weapon which symbolizes war, the other meaning is embrace which symbolize love. It implies the dual themes of war and love. The first meaning promulgates the theme of anti-war. The second meaning shows the hint of a tragic ending of the pair’s love. The title not only means say good-bye to war but also means say farewell to the embrace of lover. The title reflects the influence of war on human nature, with Hemingway’s unique creating style and brief language which reproduced the war as well as the destiny of human being. Hemingway deeply criticizes the criminal war and expresses the meaning against the imperialist war. Hemingway's view on love is that love is wonderful. Love in the war, however, is just an illusion.
B. Iceberg Principle
Hemingway is a stylistic known throughout the world. During the time that Hemingway create those novels, he summarizes the “iceberg theory”. He considers that the move of iceberg in the sea is very spectacular because only one out of eight appears above the water. Writing novels is similar like the iceberg floating above the water. Only one out of eight of the meaning will appear literally. But the leaving seven-eighths, the deep theme, will hide under the plot. This part is the most valuable part for the readers to understand by themselves.
Hemingway is a reporter of a journal when he was young. This experience leaves him a custom of terse. In the novel A Farewell to Arms, the dialogues between every character are very terse. The most simple words express the most complicated and mysterious philosophical activity. When Catherine is dead, Henry talks with the nurse. Their dialogue is very terse. Henry feels very painful. But as a tough guy, Henry will not let others see his misery and show sympathy to him. He says: “No, I can.” Hemingway’s writing is worth reading and discovering the hidden meaning in the words.
The iceberg theory is also used in writing the environment. The brief writing creates a kind of atmosphere. In the beginning of the novel, the writer writes:
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In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.(1)
The description is very terse. The continuous mountains and the boundless plate appear from the distant place to the near place. The troop’s march is set in this background. When the troop is gone, only vacancy left. This creates the depressive atmosphere which predicts the tragic end. At the first sight, the readers cannot understand the hidden meaning. But when the readers reread the novel, they will find that the following plot has some connections with this description.
The description of the environment is very important. The use of symbolism also show Hemingway’s writing skill of the iceberg theory. The author will analyze symbolism in the next part.
The ending of the novel is one of the most striking endings in the literary gallery. Henry is in great sorrow when Catherine was dead. However, Hemingway does not write the crying or the irrational activity of Henry. In the novel, Henry goes into the ward, shuts the door, turns off the light and watches his lover. “After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.”(337) Hemingway does not tell the reader what happened after Henry goes back to the hotel. The ending seems very ordinary. But the reader can feel the extreme sorrow of Henry. The story stops abruptly as if the story is not end. Hemingway omits many things. The iceberg theory uses the least words to express the most meaning.
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C. Symbolism
A Farewell to Arms has a tragic ending. Some critics consider the novel tells a story which is as moving as William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. To make the tragic atmosphere even thicker, Hemingway adopts many skills. The most important of the indication of tragedy is the use of symbolism.
The word “rain” runs through the plot, from the first chapter which describes the march of the soldiers to the rainy night in the end of the novel when Catherine was dead. Misery is symbolized by rain. The root of misery is the crucial war as well as the non-rationality world.
There was fighting for that mountain too, but it was not successful, and in the fall when the rains came…… At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the choleras. But it is checked……seven thousand died of it in the army.
The beginning of the novel shows an atmosphere of bleak and depression. The description of vanquish, autumn, rain and the fallen leaves at the beginning predicates a disastrous ending. The story opens up in a blue atmosphere. The disaster that the rain brings promulgates war’s damaging the people’s life and their livelihood.
In the second part of the novel, before Henry goes back to Goriza after he has been recovered, it rains at October. “It did not come up and in a little while it started to drizzle; and we came in. Outside the mist turned to rain and in a little while it was raining hard.” (127)At this time there is less bleak feeling. But the atmosphere makes a feeling of sadness. The fine rain reflects Catherine’s emotion when she is about to separate with Henry. It is raining harder. This acclaims the separation of the lover. This makes the tragic art and tragic effect even clear. It also promulgates that war destroys the beautiful love.
In the third part, Henry goes back to the front line. The nation retreat in defeat
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again and again. “There were wet deed leaves in the road …it has been raining.” (165)The word “wet” and “dead’ are used to describe the leaves in the rain, which represent the despair feeling of the soldiers. This description of rain predicts the failure of the battle.
In a rainy night, Henry and the other three soldiers set out. The troops begin to withdraw. “It was starting to rain again.” “Outside it was raining hard.”(192) Both the soldiers and the cars are marching slowly in the muddy road. The word “mud” predicts the road is as disordered as the war. All things are out of control. The rain’s appearance at this situation not only predicts the danger that Henry will face during the troops’ retreat, but also promulgates what war has left to human nature.
In the forth part, the lover meet again. Henry escapes from the front line. And he comes to Stresa, where he sees Catherine and her friend Helan Ferguson. Rain comes at this happy time. “I got down from the train ……and very light to carry ……..in the rain.” (246)Henry fells light because he thinks the war is end. But it is not the case. The war is continuing just as the rain is still dropping. Another stormy comes which predicate another difficult position. The military police is approaching. Henry has no choice but to row to escape to Switzerland with Catherine. If the war never ends people will never have peaceful life and happy family.
Henry and Catherine go to Switzerland and settle down. They live in a small hotel near Montreux. The life there is very calm. They go walking and playing cards to kill time. Even the war goes far away, the lover become more and more anxious. “In March ……it started raining.”(308) “It rained for three days.”(309) “It was still raining.”(311) In the last chapter, Catherine dies because of dystocia in rain, just as she predicted that she will is dying in rain.
In the end, Henry went back to the hotel in rain. The tragedy ends in the rain too. “After a while……and walked back to the hotel in the rain.”(337) When Henry is walking in rain, he cannot feel the appearance of rain. To him rain is not that important. His body is wandering in the rainy street. But his soul has gone with Catherine. The rain portrait in the novel is not only a prediction of the tragic ending, but also the reflection of Hemingway’s tragic aesthetics.
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Chapter III. Tragic Aesthetics Conveys Hemingway’s View
on Love and War
A. Hemingway’s Tragic Aesthetics
When people read Hemingway’s novels, they are easily attracted by the tough guys. But the deeper implication they discover is the tragic consciousness which is hidden under the shadow of tough guy spirit. In the 20th century’s turbulent society, Hemingway clearly realizes that human cannot get rid of tragedy. From the ancient Grace to modern society, tragedy’s great strength influences people of every period of the history. In Hemingway’s works, except discussing the tragic problems, he conveys a view of new humanism. Hemingway’s purpose is not unfold sorrow and despair before people’s eyes. He intends to reveal human’s great power to face despair and tragic life.
The famous critic, the professor of Princeton University Carlos Baker writes in his book The Mountains and the Plain: “The publish of A Farewell to Arms in 1929 marked the beginning of the endless creation of Hemingway as a great tragedy novelist in the 20th century.”4 In stead of writing the happy ending of a story, Hemingway writes the escapism of the characters. They escape the reality, themselves and any other depressed things. It is easy to know how important this novel is in the tragedy works.
In a word, Hemingway’s characters are always under the shadow of death. Even though they has seen the hope and experience love, hope and love is short, and only death is permanent. The importance of Hemingway’s tragic aesthetics does not lie in the discretion of death, but lies in a kind of mentality. That is to say, if one knows there is only a tragic ending which cannot be avoided, he also holds the calm attitude to face it. This is the tough man’s tragedy.
Some critics who study A Farewell to Arms only concentrate on the anti-war theme. However, the tragic aesthetics in this novel is more valuable to discuss. Only
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