How Did Henry Change In A Farewell To Arms

Lieutenant Henry, the main character in A Farewell to Arms, changed greatly over the course of the book. The book began with him in a smaller village near the mountains in Italy. By the end, he ends up alone in Switzerland after the death of his wife and child. Lt. Henry went through many changes in several aspects of his life, in the way of the war, his wife Catherine, and his friends, even though at the end he loses them all and is alone.
In the beginning of the book, Lt. Henry was a young man sided with the Italians against the war on the Austrians. When asked why he joined the fight, he replied “I was in Italy, and I spoke Italian” (Hemingway 22). He did not feel as though the war really affected him. He goes as far as telling a soldier to “fall down and get a bump on his head” so the soldier did not have to go to the front (Hemingway 35). This shows that
Henry first talks of having no affection towards her, only bothering because it’s easier than going to a brothel (Hemingway 30). He eventually falls in love with her however, and they wind up spending his entire hospital stay together. In The Role of Catherine Barkley, the author reports that Jackson Benson describes Catherine as heroic in the way that she “is the one who taught Henry to love.” This might be the case as Henry never discusses past lovers or even much of his family. Catherine and Henry become so much in love her having a child accidently doesn’t even phase him, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of their love of course (Hemingway 138). While in Switzerland, they would rarely go out of their house, and almost never left each other (Hemingway 290). The book ends with the loss of Catherine and their stillborn baby (Hemingway 331). Henry is terrified of this happening and prays that it doesn’t. When it does he leave the hospital and the book is over. This is the final scene of the book and perhaps the most important, as it is the most life