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A Farewell to Arms: Love Story Essay Example

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A Farewell to Arms: Love Story Essay Example
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is somewhat of

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

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