Characters in A Farewell to Arms
A Synopsis of the Major Players in Ernest Hemingway’s Novel
Understanding the characters in Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms is crucial to understanding the novel. The sparse style of Hemingway’s writing makes it important the reader understands the characters.
Frederic Henry
Frederic Henry, often referred to as Tenente by his Italian friends, is the narrator of the story. In A Farewell to Arms, Henry tells about his experience as an American who volunteers as an ambulance driver for the Italians during WWI. During the course of the novel, Henry meets and falls in love with British Red Cross nurse, Catherine Barkley.
By the end of the story, Henry deserts and goes to find Catherine who is carrying his child. They flee to Switzerland where they spend a beautiful winter together. After a long and difficult delivery, Henry’s son is born dead and Catherine dies of excessive hemorrhaging.
Characteristics of Henry
Frederic Henry maintains the role of an outsider or alien throughout the entire story. He is an American volunteer on the Italian front. People with entirely different backgrounds from his own surround him. Even the woman he falls in love with comes from a culture very different from American culture.
This strong sense of alienation helps create a detachment that lends an almost surreal feeling to many scenes in the novel. It is as if Henry is not personally involved in anything that he describes. He even states upon seeing his son that “he felt no feeling of fatherhood.”
Henry is the first embodiment of what became known as Hemingway’s code hero: he is stoic when threatened or when in pain, he maintains his composure when under fire, he does his work with as little fuss as possible; he is a man’s man whose primary interests seem to be drinking and women.
Catherine Barkley
Catherine is a British nurse working for the Red Cross. Henry’s friend Rinaldi is infatuated with her and introduces her to Henry. Catherine and Henry are attracted to each other and begin to flirt. Almost immediately, Catherine reveals to Henry that the man she had been engaged for eight years had died during the war and that she had joined the Red Cross in order to be near him. She had romantic ideas about what it would be like for him as a soldier and for her as a nurse. However, the war quickly disabused her of her romantic notions.
Characteristics of Catherine Barkley
Catherine Barkley is a very controversial character in the novel. Some feel that she is simply a sex-object and lacks in character or depth. However, many critics argue that she is a stronger character than Henry. Unlike Henry who simply floats through his life reacting to whatever comes his way. Catherine attempts to achieve her desires by doing things like having herself reassigned to the hospital in Milan where Henry is sent after he is injured.
Just before she dies, Catherine tells Henry “I’m not a bit afraid. It’s just a dirty trick.”
Lt. Rinaldo Rinaldi
Rinaldi is Henry’s closest friend. He is a surgeon for the Italian army. He is exuberant and very fond of his friend Henry calling him many absurd names of endearment including ‘baby.’ He wants to be a good surgeon and person. However, the stress of the war causes him to drink excessively and spend time at brothels. The last he is heard of in the novel, he has gonorrhea.
The Priest
A chaplain in the Italian army, the priest is a friend of Henry’s. In talking of his friend, Henry says "He had always known what I did not know and what, when I learned it, I was always able to forget."
Helen Ferguson
Helen is Catherine’s friend. She is very protective of Catherine and is angry with Henry for getting Catherine pregnant. In the end, she accepts the union because it is what Catherine wants.
Passini
Passini is a socialist and believes that the war is a result of the class struggle in the country. He is killed in the mortar attack that injures Henry.
Gino
Gino is the first mechanic that Henry meets when he returns to the front after being injured. He is a patriot. Henry is not comfortable with patriotism and notes that “Gino was a patriot, so he said things that separated us sometimes.”
Bartolomeo Aymo
Aymo is one of three ambulance drivers who are with Henry during the Italian retreat. He is generous and rescues two young girls and takes care of them during the retreat. Unfortunately, the girls do not understand him and while he assures him that he will not rape them, they are frightened of him. Aymo is accidentally killed by the Italian rearguard during the retreat.
Bonello
Bonello is one of three ambulance drivers who are with Henry during the Italian retreat. When Henry shoots a soldier who disobeys, Bonello volunteers to finish him off. He decides it is better to be captured by Germans than to be shot by Italians.
Luigi Piani
Piani is one of three ambulance drivers who are with Henry during the Italian retreat. Piani looks after Henry during the retreat by performing recognizance and protecting him.
Ralph Simmons
Simmons is an American trying to make it Italy as a singer under the name of Enrico DelCredo. Critics propose that he is sort of an alter-Henry. He is an American trying to pass for Italian and has no interest or involvement in the war. Henry is involved in the war as an Italian (although he is an American) and he no longer wants to be in the war.
When Henry flees the front, Simmons lends him civilian clothes.
Count Greffi
Greffi is an ancient nobleman who stays at the same hotel as the one that Catherine and Henry stay at before they flee the country. He reminds Henry that love is a religious feeling.
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. Scribner Classics. 1997. ISBN-13: 978-0-684-83788-8 ISBN-10: 0-684-83788-9
Read more about Ernest Hemingway at Suite101.
Book Cover
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Reading & Literature
Latest Articles