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.
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