The Relationship between Love and War in A Farewell to Arms

【摘要】 War and love are the two major things that Hemingway mainly focuses on in his book A Farewell to Arms. And the relationship between them forms the theme of the book. War and love are something controversial but they interact with each other. War has its contribution, but to a larger extent, destruction to the love between Henry and Catherine. War easily puts love in danger of an excuse for game. War makes love unstable and creates a strong disillusionment of love. It is because war that the love can have the ground to happen; It is also because the war that the love is challenged and destroyed. Their love does not survive the war at the end, but after experiencing the war and the love, the major characters in the book grow a lot and become mature.

【关键词】 Hemingway, Henry,Catherine, war, love, relationship

The love of Henry for the nurse Catherine Barkley, a love so great that Henry eventually deserts the army, as he puts it, "declares separate peace," could only have come in the war and out of the war. If there is no war and Henry and Catherine were not involved in the war, they may never met; If war is not so harsh and get Henry wounded, if Catherine was not a nurse severing the army in time of war, their love can hardly find ground to grow and flourish. It seems that everything is only a coincidence. True, under any other normal circumstances this love probably would have never happened. But that is life, throwing everyone curve balls left and right. It started raining. The game got a little hectic. Confused, both Henry and Barkley walked up to the plate at the same time. Thus the war and love story began…

1. War has its impact on people's psychology

A Farewell to Arms, the majority of the characters remain ambivalent about the war, resentful of the terrible destruction it causes, doubtful of the glory it supposedly brings. War, is not only a physical suffer but a psychological torture. Upon meeting, Catherine and Henry rely upon a grand illusion of love and seduction for comfort. Catherine seeks solace for the death of her fiainncé, while Henry doing anything to distance himself from the war. At first, their declarations of love are transparent: Catherine reminds Henry several times that their courtship is a game. After Henry is wounded, however, his desire for Catherine and the comfort and support that she offers becomes more than a distraction from the world's unpleasantness; his love begins to sustain him and blossoms into something undeniably real. Catherine's feelings for Henry follow a similar course. It is psychological pressure from the war that results the start of their love.

Firstly, people want to escape from the harsh reality. Henry gets involved with Catherine to escape the insanity of war. The extreme situation of war and fate allows both of them to be thrown together and fall in love. This love for one another is an escape into another world for Henry. It provides him emotionally with a private place, where he can go to separate and evade the horrible realities of war occurring in and around him.

From the beginning, Henry and Catherine's relationship starts in a strange state. Henry knows Catherine is a little cookie, but he still continues to pursue her. He does not even love her at first, what he needs is just a way to escape from the war. So he resolves to desert the army completely and reunite with Catherine. At least when he is with Catherine he is in another place literally and symbolically. This is now an obsession with Frederic because he can totally separate himself from war through her love. He realizes he has got nothing but this love to hold on to. Whether it is delusional, symbolic, or literal――it is not war.

Likewise, Catherine wants to distance herself from the pain of her loss of her fiancé. In each other, Henry and Catherine find temporary solace from the things that plague them. The couple's feelings for each other quickly pass from an amusement that distracts them to the very fuel that sustains them. Henry's understanding of how meaningful his love for Catherine is outweighs any consideration for the emptiness of abstract ideals such as honor, enabling him to flee the war and seek her out. Reunited, they plan an idyllic life together. Far away from the decimated Italian countryside, each intends to be the other's refuge to achieve physical,emotional, and psychological healing.

Secondly, People want to find order from disorder. Hemingway portrays Henry as a lost man searching for order and value in his life. Henry disagrees with the war he is fighting for. It is too chaotic and immoral for him to rationalize its cause. At the start of the novel, Henry drinks and travels from one house of prostitution to another and yet he is discontent because his life is very unsettled. He befriends a priest because he admires the fact that the priest lives his life by a set of values that give him an orderly lifestyle.

Future into the novel, Henry becomes involved with Catherine Barkley. He slowly falls in love with her and, in his love for her; he finds commitment and his own inner self. Through his involvement with Catherine, Henry slowly finds his own inner strength. Henry 's affair with Catherine prompts him to leave his wild life of prostitutes and drink. He becomes aware of an element of stability in their affair and sees the losing Italian army as total chaos and disorder where he had previously seen discipline and control. He can no longer remain a part of something that is so disorderly and so, he deserts the Italian army. He and Catherine make a life for themselves totally isolated from everything and everyone else and their relationship brings some order and value to his life. When Henry puts aside his involvement in the war, he realizes that Catherine is the order and value in his life and that he does not need anything else to give meaning to his life.

