A Farewell to Arms Catherine Barkley Quotes

A few paragraphs back he tells us he doesn’t love Catherine. A Farewell to Arms is a memory, Frederic’s memory of Catherine. He’s showing us the beginning of his love for Catherine, perhaps even the awakening of it. Do we trust Frederic here? If not, why? Is this his confession, to the reader, that he didn’t love Catherine enough at first? Does Catherine love him here?

These are the last words that Catherine and Frederic speak. She’s talked about love and death before, in terms of "a rotten game." Her first lover died, her son died, and now she’s losing her second lover, through her own death. Is love in A Farewell to Arms all a rotten game, or a dirty trick? Or, is there deeper meaning in all novel’s the loving, even though it ends tragically?

This is the only time we see Catherine act violently, and she doesn’t like what she’s done. She does want Frederic to kiss her, as we see. We wonder if she slaps him because she doesn’t want to be thought of as being too "easy." He seems to take her slap as an indication of just how much she does want him.

Once again Catherine suggests that marriage as an institution is an empty shell, that it can’t turn her into something she isn’t already.

What’s the deal with Catherine and Fergy? Fergy loves her lots, in her old-fashioned way, wanting her to get married and everything. But does Catherine love Fergy? She is last mentioned, by Catherine, when she and Frederic are fleeing to Switzerland. But, since Frederic is the narrator, it’s hard to judge the two women’s relationship. This is Frederic’s memory and he might not even know if Catherine gets in touch with Helen. He sure won’t know if Catherine thinks about Helen. And even she tells him, he might not remember.

We think it’s pretty brave and strong of Catherine to get in to a boat in the middle of the night, pregnant, not even complain, and even offer to help row.

Catherine wants to literally "cut" through the outward appearance of gender difference.

Catherine is a Voluntary Action Deployment nurse. She doesn’t have the education of the nurse, but performs all the duties of a nurse. Perhaps this makes her seem even more courageous. She saw pain and suffering, wanted to help, and didn’t waste time saying "I’m not qualified."

When we know how truly scared Catherine is, it makes her seem even more courageous.

Catherine suggests that every act of bravery requires the sacrifice or death of something inside the brave person. She also connects bravery to intelligence, suggesting that it takes more than raw courage to be truly brave, that sometimes bravery means thinking in a brave way.

We think this early exchange says much about why Catherine and Frederic get along so well. They are on the same wavelength. On the surface, it’s playful banter, but it expresses their respective and shared feelings about the war. There is a debate going on, and a give and take of information as they test the waters.