Oblivious and Dumb or Brilliant and Simple in Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms"

In “Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway, the author displays the character Catherine Barkley in multiple lights. At one end, she is depicted as the epitome of the Italian dream girl: submissive, caring, beautiful and most of all, weak. But she is also shown as woman with responsibility, strong beliefs, determination and resolve.

At the beginning of the novel, Catherine is displayed as a sort of love drunk bimbo who lives life in a sub-reality where bad things don’t happen. She lives her life along the social stereotype of what a woman in that day and age should. She doesn’t talk back, or argue, but rather is fully supportive of every choice the man makes, whether it be good or bad for herself. She is “regarded as the ultimate dreamgirl” who is “devoid of any personality or character of her own” (Spanier). In reference to Henry, she is completely submissive. When she first goes to visit him in the hospital in Milan, Henry wishes her to engage him sexually, and after saying “I love you” a couple times and a “Come on. Please”, she is easily convinced and gives into Henry’s pleas (92). This shows her as a fool for love and rather pathetic, but these views can be countered.

As the novel goes on, and Catherine’s character really develops, do we actually see the stronger, smarter, and more determined Catherine. Though one might easily see and admit Catherine as the ditsy dreamgirl, there is a much deeper and meaningful reason behind most of her ways. In the example in the previous paragraph, Catherine does indeed submit to Henry’s lustful pleas, she seems to know what she is doing. Until this point in the novel, Catherine was perceived as almost crazy, but her crazy ways have ultimately won as Henry admits that he had not wanted to fall for her, “but God knows he had” (93). We see this new Catherine who is real and experienced, she’s been through traumatic events and has seen horrific things yet is still caring and nice. She knows how things work and she can “reshape her surroundings by force of will and to her determination to play the best she can with the hand she’s dealt” (Spanier). After all that she has been through, she knows the world isn’t always great all on its own, its what you make it. Through this thought she is able to “forge a meaningful existence for herself in a world where the traditional structures - morality, religion and patriotism – have proven hollow and empty” (Spanier). Throughout the novel the reader is tricked into thinking that Henry is the shot-caller and the leader of his future but “the irony is that while he thinks he is playing with Catherine, he is blithely oblivious to the fact that she is using him” (Spanier).

At first glance, Catherine may be shown as dimwitted and weak, but as we begin to break down her character we really see into the mind of her brilliance. She is merely a victim to the conventions of traditional society and now “lives for the moment” as a “simpler kind of person” (Spanier). Just as she told Henry, “life isn’t hard to manage when you’ve nothing to lose”.