Theme Of Love In A Farewell To Arms

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“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you” (C.S Lewis).The novel A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway engages numerous themes associated with love and death. Taking place during World War 1, Hemingway displays the horrors of war, yet he contains Henry and Catherine’s love story in the midst of it all. Hemingway demonstrates themes such as religion and reality of war associated with love, and uses weather and loss related to death.
The novel revolves around the love story between Henry and Catherine, taking place in the World War. Therefore, Henry emerges himself into love in order to escape and overcome the grim reality of war. Similarly, Catherine mourns the death of her late husband but uses love to to fill the void. Religion is a major theme highlighted with love in the novel. Literary critic Arnold A. Markley states, “A religion or any organized system of beliefs has to be tried and tested before frederic will be able to accept it, and as yet, he has found no system of beliefs or value to commit himself entirely. Early in the novel when his companions bait and tease the priest, Frederic nevertheless respects the humble man.” (173). For example The priest informs Henry of the nature of love. “When you love, you wish to sacrifice, you wish to serve” (63). From the very beginning of the novel, Henry has had a special bond with the priest and his messages, unlike the other soldiers. Also during their summer in Milan, Henry and Catherine talk about their marriage. and having a formal marriage with religious rituals, but Catherine goes on saying, “You are my religion (237). So Henry’s religion lives only in the form of his love for Catherine. After...

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...her in Milan, Catherine tells Henry that she’s scared of the rain. Though they both enjoy walking in it, she says ”I feel dead in it”. Often the rain suggests imminent destruction; there is a storm the night that Frederic must leave Italy to avoid being arrested, Catherine dreams that she is dead in the rain” (173) Finally at the end of the novel after Catherines gruesome death, it is raining outside. Hemingway uses rain to imply that it is a force of nature which cannot be controlled, just as fate is something no one can control,

Hemingway highlights love and death in the lives of Catherine and Henry as they experience the war in the background. He conveys this through religion and weather etc. Hemingway emphasizes that “Life never goes as planned...it's in those moments where you define yourself adapt and overcome. You'll become a better person because of it.”

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