Love vs Pain in Hemmingway

The characterization in A Farewell to Arms also shows the relationship between love and pain. Frederic, in the beginning, is immature and naïve. He sees his relationship with Catherine as a game of chess where the object is sexual gratification (“A Farewell” 1526). He sees Catherine as another sexual conquest and coincidentally causes her pain when he pretends to love her, which he does not realize. Scott Donaldson says, “Throughout their affair, Frederic rarely displays honest and thoughtful concern for Catherine’s feelings. Where she invariably thinks of him first, he often does not think of her at all” (278). Donaldson’s quote shows Frederic’s constant disregard for Catherine’s feelings. Frederic then develops into a more mature lover and begins to respect Catherine. This becomes evident when he deserts the army and tries to keep himself from thinking of her, “I could remember Catherine but I knew I would get crazy if I thought about her when I was not sure yet that I would see her, so I would not think of her, well only about her a little” (Hemingway 231). He tried not to let his hopes get up if he was uncertain if he would ever get to her, although it pains him to do so. Before the baby is born and Catherine is having complications with her delivery, Frederic sits in the hallway of the hospital and repeats over and over in his head that Catherine won’t die (Hemingway 321). This shows his love for her when he knows that her pains could ultimately lead to her death. And in the end, when Catherine is dying, even though he is in pain and mourning, Frederic tells Catherine he will ‘have no other girls’ (Hemingway 331). Frederic finally admits to Catherine that she is his one and only true love and that no one else will do. He will continue to love her despite her death.

The characterization of Catherine Barkley also shows the relationship between love and pain. When she firsts meets Frederic Henry she exposes her vulnerability by telling him about her dead fiancé (Hemingway 18). At this point she is very vulnerable. She exposes the pain of her past love, and she is clearly still in shock from her fiancé’s death. Frederic takes advantage of this and causes her pain but she still loves him. “Hemingway establishes Catherine as the one who knows well the dangers of loving, and from the time of her meeting with Frederic, she balances them against the emptiness of not loving” (“A Farewell” 1527). Hemingway has made Catherine to be the wiser of the two and it is evident throughout the novel because, until the end, she is always taking care of Frederic. And she is the devoted one who loves Frederic from the very beginning, while he lies to her saying he loves her when he does not. Near the end of the novel, Frederic tells the reader, “If people bring so much courage into the world that the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry” (Hemingway 319). Frederic is telling the reader that Catherine is too strong to live and must in the end die. This shows how strong Catherine has been unti

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