Summary: Chapter XXII
The next morning, it begins to rain, and Henry
is diagnosed with jaundice. Miss Van Campen finds empty liquor bottles
in Henry’s room and blames alcoholism for his condition. She accuses
him of purposefully making himself ill in order to avoid being sent
back to the front. She orders his liquor stash to be taken away
and promises to file a report that will deny him his convalescent
leave, which she successfully does.
Summary: Chapter XXIII
Henry prepares to travel back to the front. He says his
goodbyes at the hospital and heads out to the streets. While passing
a café, he sees Catherine in the window and knocks for her to join
him. They pass a pair of lovers standing outside a cathedral. When
Henry observes, “They’re like us,” Catherine unhappily
responds, “Nobody is like us.” They enter a gun shop, where Henry
buys a new pistol and several ammunition cartridges. On the street,
they kiss like the lovers outside the cathedral did. Henry suggests
that they go somewhere private, and Catherine agrees. They find
a hotel. Even though it is a nice hotel and Catherine stops on the
way to buy an expensive nightgown, she still feels like a prostitute.
After dinner, however, they both feel fine. Henry utters the lines,
“‘But at my back I always hear / Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying
near,’” which Catherine recognizes as a couplet from the poetry
of Andrew Marvell. Henry asks Catherine how she will manage having
the baby; she assures him that she will be fine and that she will
have set up a nice home for Henry by the time he returns.
Summary: Chapter XXIV
Outside, Henry calls for a carriage to bring him and Catherine
from the hotel to the train station. He gets out at the station
and sends her on to the hospital. He begs her to take care of herself
and “little Catherine.” There is a small commotion on the crowded
train because Henry has arranged for a machine-gunner to save him
a seat. A tall, gaunt captain protests. Eventually, Henry offers
the offended captain his seat and sleeps on the floor.
Summary: Chapter XXV
After returning to Gorizia, Henry has a talk with the
town major about the war. It was a bad summer, the major says. The
major is pleased to learn that Henry received his decorations and
decides that Henry was lucky to get wounded when he did. The major admits
that he is tired of the war and states that he doesn’t believe that
he would come back if he were given leave from the front. Henry
then goes to find Rinaldi, and while he waits for his friend, he thinks
about Catherine. Rinaldi comes into the room and is glad to see
Henry. He examines his friend’s wounded knee and exclaims that it
is a crime that Henry was sent back into battle. Rinaldi asks if
Henry has married and if he is in love. He asks if Catherine is
good in bed, which offends Henry, who says that he holds certain
subjects “sacred.” They drink a toast to Catherine and go down to
dinner. Rinaldi halfheartedly picks on the priest, trying to animate
the nearly deserted dining hall for Henry’s sake.
Summary: Chapter XXVI
After dinner, Henry talks with the priest. The priest
thinks that the war will end soon, though he cannot say why he thinks
so. Henry remains skeptical. The priest notices a change in the
men, citing the major, whom he describes as “gentle,” as an example.
Henry speculates that defeat has made the men gentler and points
the priest to the story of Jesus Christ, who, Henry suggests, was
mild because he had been beaten down. Henry claims that he no longer
believes in victory. At the end of the evening, when the priest
asks what Henry does believe in, he responds, “In
sleep.”
Analysis: Chapters XXII–XXVI
If Catherine’s behavior in the last section casts a slight
shadow over the romantic idealism surrounding her relationship with
Henry, her farewell to him casts it into darkness. A sense of doom
slowly closes in. Catherine’s observation, as she and Henry pass
a young, amorous couple, that “nobody is like us” betrays the pathos
at the heart of their relationship. By removing their relationship
from the lofty realm of idealized love, Hemingway makes Catherine
and Henry’s love for each other more real, more complicated, and
more convincing.
