Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is a thrilling love story between an American ambulance driver named Fredrick Henry and a gorgeous English nurse named Catherine Berkley. It is the middle of World War I and the scene is set for a journey of two lovers and how they fall in love during a time of chaos. There are struggles and hardships, but also passion and romance. This novel takes the reader on a story of how people overcome the difficulties of war to fall passionately in love.

Catherine Berkley loves Henry very much and it was nearly love at first sight. The second time they saw each other he made a move, “I looked in her eyes and out my arm around her as I have before and kissed her” (27). They are both inseparable after that and it is rather funny how much they came to fall in love because in the beginning Henry did not truly love her, “She looked at me, And you do love me? Yes, I lied. I love you”(30). Each day their love grows more and more until one day Henry realized that he actually did love Catherine, “ I had not wanted to fall in love with anyone. But God knows I had…(93). However, their love was not easy.

The war has an effect on the lovely couple and makes it difficult for them to be in love and do normal couple things, “ You’ll die then. Fight or die. That’s’ what people do. They don’t marry”(108). When Henry would want to visit her, he would have to talk to other nurses first, who would advise him to be careful, “ Don’t fight then and don’t get her into trouble. I won’t. Mind you watch out. I don’t want her with any of these war barbies”(109). They have to sneak around the hospital in order to be with one another, “You’ve got to stay. They can’t send you away. I’m crazy in love with you. We’ll just have to be awfully careful. That was just madness”(92). It was hard when Henry was always away at war.

Lieutenant Fredrick Henry is an ambulance driver for the Italians during the war. Luckily, he is not right tin the middle of the fighting,...