Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Farewell to Arms, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
War
Love and Loss
Reality vs. Fantasy
Self vs. Duty
Manhood
Religion
Summary
Analysis
While Catherine goes to visit Helen Ferguson, Henry reads the papers and learns that the Austrian advance is continuing.
Henry is only able to ignore the world when he's with Catherine.
Themes
Henry then invites Emilio to go fishing. They have no luck and end up drinking vermouth instead. Henry asks Emilio what he will do if he is drafted, and Emilio replies that he will not go to war. He also offers to let Henry use his fishing boat anytime he wants.
Hemingway, an avid fisherman, often has characters speak their minds in a fishing boat. Emilio's refusal to fight again shows that even civilians have low opinions of the war.
Themes
That night, Henry plays billiards with Count Greffi, a 94-year-old former diplomat whom Henry had befriended on an earlier trip to Stresa. Count Greffi regrets that, despite his expectations, he has not grown more devout as he has grown older. He adds that old men do not grow wise, but just careful. He asks what Henry values most. "Some one I love," Henry answers. Count Greffi tells him not to forget that love, too, is a religious feeling.
Count Greffi and the priest serve as two father figures for Henry. The count is a secular man, but he echoes the priest's advice: embrace love as some men embrace a love of God. The Count, a diplomat, also represents a world of aristocracy and diplomacy that is being swept away by World War 1.
Themes
