Love And Religion In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms

Religion in A Farewell to Arms

The novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is primarily about war and love. A farewell to arms is about World War I and all the disastrous things that come along with the war. Furthermore the novel also describes tragic romance of the two protagonists, the American lieutenant Frederic Henry who serves in the Italian ambulance corps and the English nurse Catherine Barkley who works at an Italian hospital. Reading A farewell to arms, you discover that not only war and love are important themes in the book, a closer look at how and when religious terms appear in the novel A Farewell to Arms quickly disclose religion is not just a minor theme in the book, but most likely the strongest one of all.
Ernest Hemingway first presents Frederic Henry as an atheist, someone who does not believe in God. Nevertheless, when reading the book you see that Frederic is neither an atheist nor

The cathedral is a symbol a religion and is repeated throughout the book, for example in chapter 23, “there was a fog in the square and when we came close to the cathedral it was very big and the stone was wet. “Would you like to go in?” “No,” Catherine said.” In the mentioned lines of A farewell to Arms you can read that Frederic Henry wants to go in and that makes him a religious man, Catherine refuses to go in the cathedral. Another symbol given by the novel is the Saint Anthony medal. In chapter 8, Catherine has given her medal to Frederic, and Frederic Henry puts it around his neck “She was unclasping something from her neck. She put it in my hand. “It’s a Saint Anthony,” she said. “And come tomorrow night” “You’re not a Catholic, are you?” “No, but they say a Saint Anthony is very useful.” “I’ll take care of him for you. Good-by.”” A Saint Anthony medal is something very religious, and when Frederic Henry lost this Saint Anthony medal, lots of things went