a Romeo and Juliet love story, with a tragic ending. In this
novel, Romeo is Frederick Henry and Juliet is Catherine
Barkley. Their love affair must survive the everything that is
around them during World War I. The setting of this novel is
war-torn Italy. The love between Catherine and Frederick
must outlast long separations, life-threatening war situations,
and the uncertainty of each other's whereabouts or
condition. This is a love story of two people who need each
other in a period of chaos.
The book A Farewell to Arms is partly autobiographical.
Hemingway , like his hero, was a Red Cross ambulance
driver on the Italian Front in World War I. Not only was
Hemingway wounded in the war, but he also recuperated in
a hospital in Italy. During his recuperation, Hemingway had a
very romantic liaison with a nurse. The relationships between
the characters in the novel, including doctors, soldiers, etc.,
reflect the actual relationships Hemingway had during his
stay in Italy, and the plot of the story is historically as well as
geographically accurate. Before Ernest Hemingway wrote
the book A Farewell to Arms, he was already regarded as
a good literary writer, but after the publication of this book
he was considered a great one. A Farewell to Arms was
Hemingway's first commercial success, selling over 80,000
copies in the first four months.
In this story there are only two main characters, Frederick
Henry and Catherine
Barkley. Frederick Henry acts as both the narrator and
central character in the novel. The reader is not told so much
about Catherine, only what is understood from Frederick's
point of view. Catherine acts as a static character in the
novel. She has already known love and lost it so she
understands that she cannot build her whole life around
Frederick. Frederick, on the other hand, is a very dynamic
character, and he has to come to grips with many of the