Until the conclusion of the novel, Henry still relies on Catherine as the source of order in his life. War is harsh, while love is tender; war is chaos, while love is in order. It is not surprise that Henry abandoned

2. War obstacles and destroys love

It is true that war starts the love between Henry and Catherine. But it doesn't at the same time bestow the love a happy and smooth development, whereas, it covers it a tragic sense. In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway suggests that war is nothing more than the dark, murderous extension of a world that refuses to acknowledge, protect, or preserve true love.

2.1 War easily makes love an excuse for game

In A Farewell to arms, Hemingway indicates the“game love”several times. For the first time when Henry wants to kiss Catherine and gets a sharp stinging flash on his face, Henry sees it all ahead like the moves in a chess game. While with their relationship getting on the track, even when he kisses her eyes, Henry just thinks that Catherine is crazy and doesn't care what he is getting into. That only is something better than going every evening to the house for officers where the girls climbes all over you. Henry, at that time, tells himself that: “I did not love Catherine nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards. Like bridge you had to pretend you were playing for money or play for some stakes. Nobody mentioned what the stakes were!” What Henry wants, as he himself says, is not to fall in love with her or with anyone. Love is only a pleasurable diversion or game that distracts lovers from the outside world.

Catherine, at the very beginning of their love, knows clearly that is a rotten game they are playing and that Henry has some other girls. But she always says she doesn't care. All that she wants is to be with Henry. To get rid of the death of her fiancé and find comfort in time of war, she cannot help but cooperate to play the game.It is hard to trust Catherine's integrity until somewhere in the middle of the fourth Book. It is also difficult to believe wholeheartedly in Henry's love for Catherine until much later in their relationship, and it leaves the reader wondering if Henry's leaving his involvement in the war and Catherine's crazy love for Henry are just excuses for a game to escape the insanity of the war they experience.

Hidden within the shelter of Catherine's beautiful hair--their love, Henry and Catherine feel protected from the cruel outside world. The major problem with such game or escapist love is, as Henry and other characters point out several times, one does not always know the "stakes" of love until it is over, or that one does not know about something until one has lost it. Love, in this regard, actually has no content, can only be seen as a symbol.

2.2 War makes love unstable

A Farewell to Arms, for Henry and Catherine, their love affairs must survive some obstacles, the obstacles of World War I. The background of war-torn Italy adds to the tragedy of the love story. The war affects the emotions and values of each character. The love between Catherine and Henry must outlast long separations, life-threatening wartime situations, and the uncertainty of each other's whereabouts or condition.

Firstly, War produces departure. Throughout the novel, Henry is never staying in one place too long. Shortly after Henry and Catherine fall in love with each other, Henry was wounded in the legs when he is on duty at the front, and was later transferred to an American hospital in Milan. Thus they were firstly separated. Fortunately Catherine came to that hospital later and their love experiences a short period of prosperity. However, pleasant time is always short in time of war. Later Henry had to go to the front again, leaving the pregnant Catherine alone in Milan. Finally when they abandoned the war and went to Switzerland, Catherine died, leaving Henry alone and the novel a tragedy end

Secondly, War poses threat of death. Hemingway repeatedly emphasizes the horrific devastation war has wrought on everyone involved. From the opening account of cholera that kills "only" 7,000 men to the graphic description of the artillery bombardment to the corrupt violence during the Italian retreat. Death spread over everywhere. Henry, an ambulance driver severing the army, unavoidably had to work at the front which is a very dangerous place, and life can be challenged at any time. His wound, his mate's death, the process he deserted the army as well as his flee to Switzerland are all the examples of the harsh situation of the war in which love can hardly survive. Where love can develop and thrive is a quite and peaceful one. What would the love like if it faces the threat of death all the time?

