A Strange Love

Throughout the book “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway, it is well known that Catherine and Frederic are in love. They may display it in different ways, but they are in love. Catherine displays it earlier on in the novel, with her every move being to serve and worship Frederic. Frederic, on the other hand, comes off as being more selfish and therefore this prompts the assumption that he may not love her as much as she loves him. This selfish impression was not his intention at all. I think this because of the quote “everything was gone inside of me” (282) when Catherine is almost dead. This quote shows that even though he may not have shown it or expressed it, he loved Catherine just as much as she loved him. She was every part of him, and he is only truly able to express his true love and feelings when he loses her, and when he realizes the significance of what he has lost. As he grew throughout the novel, he realized that he could indeed love, and his breaking point when he finally knows this as a fact is during Catherine’s death.