

She admits she was "crazy" at first, most likely over the fairly recent death of her fiancé, but Henry, too, succumbs to the temptations of love.

Catherine, especially, plunges almost too easily into love when she first meets Henry.

With such misery confronting them at every turn, the two turn to each other. Indeed, whenever Henry and Catherine are blissful, something comes along to interrupt it - be it Henry's injury, his being sent back to the front, his impending arrest, or, finally, Catherine's death from childbirth. Henry frequently reflects upon the world's insistence on breaking and killing everyone it is as if the world cannot bear to let anyone remain happy and safe. Rather, he indicts the world at large for its atmosphere of destruction. 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, A Farewell to Arms is among the most frank anti-war novels.īut Hemingway does not merely condemn war. Hemingway repeatedly emphasizes the horrific devastation war has wrought on everyone involved. Buy Study Guide Love as a response to the horrors of war and the world
