as far as to say "Christ, that my love were in my arms tonight” (Hemingway 197). This quote seems to be praying to a higher power to bring Henry to his loved one at once.  There also is a noticeable repetition of the word ‘Father’ throughout “Sweet and Low” (Tennyson lines 10, 12, and 13). The word ‘Father’ can mean multiple meanings and for its use in this novel I feel like it can not only mean the obvious meaning of a dad or parent to kids, but also God the Father. When wishing, or praying, that the “Father will come to thee soon”, it can be that the author is hoping for the Father (God)  to help him with his suffering and comfort him in such ways that only He is capable of doing. The intensity of both authors’ word choices is deemed crucial in order for the readers to dig deeper in the meaning and the underlining of the religious references that can so easily be overlooked.

In a time of pain and longing, reassuring a loved one that everything will be okay and helping them to feel better is extremely imperative. Both Alfred Lord Tennyson and Ernest Hemingway, through the character of Frederick Henry, do an excellent job of this. Henry shows his love for Catherine once again by his peacefulness. He whispers aloud to himself, “Good-night Catherine, I hope you sleep well. If it’s too uncomfortable, darling, lie on the other side…I’m sorry he makes you so uncomfortable. Try and go to sleep, sweet.” (Hemingway 197). Even though they are miles and miles away, Catherine is still on Henry’s mind and he wants to do anything in his power to make sure that she sleeps soundly and is comfortable. Although the novel does not allude to this quote about sleep, there is much repetition within both works about being content and sleeping tight. Tennyson stresses rest with the example of stating for the loved one to “sleep and rest, sleep and rest…sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep” (Tennyson lines 9 and 16). It is unmistakable that neither of the authors wishes for their other half to be in pain and the repetition and the stressing of the ease only contribute that much greater to this scene.

Between both A Farewell to Arms and “Sweet and Low”, the immensity of the love given off by the characters through not only their reassurance but also their strong use of references makes the love apparent to all its readers. It is clear that they both care deeply about to whom the works are written towards and without the diction they used, the major theme of love and passion would not be as evident.

Falling Into Responsibility

Fall is a beautiful time, my favorite time of the year actually. I love how the leaves all turn colors and there are so many holidays to be celebrated. Everybody just always seems to be in such happy moods and I love it! However, according to How to Read Literature Like a Professor, the fall season correlates with “decline and middle age and tiredness” (Foster 178). This fall theme easily agrees with that attitude shown by Catherine and Frederick Henry because “that fall…[they] lived in a brown wooden house in the pine trees on the side of a mountain” (Hemingway 290). This move to the mountains shows that the couple is settling down and not as young as they once were. Instead of traveling around and continuing with their childish antics, that seems to ‘decline’ which leads them into their ‘middle ages’ where they’re relationship has become more serious and tiresome. The couple demonstrates this through their actions and habits, time schedule, and set up in their house which closely relates to those of an old married couple.

The actions by this young couple soon took a turn and seemed to be much more mature and older than what was viewed by the readers towards the beginning of A Farewell to Arms. For example, Catherine and Frederick “bought books and magazines in the town and a hard copy of ‘Hoyle’ and learned many two-handed card games” (Hemingway 291). I don’t know about other people, but when I picture a couple playing card games together and just sitting and reading I immediately think of an old burnt out couple. These are activities often found in an old folks home or by parents, not those of two young and in love adults. They’re still at the age when they should be livin’ it up and having memorable experiences but with the pregnancy they soon are forced to settle down and become more serious.

We also can see a change in their lifestyle as well. Instead of living a very casual, free-spirited life, the two begin to develop a time schedule and pattern for their days. Whenever “the sun was bright we ate lunch on the porch but the rest of the time we ate upstairs in a small room with plain wooden walls and a big stove in the corner” (Hemingway 291). Every day was the same thing. They ate at the same time and same place and the new and carefree attitude seemed to fade and they are become grown-ups. Basically, they’re lives became a boring routine where there were no longer anymore spontaneous moments or unexpected happenings.

Coming from being on the warfront and then moving to a nice, quaint house in the mountains is definitely a 180 degree transformation of one’s lifestyle. The house they lived in very much so resembled one like my grandparents. It consisted of “two comfortable chairs and a table for books and magazines and [they] played cards on the dining-table when it was cleared away” (Hemingway 290). The two chairs would be where they resided most of the day playing cards or in present day watching shows such as Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, ect. I would think that for a young couple that in their house there would be a couch where they could snuggle up together instead of two separate chairs for the both of them. That symbolizes disconnection from one another or even isolation with them being away from each other.

Once the news of the pregnancy hit, their lives were changed. Like the theme of fall, Catherine and Henry were forced to grow up and become more mature because it was time to think about having a kid in their lives. Their romantic relationship declined and they began acting differently than they once had when they were carefree and had nothing to tie them down on the front lines of the war. Fall  began the embarking journey of the couple into their middle ages.