A Farewell to arms: Criticisms analysis

- Partial Articulation: Wordplay in AFTA © 2001 Ernest Hemingway Foundation

A critical essay written by Harry Garrington. The most obvious word play is the title, relating to both Henry’s desertion from the Italian army and Catherine Barkley’s death in Switzerland after complications during birth of their son. But Hemingway uses the word play in many other parts of the book, mostly coming from Frederic Henry’s comments to criticize him as a narrator and as Catherine’s companion. Henry will usually be unaware of these except in a few occasions when he will deliberately play on words. The essay states that these wordplays come from Henry’s subconscious and since he is merely a product of Hemingway’s imagination the would agree with Lacan’s theory of the repressed “in which the unconscious reveals itself through verbal play” (Ben Stolzfus’s Analysis of A Farewell To Arms) and it explains why the narrators may not always understand the implications of their narr...