Throughout his years, various women had walked into the famous writer Ernest Hemingway’s life. Yet these same women never remained with Hemingway for long and soon enough walked out on him, with the exception of his last and final wife. Thus the love life of Ernest Hemingway proved to be a complex one. However the time each woman had spent with Hemingway did not simply end with their break-ups; instead the women’s brief relationship with Hemingway served to be a great source of inspiration for the famous writer. As a result, Hemingway's depiction of women in his literary works was influenced and inspired by these various women in his life.
Hemingway’s first love interest who proved a successful source of inspiration was the U.S. Red Cross nurse, Agnes von Kurowsky. Hemingway had met Kurowsky during the years of World War I in Italy where he had served as an ambulance driver. After a serious leg injury from an explosion, Hemingway was sent to the hospital in Milan. It was there he was tended to by Kurowsky. Hemingway had fallen in love at first sight, however this was not said for Kurowsky; the nurse did not fall for Hemingway at first. She soon had formed a small relationship with the man but never shared such deep feelings; author Donald R. Noble of South Atlantic Review describes how Kurowsky “never uses the word love” when writing of Hemingway in her diary. Hemingway continued to write to Kurowsky even after his leave from the hospital, yet it was a single letter from the nurse herself who finally broke off the relationship. Hemingway had never forgotten Kurowsky; as a result Kurowsky’s influence on Hemingway thus became the inspiration behind the character of Catherine in A Farewell to Arms, documenting the complexity of t...
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...Martha Gellhorn tells of how “he dedicated the book to Gellhorn - Maria in the story was partly modeled after her. ‘Her hair was the golden brow of a grain field,’ where Hemingway wrote of his heroine."
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Hemingway deals with the effects of war on the male desire for women in many of his novels and short stories, notably in his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In this novel, the main character Jake, is impotent because of an injury received in World War I. Jakes situation is reminiscent of our main character Krebs. Both characters have been damaged by World War I; the only difference is Jake’s issue is physical, while Krebs issue is mental. Krebs inwardly cannot handle female companionship. Although Krebs still enjoys watching girls from his porch and he “vaguely wanted a girl but did not want to have to work to get her” (167). Krebs found courting “not worth it” (168). The girls symbolize what World War I stripped from our main character, a desire that is natural for men, the desire for women.
One observation that can be made on Hemingway’s narrative technique as shown in his short stories is his clipped, spare style, which aims to produce a sense of objectivity through highly selected details. Hemingway refuses to romanticize his characters. Being “tough” people, such as boxers, bullfighters, gangsters, and soldiers, they are depicted as leading a life more or less without thought. The world is full of s...
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... experiences of love with Agnes von Kurowsky. That being said, the two main characters of the text can be psychoanalytically depicted through the use of the id, the ego, and the superego, which helps uncover how complete happiness is unachievable. The protagonist, Fredric Henry could not obtain complete happiness due to the situations he encountered himself in. Catherine also could not acquire absolute happiness because of the loss of her fiancé. Lastly, the rain symbolizes tragedy and the dissolution of happiness, which can be seen through the soldiers on the battlefield. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 because of his ability to capture the art of narrative. Later on, Hemingway committed suicide on July 2, 1961 (“Ernest Hemingway- Biorgaphy”). “In order to write about life first you must live it” (Ernest Miller Hemingway, 1899 – 1961.”).
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When a writer picks up their pen and paper, begins one of the most personal and cathartic experiences in their lives, and forms this creation, this seemingly incoherent sets of words and phrases that, read without any critical thinking, any form of analysis or reflexion, can be easily misconstrued as worthless or empty. When one reads an author’s work, in any shape or form, what floats off of the ink of the paper and implants itself in our minds is the author’s personality, their style. Reading any of the greats, many would be able to spot the minute details that separates each author from another; whether it be their use of dialogue, their complex descriptions, their syntax, or their tone. When reading an excerpt of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast one could easily dissect the work, pick apart each significant moment from Hemingway’s life and analyze it in order to form their own idea of the author’s voice, of his identity. Ernest Hemingway’s writing immediately comes across as rather familiar in one sense. His vocabulary is not all that complicated, his layout is rather straightforward, and it is presented in a simplistic form. While he may meander into seemingly unnecessary detail, his work can be easily read. It is when one looks deeper into the work, examines the techniques Hemingway uses to create this comfortable aura surrounding his body of work, that one begins to lift much more complex thoughts and ideas. Hemingway’s tone is stark, unsympathetic, his details are precise and explored in depth, and he organizes his thoughts with clarity and focus. All of this is presented in A Moveable Feast with expertise every writer dreams to achieve. While Hemingway’s style may seem simplistic on the surface, what lies below is a layered...
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Through the characters' dialogue, Hemingway explores the emptiness generated by pleasure-seeking actions. Throughout the beginning of the story, Hemingway describes the trivial topics that the two characters discuss. The debate about the life-changing issue of the woman's ...