A Farewell to Arms
Chapter 1
In the first chapter we are provided with a brief yet powerful description of the small Italian village in which our protagonist resides.
Imagery:
“Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they
raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the
trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and
we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust
rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the
soldiers marching and afterwards the road bare and white
This quotation paints a perfect picture of the bland, small village overrun by soldiers due to the fighting nearby.
Chapter 2 & 3
In chapter 2 we are introduced to Lieutenant Henry, the protagonist and in chapter 3 we are introduced to Rinaldi.
Characters:
Lieutenant Henry: Henry is the protagonist and narrator of this novel; He is a young american soldier that has been drained mentally and physically due to the war.
Rinaldi: Rinaldi is a surgeon in the Italian army. Mischievous and portrayed as a womanizer, Rinaldi is Henry’s best friend.
Chapter 4
In chapter four Rinaldi convinces Henry to come with him to visit a woman called Miss Barkley. At the Hospital, Rinaldi speaks with a nurse named Helen Ferguson and Henry meets Catherine. Henry is shocked by her beauty and engages in conversation with her. She tells Henry about her fiancé, who died in the war. She then changes the topic to Henry and asks him if he has ever loved any one, to which he replied no.
Characters:
Catherine Barkley: Catherine is an English nurse’s aide. Henry considers her very beautiful.
Helen Ferguson: Helen is another nurse’s aide who works at the hospital and is a dear friend of Catherine.
Imagery:
“Miss Barkley was quite tall. She wore what seemed to me to be a nurse’s uniform, was blonde and had a tawny skin and grey eyes. I thought she was very beautiful.”(18)
This quotation is how Henry describes Catherine and her beauty.
Chapter 5
In chapter 5, the romantic connection between Henry and Catherine develops as Henry comes to visit her after her shift and kisses her.
Catherine Barkley: Catherine is tense and grieving the first time Henry meets her, however after their second encounter, she loosens up quickly. The speed with which she develops a somewhat romantic connection with Henry does not reflect the grief she felt over the death of her fiancé.
Chapter 6
In chapter 6, Henry continues seeing Catherine once again and visits her at the hospital. At this point, they have somewhat of an almost relationship, however, it is more reminiscent of a game:
“I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards. Like bridge you had to pretend you were playing for money or playing for some stakes. Nobody had mentioned what the stakes were. It was alright with me” (30-31).
When Henry describes it as a “game”, Catherine, almost telepathically describes their relationship as a “rotten game” and although they do not go into detail of describing this game, Catherine and Henry are not playing the same game. Henry does not love Catherine but simply wants her for his own lust. Henry describes his first time meeting with Catherine almost only admiring her for her beauty and not for her personality or anything to do with her character. However, even though he does develop a relationship with Catherine, it is fully out of lust and he has no intention of marrying her or actually loving her. Henry’s game is based upon saying whatever Catherine wants to hear in order to satisfy his lust. He does not care about Catherine’s feelings at all and is just using her to fulfill his sexual desires which is why he consciously lies to her about loving her. Catherine’s game, however, is that of grief and distraction. Catherine uses their so called “relationship” as a way of distracting herself from the war at hand and to get over the grief she experiences from her dead fiancé.
Chapters 7 & 8
In chapter 7 and 8, we see how the “game” that Henry was playing is becoming more and more serious as the book progresses:
“After supper I would go and see Catherine Barkley. I wished she were here now. I wished I were in Milan with her. I would like to eat at the Cova and then walk down the Via Manzoni in the hot evening and cross over and turn off along the canal and go to the hotel with Catherine Barkley. Maybe she would. Maybe she would pretend that I was her boy that was killed.”(37)
In this quotation, Henry fantasizes about a night with Catherine and he even claims that he wishes she would pretend that he was her old fiancé. Henry’s fantasy in this chapter is geared more towards lust as he fantasizes sexually about Catherine, however the small elements such as the romantic evening in Milan and the comment about Catherine’s fiancé make us wonder if Henry still has no intention of loving her. He then proceeds to visit Catherine and she cancels on him due to her feeling ill. Henry then feels lonely and somewhat upset, making us wonder even more about his feelings towards Catherine.
