Ernest Hemingway’s treatment of the female lead in the novel, A Farewell to Arms, is controversial. The analysis of the role of the protagonist Frederic Henry’s girlfriend Catherine Barkley has been held up as an ideal for polar opposites. For some Catherine is the ultimate sex-toy used and destroyed by her relationship to Henry, for others Catherine is held up as an ideal of strong, brave womanhood.
Often the needs of readers and the personality of Hemingway intruded on the interpretation of Hemingway’s work. However, close attention to the text reveals growth in the relationship between Catherine and Henry and suggests that he grew to love her deeply.
Emotional Tension in The Game
Henry first hears of Miss Barkley from his roommate, Rinaldi who professes to love her. Rinaldi introduces Henry to Miss Barkley. When they meet they immediately become interested in each other.
Henry thinks that she is very beautiful and loves her blond hair. Miss Barkley immediately confides in him that she was in engaged to boy who was killed in the Somme.
When they return to their room, Rinaldi observes that Miss Barkley prefers Henry. The next day, Henry calls on Miss Barkley. He attempts to kiss her and she slaps him, however, rather than being dismayed he feels that it gives him the advantage. Clearly, Henry views their relationship as a game.
Within minutes, Henry passionately kisses Miss Barkley. When Barkley pleads for him to be good to her Henry thinks “What the hell…She was crying.” (30) When Henry returns to the room, Rinaldi accuses him of having the “pleasant air of a dog in heat.” (30)
Separation, Injury, and the Realization of Love
Catherine Barkley and Frederic Henry play love games until Henry’s legs are severely injured during an artillery attack. He is sent to Milan for treatment. Catherine soon follows. When they meet again they have a conversation that sounds more like foreplay than love.
“No. You’re not strong enough”
“Yes. I am. Yes. Please.”
“You do love me?”
“I really love you. I’m crazy about you. Come on please.”
“Feel our hearts beating.”
“I don’t care about our hearts. I want you. I’m just mad about you.” (88)
However, by the next page the intensity of his feelings strikes Henry. “God knows I had not wanted to fall in love with her. I had not wanted to fall in love with any one. But God knows I had.”
A Love that Grows Deeper
Before Henry returns to the front, Catherine tells him of her pregnancy. His response is almost noncommittal although he does ask where they will live after the war.
Henry escapes the front and risks capture and court martial to return to Catherine. As he hides under a tarpaulin on a train, he tries to find something with which to distract his mind. It occurs to him that he could remember Catherine but he discards that idea because he knew “I would get crazy if I thought about her when I was not sure yet I would see her.” (209)
A Deep and Unusual Love
The following passage defines the deep bond between Catherine and Henry
We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one woke too so one was not alone. Often a man wishes to be alone and a girl wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others. It has only happed to me like that once. I have been alone while I was with many girls and that is the way that you can be most lonely. But we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together. I know that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started. But with Catherine there was almost no difference in the night except that it was an even better time. (226)
Love During Pregnancy
If Frederic Henry was really indifferent to Catherine and considered her only as a sexual object, it seems unlikely that so many pages would be devoted to their time together after they escape to Switzerland. Nearly twenty pages are devoted to Catherine and Henry’s idyllic winter before the baby is born.
Catherine is obsessed with her size during pregnancy and she comments that perhaps, Henry will fall in love with her again after the baby is born and she is thin again. Henry responds:
“Hell,” I said, “I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?”
“Yes. I want to ruin you.”
“Good,” I said, “that’s what I want too.” (274)
Love after Death
Some might argue that Henry was kind during the pregnancy for the sake of the child. However, he was not interested in the infant that looked like a “freshly skinned rabbit.” In fact, when the nurse asked if he was proud of his son Henry replies “No…He nearly killed his mother.” (291)
Others argue Henry’s cold description of leaving the hospital and returning to the hotel in the rain as proof of his limited feelings for Catherine. However, those who make that argument conveniently ignore the fact that he felt that saying goodbye to a dead Catherine was like saying goodbye to a statue. He wasn’t interested in an empty shell when the soul of the woman he loved was already gone.
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. Scribner Classics. 1997. ISBN-13: 978-0-684-83788-8 ISBN-10: 0-684-83788-9
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