Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Masculinity
Readers of Hemingway’s fiction will quickly notice a consistent thread
in the portrayal and celebration of a certain kind of man: domineering,
supremely competent, and swaggeringly virile. A Farewell
to Arms holds up several of its minor male characters as examples
of fine manhood. Rinaldi is a faithful friend and an oversexed womanizer;
Dr. Valentini exhibits a virility to rival Rinaldi’s as well as
a bold competence that makes him the best surgeon. Similarly, during
the scene in which Henry fires his pistol at the fleeing engineering
sergeants, Bonello takes charge of the situation by brutally shooting
the fallen engineer in the head. The respect with which Hemingway
sketches these men, even at their lowest points, is highlighted
by the humor, if not contempt, with which he depicts their opposites.
The success of each of these men depends, in part, on the failure
of another: Rinaldi secures his sexual prowess by attacking
the priest’s lack of lust; Dr. Valentini’s reputation as a surgeon is
thrown into relief by the three mousy, overly cautious, and physically unimpressive
doctors who precede him; and Bonello’s ruthlessness is prompted
by the disloyal behavior of the soldier whom he kills.
Games and Divertissement
Henry and Catherine begin flirting with each other in
order to forget personal troubles. Flirting, which Henry compares
to bridge, allows Henry to “drop the war” and diverts Catherine’s
thoughts from the death of her fiancé. Likewise, the horse races
that Catherine and Henry attend enable them to block out thinking
of Henry’s return to the front and of their imminent separation.
Ironically, Henry and Catherine’s relationship becomes the source
of suffering from which Henry needs diversion. Henry cannot stand
to be away from Catherine, and while playing pool with Count Greffi
takes his mind off of her, the best divertissement turns out to
be the war itself. When Catherine instructs him not to think about
her when they are apart, Henry replies, “That’s how I worked it
at the front. But there was something to do then.” The transformations
of the war from fatal threat into divertissement and love from distraction
into pain signal not only Henry’s attachment to Catherine but also
the transitory nature of happiness. Pathos radiates from this fleeting
happiness because, even though happiness is temporary, the pursuit
of it remains necessary. Perhaps an understanding of the
limits of happiness explains the count’s comment that though he
values love most in life, he is not wise for doing so. The count
is wiser than he claims, however. He hedges against the transitory
nature of love by finding pleasure and amusement in games, birthday
parties, and the taking of “a little stimulant.” That one can depend
on their simple pleasures lends games and divertissement a certain
dignity; while they may not match up to the nobility of pursuits
such as love, they prove quietly constant.
Loyalty Versus Abandonment
The notions of loyalty and abandonment apply equally well
to love and war. The novel, however, suggests that loyalty is more
a requirement of love and friendship than of the grand political
causes and abstract philosophies of battling nations. While Henry
takes seriously his duty as a lieutenant, he does not subscribe
to the ideals that one typically imagines fuel soldiers in combat.
Unlike Ettore Moretti or Gino, the promise of honor and the duties
of patriotism mean little to Henry. Although he shoots an uncooperative
engineering sergeant for failing to comply with his orders, Henry’s
violence should be read as an inevitable outcome of a destructive
war rather than as a conscious decision to enforce a code of moral
conduct. Indeed, Henry eventually follows in the engineering sergeants’
footsteps by abandoning the army and his responsibilities. While
he does, at times, feel guilt over this course of action, he takes
comfort in the knowledge that he is most loyal where loyalty counts
most: in his relationship with Catherine. That these conflicting
allegiances cannot be reconciled does not suggest, however, that
loyalty and abandonment lie at opposite ends of a moral spectrum.
Rather, they reflect the priorities of a specific individual’s life.
Illusions and Fantasies
Upon meeting, Catherine and Henry rely upon a grand illusion
of love and seduction for comfort. Catherine seeks solace for the
death of her fiancé, while Henry will do anything to distance himself
from the war. At first, their declarations of love are transparent:
Catherine reminds Henry several times that their courtship is a
game, sending him away when she has played her fill. After Henry
is wounded, however, his desire for Catherine and the comfort and support
that she offers becomes more than a distraction from the world’s
unpleasantness; his love begins to sustain him and blossoms into
something undeniably real. Catherine’s feelings for Henry follow
a similar course.
While the couple acts in ways that confirm the genuine
nature of their passion, however, they never escape the temptation
of dreaming of a better world. In other words, the boundary between
reality and illusion proves difficult to identify. After Henry and
Catherine have spent months of isolation in Switzerland, Hemingway
depicts their relationship as a mixture of reality and illusion.
Boredom has begun to set in, and the couple effects small daily
changes to reinvigorate their lives and their passion: Catherine
gets a new haircut, while Henry grows a beard. Still, or perhaps
because of, the comparative dullness of real life (not to mention
the ongoing war), the couple turns to fantasies of a more perfect
existence. They dream of life on a Swiss mountain, where they will
make their own clothes and need nothing but each other, suggesting
that fantasizing is part of coping with the banal, sometimes damaging
effects of reality.
