Themes (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes
Themes
Introduction to themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas that a literary work explores. In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway examines several interconnected themes that reveal the novel's deeper meanings. These themes help us understand how characters respond to the devastating impact of World War I and the broader human condition.
The three central themes in the novel are:
- The grim reality of war
- The relationship between love and pain
- The failure of traditional institutions in the face of modern warfare
Each of these themes interconnects to create a powerful meditation on human existence in times of crisis.
The grim reality of war
War and moral destruction
The title itself signals that war is at the heart of the novel. Hemingway focuses on the process by which Frederic Henry gradually removes himself from military conflict and leaves it behind. The novel presents a brutally honest portrayal of how warfare destroys not just bodies, but also minds and the human capacity for rational thought and moral judgment.
Most characters in the novel remain deeply ambivalent about the war. They are resentful of the terrible destruction it causes and doubtful of the glory it supposedly brings. Only two characters actively support the military effort: Ettore Moretti, who comes across as a dull braggart, and Gino, a naive young man.
This lack of enthusiasm among the majority of characters highlights the senselessness of the conflict. The novel suggests that only naive or boastful individuals can maintain genuine support for the war effort.
The Italian retreat
Hemingway provides masterful descriptions of the conflict's senseless brutality and violent chaos. The scene depicting the Italian army's retreat stands out as one of the most profound evocations of war in American literature. As the neat columns of men begin to crumble, the soldiers' bodies, minds, and capacity for rational thought and moral judgment disintegrate alongside them.
The shooting of the engineer
Critical Moment: Henry Shoots the Engineer
A particularly shocking moment occurs when Henry shoots an engineer for refusing to help free a car stuck in mud. This incident is disturbing for two key reasons:
First, the violent outburst seems at odds with Henry's coolly detached character throughout most of the novel.
Second, the incident takes place in a setting that strips it of moral significance - the complicity of Henry's fellow soldiers legitimises the killing. The murder seems justifiable because it becomes an inevitable by-product of the spiralling violence and disorder of war.
War as an extension of a cruel world
Importantly, the novel does not simply condemn war outright. A Farewell to Arms is hardly the work of a pacifist. Instead, just as the innocent engineer's death represents an inevitability of war, Hemingway suggests that war itself is the inevitable outcome of a cruel, senseless world.
War becomes nothing more than the dark, murderous extension of a world that refuses to acknowledge, protect, or preserve true love. This perspective shifts the novel from a simple anti-war statement to a broader meditation on human existence.
The relationship between love and pain
Love as temporary escape
Against the violent backdrop of war, Hemingway offers a deep, mournful meditation on the nature of love. The relationship between Henry and Catherine develops as both seek to escape their respective traumas. When Catherine announces to Henry that she is in mourning for her dead fiancé, she almost immediately begins a game meant to seduce him. Her reasons for doing so are clear: she wants to distance herself from the pain of her loss. Similarly, Henry intends to get as far away from talk of the war as possible.
In each other, Henry and Catherine find temporary solace from the things that plague them. Their feelings for each other quickly evolve from mere amusement that distracts them to the very fuel that sustains them. This transformation is significant - their love becomes essential to their survival.
Love versus abstract ideals
Henry's understanding of how meaningful his love for Catherine is comes to outweigh his consideration for the emptiness of abstract ideals such as honour. They plan an idyllic life together that promises to act as a salve for the damage that war has inflicted on them both. Far away from the decimated Italian countryside, each character intends to be the other's refuge.
The Swiss mountains as sanctuary
If they are to achieve physical, emotional, and psychological healing, Henry and Catherine believe they have found the perfect place in the safe remove of the Swiss mountains. Here, away from the violence, they can focus entirely on each other and their coming child. The mountains represent not just geographic distance, but emotional and spiritual separation from the war's destruction.
