Ernest Hemingway, one the greatest novelists of modern times,
created such gems of English literature and produced such unforgettable and
marvelous characters as can never be forsaken or overlooked. In A Farewell to Arms, there are two
important and extraordinary characters; one of them, undoubtedly, is Catherine
Barkley.
It seems to be worthwhile to mention that she is a flat character
and she has pre-conceived notions about life, death, love and war. She is
confident and excites sympathy and tender feelings by her gentle and exemplary
behavior. She is beautiful and tall woman and has a comely figure.
When Catherine sees Henry for the first time, the
shadow of death hangs over their meeting--her fiancé has been blown “all to bits” in the war of Somme. In her conversation with Henry, she laments that she didn’t marry
her fiancé before he died. She says that they were engaged for "eight years," and
that they "grew up
together."
Upon her meeting with Henry, Catherine relies upon the grand
illusion of love and seduction for comfort. Catherine seeks solace for the
death of her fiancé while Henry is doing anything to distance himself from the
war. Catherine reminds Henry several times that their courtship is a game. But
even at the stage of flirtation and mere sensuality, we may easily perceive
that Catherine’s love is deeper than that of Henry.
Catherine is extremely romantic, she loves being in
love. She’s also desperately lonely when she meets him. Thus she merges her own
identity into Henry’s. What she really craves for, is to be "one"
with him:
"There isn’t any me. I’m you. Don’t make up a
separate me."
Catherine's love is so intense
that it becomes her religion:
"You’re my religion. You’re all I’ve got", she tells Henry.
She totally worships Frederic like a god and will do anything to
get him. And she doesn’t fall apart without him when they are separated, but
just keeps on trucking and hoping. She doesn’t need Frederic for
anything but love. She says to Henry that they are married to each other and
must not bother about formal marriage. On her pregnancy she assures Henry
as:
"I’ll try and not make trouble for you. I know I’ve
made trouble now. But haven’t I always been a good girl until now?"
She is not worried at all about the illegitimate child being
nourished in her womb. Rather she worries about Henry becoming bored with her,
and repeatedly talks about changing her hairstyle to maintain his interest; she
worries about gaining weight from the pregnancy and even apologizes to Henry
for being in pain during her difficult labour.
Significantly, one cannot doubt Catherine's bravery and stoicism
as she perishes; in stoicism and
bravery, she matches if not exceeds Henry. She handles with grace their
midnight flight from Italy, never succumbing to fear or even irritability. Even
at the beginning of the novel, when Henry is tempted to dismiss her as “a
little crazy”, Catherine is fully aware of the game which they are playing. “You don’t have to pretend to
love me… You see I’m not mad.”
She has an admirable personal strength and firmness of conviction
which carries her through each challenging situation with fortitude. She even
handles her own death with courage, rejecting the presence of a priest and
asking simply that Henry stay with her.
Hemingway ingeniously introduces the symbolic significance of the
rain into the narrative. Rain is important to the novel, and especially to
Catherine. The rain almost always heralds destruction and death; it
impinges upon whatever momentary happiness Henry and Catherine have and turns
it into muddy misery.Catherine is very fearful of the rain and expresses her
inner fear in these words:
"I’m afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in
it"
She’s afraid that the rain is a portent of the
death of any love she might find.
In the 1970s and 80s, feminist critic Fetterly argued that the
character of Catherine in A Farewell to Arms proves that
Ernest Hemingway was a misogynist i.e he was against women. Fetterly's claim is
that Catherine’s death at the end of the novel proves that Hemingway thought
that "the only good
woman is a dead woman."
Later female critics, most notably, Spanier, however, argued the opposite – that Catherine helps prove that Hemingway loved women and understood them deeply. Spanier argues that Catherine is the protagonist of the novel and that her willingness to love Frederic entirely is heroic.
Later female critics, most notably, Spanier, however, argued the opposite – that Catherine helps prove that Hemingway loved women and understood them deeply. Spanier argues that Catherine is the protagonist of the novel and that her willingness to love Frederic entirely is heroic.
Even Catherine’s death during childbirth is meant to parallel the
deaths of the soldiers in battle. Like the soldiers who stood brave in the face
of battle, Catherine stood brave in the face of a battle with her own body.
In a nut-shell, Hemingway, through the
character of Catherine Barkley, introduces us to an outstanding and
extraordinary brave woman. She possesses positive attitude and faces
difficulties of life with a smiling face. She brings about revolutionary
changes in his character. Thus Hemingway uses
Catherine as a foil to Henry and an index of his maturation. She
is a loving, dedicated woman whose desire and capacity for a redemptive,
otherworldly love makes her the inevitable victim of the tragedy.