Thirdly, War allows love only a false peace. A Farewell to Arms, a phrase the can be interpreted as running away or deserting the army. Running away is exactly what Henry is doing when he makes his "peace"; after changing clothes, he refuses to read about the war in the newspapers, thus choosing "peace" by ignoring the war. This is a false peace, however, since Henry is soon caught up in fleeing to Switzerland with Catherine. This fake peace is highlighted by several other references to fakeness: for instance, Henry is described as a "fake doctor" But this peace is where Frederic made his mistake. He kept his distance from right and wrong regarding war and love. He had separated himself from war and seemed to have no place in it at all, mentally or physically (for example when he is in the hospital in Book Two). But when Aymo is killed by his own army, Frederic discovers the reality that he is not really separated from this event at all. He is very much part of this war whether he likes it or not. Moreover, like the symbols, the word "peace" is falsely interpreted. The flight to Switzerland placed Henry and Catherine in a world where everything seems "peaceful". But neither of them notices the falseness of the peace, nor realizes the impending danger. Catherine comments, "Isn't it fine rain? They never had rain like this in Italy. It is cheerful rain" This is the first time that someone thinks of rain as a positive symbol and gives rain its more common definition. Unfortunately, this is a trick; the rain is related to death throughout the novel. Thus the rain, like the peace, is false in Switzerland. Catherine's complicated childbirth, which takes place during the rain, undermines her statement. Henry's peace love, in time of war can only be a false peace. He becomes overly sentimental and "whiny" and explodes with numerous unanswerable questions. War, in many ways, makes love unstable. So this novel is a beautiful love story of two people who need each other in a period of upheaval.

2.3 War creates strong disillusionment

“No matter how hard we fight to live, we end up defeated, but we are here and we must go on.” This concept of hopelessness and disillusionment are conveyed by Hemingway throughout the novel.

Henry enters the war only to find no glory in a meaningless war. He makes this change In Chapter 2; Henry begins to see the destruction of peacetime values by war. He stands a little apart from the loss of values but is affected by it too. This is the most important Henry see the army and war. He realizes he can do nothing to stop it, because it is inevitable. Catherine is fighting to stay alive, she gives everything but she dies. Henry wants to live with Catherine forever, but she is taken away from him. He is left alone in the rain without anyone strong enough to ease his disillusionment.

3. Love is the source of power to say farewell to arms

In A Farewell to Arms, there is much sickness and death in the war, along with much violence. So Frederic Henry dives into the river trying to "wash away" his life of war. He has deserted the army to return to Catherine--his love that gets life easier in time of war and gives him strength and courage to say farewell to arms. War, which is described with brutal intensity, fills the mind of everyone in Henry's world. Thoughts of it afflict the characters like a painful, chronic headache. War fuels the sense of despair and grief at the heart of the book, establishing the harsh conditions whereby the loss of seven thousand soldiers to a cholera epidemic can be considered nominal. As Henry's initial conversations with Catherine make clear, everyone is desperate for an antidote to the numbing effects of war. People would prefer to think any other thoughts, to feel any other emotions, and so plunge headlong into love as a means of overcoming their fear, pain, and grief. This is how Mr. Henry loves Catherine more than life itself. They do not go out often or do anything that was with other people. They were always together. They were creating their own fortress and isolating themselves from the world. "My life used to be full of everything," I said, "Now if you aren't with me I haven't a thing in the world." This quote further supports the idea that they are isolating themselves from the world. They areso cut off from the outside world that they are allowed an easier life in time of war. Love, in this sense, can ease disillusionment to some extent and make a relatively separate peace in which one can find inner self and have the courage and power to say farewell to the war.

Through the discussion above, we are now in a position to conclude that, in A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway focuses on two major things-war and love. War and love are not independent themes but interact each other. The war is a war in love and the love is a love in war. Hemingway doesn't directly point out what their relationships are, but does get them into light through his narration and description.

The relationship between war and love in A Farewell to Arms is well illustrated by Henry and Catherine' love experiences in World War 1. It is war that makes their love a possibility, but it is also just war that severely challenges and obstacles their love and covers it a deep color of tragedy. Love, on one hand, gets life easier in the harsh war and makes a relatively separate peach in which one can find inner self. But on the other hand, love can not avoid its wretched end-defeated by war. War and love in any normal cases, is irrelevant. But Hemingway combines them together and produces us such a beautiful story.

This paper mainly studies the relationship between love and war from some aspects. It is possible that there are still some other points that I didn't refer to. Some further discussion would be enjoyed.

参考文献

［1］ Johnson, Edgar， Farewell the Separate Peace, Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Farewell to Arms, Jay Gellens, Prentice-Hall, Inc.:1970, pp.112-113 .

［2］ Hemingway, Ernest， A Farewell to Arms, Triad/Panther Books Frogmore, St Albans, Herts AL2 2NF, 1977

［3］ Killinger, John， The Existential Hero, Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Farewell to Arms, Jay Gellens, Prentice-Hall, Inc.:1970, pp.103-105

［4］ 胡荫桐主编，美国文学新编 北京外语教学与研究出版社.2001