The tragedy of temporary love
The Central Tragedy
The tragedy of the novel rests in the fact that their love, even when genuine, can never be more than temporary in this world. Despite their efforts to create a lasting sanctuary, the cruel realities of life eventually intrude. Catherine's death in childbirth demonstrates that even love cannot provide permanent refuge from suffering.
The failure of tradition in a bleak modernity
Traditional institutions prove inadequate
In the face of the horrors of World War I, traditional institutions such as religion, marriage, medicine, and patriotism fail to have any true purpose or value for most of the characters. These institutions, which should provide comfort and guidance, instead appear woefully inadequate or comically naive when confronted with the reality of modern warfare.
Religion's failure
The Priest in Henry's unit serves as a laughingstock, the butt of mess hall jokes. When the soldiers discuss the possibility of the war ending, Henry's response is so brutal that it expresses no real feeling or hope.
The Priest attempts to offer comfort, but the religious institution he represents seems unequipped for dealing with the reality of war. His earnest faith appears naive and disconnected from the soldiers' actual experiences and needs.
Medical institutions' inadequacy
The Hospital in Milan: Bureaucracy over Care
The hospital in Milan appears woefully unprepared for the reality of war surrounding it. Consider these absurd obstacles:
- The nurses almost refuse to give Henry a bed because they lack permission from authority, even though Henry is clearly wounded and the rooms are completely empty.
- They then refuse to treat Henry until the doctor arrives, even though he is badly hurt.
These bureaucratic obstacles seem absurd given the urgent medical need, highlighting how traditional institutions prioritize rules over human welfare.
Marriage and social conventions
Tradition dictates that Catherine and Henry should not have sexual relations until marriage. However, marriage would mean that Catherine could no longer work as a nurse at the hospital. Getting married would rob them of the emotional comfort and escapism they provide each other, which forms the very foundation of their relationship.
The institutions that are meant to help, protect, and guide people seem almost comically naive against the reality of war. When faced with genuine human need, these traditional structures reveal their inadequacy.
Tradition's punishment
Worse still, tradition punishes the characters for straying from it, despite its clear uselessness. Miss Van Campen sends Henry back to the front because she believes he caused his jaundice intentionally by drinking too much. Not only does sending Henry back to the front place him in unnecessary danger, but it also ignores the pain at the root of his drinking. The war Henry is forced to fight has exacerbated his drinking, and now he is being punished for having a coping mechanism.
The Carabinieri's rigid patriotism
When the Carabinieri shoot officers for losing their troops during the chaotic retreat, they refuse to consider the material circumstances. Instead, they believe the patriotic mantra that Italy should never retreat and kill the officer for making the best of a difficult situation. Henry feels this unfairness keenly as he realises the precarity of Catherine's pregnancy.
The pattern of punishment
Although Catherine's death is not literally a punishment for sexual relations outside of wedlock, to Henry it feels like part of this pattern of traditional values causing harm. He and Catherine cannot get the comfort they need from each other through marriage because they would be separated, and instead they are punished for needing that comfort in the first place.
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
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War destroys humanity: The novel shows how war destroys not just bodies but minds, morality, and rational thought. The Italian retreat and Henry's shooting of the engineer demonstrate war as an inevitable extension of a cruel, senseless world.
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Love provides temporary escape: Henry and Catherine's relationship offers solace from their respective traumas, but the tragedy lies in the fact that genuine love can never be more than temporary in this harsh world.
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Traditional institutions fail: Religion, medicine, marriage, and patriotism prove inadequate or even harmful in the face of modern warfare, unable to provide the comfort and guidance they promise.
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Tradition punishes deviation: Characters who stray from traditional expectations face punishment, despite the clear uselessness of these institutions in wartime - from Miss Van Campen sending Henry back to the front, to the Carabinieri's rigid enforcement of patriotic ideals.
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Ambivalence dominates: Most characters remain deeply ambivalent about the war, resentful of its destruction and doubtful of its supposed glory, with only naive or boastful characters supporting the conflict.