Structure of A Farewell to Arms

Fusion of Two Themes

A Farewell to Arms has the fusion of the two themes of love and war. Both the themes have been successfully and skilfully woven into one. The development of the two themes runs parallel. Referring to the structure of A Farewell to Arms. A King says, A Farewell to Arms is divided into five books. Although Hemingway made this division after he wrote the first draft of the manuscript, the relationships among the five books of the novel establish parallels between Frederic’s experiences of war and of love. These structural parallels reinforce the basic theme of the novel: ‘That was what you did. You died.’

A Drama in five Acts

The five-book structure could be compared to the five acts of a dramatic tragedy. Book I introduces the themes in a fairly low key; the climax of the war theme occurs at the centre in Book III; the tragic denouement (resolution) occurs in Book V. As in each Act of a play, in each book there is one moment of tension; Frederic’s wounding, his return to the front, his threatened arrest, Catherine’s death. In a manner reminiscent of Shakespeare’s tragedies, each book contains a number of incidental scenes that do little to advance the plot, but rather provide a realistic, lower-keyed contrast to the intensity of the tragic action. There is also comic relief: the mess hall conversations in Book I, the satire on the three incompetent physicians in Book II, the joking of the ambulance drivers at the officers’ quarters in Book III, the Swiss officials arguing about winter sports in Book IV.

It is also possible to consider the interweaving of the themes of love and war as comparable to the alternation of two musical themes or motifs. Book I introduces both themes. Books II and IV develop the love motif in a calmer and happier mode. Book III develops the war motif. Book V leads to the resolution of both the motifs of love and war.

Frederic’s Initial Reactions

In Book I, Frederic’s initial reactions to love and war are similar. He describes his first year in the Italian army, his rather detached participation in the officers’ mess, his bantering friendship with Rinaldi, and his vague sympathy for the priest. Not fully engaged with the men with whom he works, Frederic is mainly an observer of the progress of the war. His first meeting with Catherine in Book I are also a kind of game in which he is not emotionally involved. Gradually, however, he seeks her out and finds he is lonely without her. Similarly he becomes more actively engaged in the war when he takes his ambulances to the attack at the Plava and is wounded. 

The wounding is the climax of Book I, as first defeat that life presents him. In retrospect, however, it is not very significant to Frederic. If Hemingway’s own wound in Italy during the war was a central event in life, it is relegated to a minor place in the opening book of A Farewell to Arms. Book I closes with a series of visits Frederic receives in the field hospital. Rinaldi’s and the priest’s discontent with war, and their discussion of sexual and religious love, pre shadow the later developments of the story.

In Book II Frederic’s stay in the hospital is set against the development of his relationship with Catherine. Having withdrawn temporarily from the war he is free to devote himself to love the theme of war remains present in his thoughts, in his conversations with Eitore and the British major, in his awareness that he will have to return to the front. Book II ends with his departure shortly after Catherine has told him she is pregnant. Again the difficulties of war and love are interwined and a feeling of the doom awaiting Frederic in both areas in introduced.

Book III begins with Frederic’s return to his unit in Gorizia. It is not, he says, ‘a homecoming’, a phrase that contrasts his relationship to his comrades with his love for Catherine, and links Book III to the conclusion of Book II, where even the hotel room in Milan was a ‘home’. If Book II is primarily about love, Book III is primarily about the war. Love sustains Frederic, but only in his thoughts. Book III is also linked to Book I, which ends with Frederic’s conversations with Rinaldi and the priest; Book III opens with more distressing conversations, in a series of scenes that prepare for the moral and physical disaster of the retreat from Caporetto. 

During the retreat Frederic is motivated by the desire to save himself and his men. At the bridge, he is separated from all those he knew in the Italian army and has no more responsibilities. The climax of Book III, his jump into the river to save him from being summarily executed, marks his withdrawal from the war, a necessary step in his isolation from society so that he can devote himself completely to Catherine.

Book IV, like Book II, begins with a return to Catherine after the disasters of war. Again scenes of civilian life contrast in intensity with those of the war. Frederic listens to Simmons talk about opera, stays in a luxurious hotel and drinks champagne with Count Greffi. The war is now present only as a threat of arrest. Ironically, this threat proves to be less serious than that posed by Catherine’s pregnancy, a threat only occasionally suggested in the Joyful reunion of the lovers. Book IV again concludes with obstacles overcome when Frederic and Catherine arrive in neutral Switzerland.

In Book V the action again begins calmly. Winter in the mountains is peaceful; defeat comes with the rains and the descent to Lausanne. The war reappears in the background; Frederic sees newspapers at the café where he waits while Catherine is suffering. He cannot, however, read the papers, the war is no longer part of his life. Ironically he meets death in his union with Catherine, which he hoped would save him from the demoralization of the war. When Catherine dies, he is left in total isolation.