Chapters 9
In this chapter we experience the horrors of war firsthand through intense imagery:
“I ate the end of my piece of cheese and took a swallow of wine. Through the other noise I heard a cough, then came the chuh-chuh-chuh-chuh – then there was a flash, as a blast-furnace door is swung open, and a roar that started white and went red and on and on in a rushing wind. I tried to breathe but my breath would not come and I felt myself rush bodily out of myself and out and out and out and all the time bodily in the wind. I went out swiftly, all of myself and I knew I was dead and that it had all been a mistake to think you just died. Then I floated, and instead of going on I felt myself slide back. I breathed and I was back.”(54)
Chapter 10,11,12
In these chapters Henry is stuck in the hospital by himself. It is important to notice that Henry desperately wants Catherine to come visit him at this time.
Chapter 14
In this chapter, Henry realizes he is in love with Catherine after she arrives in Milan to visit him in his hospital.
“When I saw her I was in love with her. Everything turned over inside of me. She looked toward the door, saw there was no one, then she sat on the side of the bed and leaned over and kissed me. I
pulled her down and kissed her and felt her heart beating.”(91)
Chapter 16
In this chapter, Catherine comes to visit Henry once more and the “game” that was being played is demonstrated once more. Henry is supposed to get surgery in the morning in order to distract him, Catherine stays the night with him just like they distract each other from the war, and from Catherine’s dead fiance.
Chapter 18
In this chapter, Catherine and Henry spend time together and have a great summer together. We are also shown how Henry enjoys taking down Catherine’s hair and playing with it. Catherine’s hair is mentioned throughout the novel very often as it is a symbol of love and the safety it can create in desperate times such as war.
Chapter 19 In this chapter we are shown another symbolic object in this novel. While Catherine and Henry are on his balcony, it rains and Catherine says “…sometimes I see me dead in it…And sometimes I see you dead in it.”(126)
In this novel, water portrays a symbolic destruction and leads to tragedy and this is shown throughout.
Chapter 21
Catherine tells Henry that she is three months pregnant and will go with him wherever he desires to go, as he is put on leave. Henry also says “‘The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one,”(139) and fails to remember who first said this quote. The irony in fact is that the person that first said this quote was Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play, and not long after he was assassinated, foreshadowing tragedy between Catherine and Henry.
Chapter 22
It rains heavily once again flashing us with destruction in this chapter and Henry, once again succumbs to the rain and becomes sick with jaundice, ruining his and Catherine’s planned trip.
Chapter 23-29
These chapters portray the bleak and depressing environment surrounding war, contrary to the first two books which displayed love.
Chapter 30
In this chapter, the italian military turns on itself and attacks Henry as he barely escapes from them through a river.
Chapter 31
The river in this chapter symbolises rebirth, a stark contrast from the usual symbolism of water in this novel. As Henry goes through the water he is cleansed of the war and is no longer a part of the italian military; the war is one less thing that he has to worry about.
Imagery: “The water was cold and in flood
and many things passed that had been floated off the
banks when the river rose. I was lucky to have a heavy
timber to hold on to, and I lay in the icy water with
my chin on the wood, holding as easily as I could with
both hands.”(226)
Chapter 38
Henry and Catherine enjoy a quiet stay in Switzerland where they continue to play their “game” in order to stop Henry from his thoughts of Gorizia and the war as he worries about the wellbeing of Rinaldi and the priest.
Chapter 41
In the final chapter, Catherine finally gives birth to their child and in this symbolic, pessimistic ending, tragedy occurs.
“After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.”(332)
In the final sentence, after the death of Catherine, their child and the utmost destruction of Henry’s world, we are shown for the last time the symbol of rain. After these tragic events occur Henry must walk back to the hotel in the pouring rain, a symbol used to represent the tragedy of Catherine’s birth.
In the earlier chapters, Henry and Catherine began their romance as a sort of “game” and Henry said “you were playing for money or playing for some stakes. Nobody had mentioned what the stakes were. It was alright with me”(31)
Henry began his relationship with Catherine for the sole purpose of fulfilling his sexual desires. However, he ended up falling in love with her, impregnating her and almost marrying her, just to be struck down with horrible pain after watching the only woman, and perhaps even the only person that could distract him from the tragedies surrounding them in war, become a tragedy on her own.