The Analysis of Catherine in A Farewell to Arms

The Analysis of Catherine in A Farewell to Arms
【Abstract】Catherine Barkley，as the heroine in the novel A Farewell to Arms，has a rather complicated personality. The thesis，to begin with，analyzes her character in two sides with examples. One the one hand，she is obedient，maternal，mature and optimistic，yet on the other hand，she depends on love too much and is not confident enough. The thesis then analyzes Catherine’s attitudes towards love，war and death. Though her attitudes and experience，author express the cruelness of war and his hatred towards war.
【Key words】A Farewell to Arms；Ernest Hemingway；Catherine；Personality Introduction
In Ernest Hemingway’s semi—autobiographical novel A Farewell to Arms，Catherine Barkley，as the heroine，has rather complicated character. On the one hand，Catherine appears to be a charming and beautiful lady who is admired by almost all of men. And on the other hand，Catherine is not independent and not confident enough. She depends on love to much. And that is related to her fiancé’s death，which changes her attitude towards love and war.
1 Catherine’s Personality
First of all，Catherine is obedient and tender. In Chapter 16，she said to Henry，“But I will. I‟‟ll say just what you wish and I‟‟ll do what you wish and then you will never want any other girls，will you？” “I‟‟ll do what you want and say what you want and then I‟‟ll be a great success，won‟‟t I？” And when Henry has to come back to the front，Catherine consoles him instead of expressing her own sadness. She told Henry，“Do let’s please just be happy. You are happy，aren’t you？Is there anything I do you don’t like？Can I do anything to please you？Would you like me to take down my hair？Do you want to play？” Secondly，she is maternal. She always calls Henry “darling” and “boy” likes a mother rather than a lover. Catherine thinks about him all the time and is never stingy to praise Henry. When Henry told her he once had gonorrhea，she even said：“I wish I‟…d had it to be like you. I wish I‟‟d stayed with all your g irls so I could make fun of them to you.”（In Chapter38）Thirdly，Catherine is quite mature and reasonable. She knows how to keep their relationship. In chapter 21，when Catherine told Henry she had been pregnant for 3 months，she told Henry，“Oh，darling！”“You mustn‟‟t mind me.” “We were both together again and the self—consciousness was gone.” “We really are the same one and we mustn‟‟t misunderstand on purpose.” “There’s only us two and in the world there’s all the rest of them. If anything comes between us we’re gone and then they have us.” Fourthly，she is an optimistic girl. She always smiles to Henry no matter how difficult the situation is. Though she was pregnant when they escaped to Switzerland，she still smiled at him，encouraged Henry and tried her best to help Henry.
However，on the other hand，Catherine is not independent and not confident enough. She always asked Henry，“Don’t I make a good wife？” She cares about Henry too much and depends on Henry and their love too much. She’s really crazy
about it. Even，Catherine conceals her real feeling in order to comfort Henry. In chapter 21，when she told Henry she had been pregnant for 3 months，she repeated several time that “It doesn’t worry me.” “I haven’t worried about it.” But in fact，we can easily feel the anxiety from Catherine. In addition，Catherine is too peaceful during her pregnancy. Usually，women who are pregnant always have bad temper and are capricious. Yet Catherine is still tender and obedient as usual. And that is unusual. Nevertheless，I can understand Catherine’s dependence and craziness towards love. These formed because of her fiancé’s death，her disappointment towards war and also fearfulness of losing lover again.。