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.