Foreshadowing In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms

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Anticipation and suspense are developed in artistic writings through various literary devices. In Farewell to Arms, Hemingway uses foreshadowing to lead the reader to an expected conclusion. Concerning his main character, Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an ambulance driver, meets Catherine Barkeley, a nurse’s aide, during the World War I; and they eventually fall in love. Foreshadowing is used during their love affair to guide the reader into projecting an outcome to the story. Death is alluded in many occasions, and these incidents convince the reader that someone is going to die. Since the characters are surrounded by war, one assumes that Henry will be the one killed. As the story progresses with Catherine becoming pregnant and Henry deserting during the war, foreshadowing shifts focus from Henry onto Catherine. To keep the reader intrigued, Hemingway uses foreshadowing in symbols, events, and conversations to carry the tale of love to some sorrowful, dramatic conclusion to the death of a character. …show more content…

Within the setting of war, the characters are surrounded by sounds and objects of death. A somber mood begins the story as “things went very badly” because winter, cholera, and deaths affected the army (Hemingway 4). The fingerplay used to tease Henry about his pass foretells that he will leave in one condition and return in a lower one. The missing St. Anthony necklace foreshadows that protection will be lost. Hemingway’s consistent use of rain as an element of fear and death conveys another level of foreshadowing where Catherine sees death in the rain. Rain was also used as a symbol of ruin when it fell to dissolve the idealistic environment in Switzerland that Catherine and Henry invented for

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