John Stubbs' "Love And Role Playing In A Farewell To Arms"

John Stubbs' "Love and Role Playing in A Farewell to Arms"

John Stubbs' essay is an examination of the defense which he believes Henry and
Catherine use to protect themselves from the discovery of their insignificance
and "powerlessness...in a world indifferent to their well being..." He asserts
that "role-playing" by the two main characters, and several others in the book,
is a way to escape the realization of human mortality which is unveiled by war.
Stubbs thinks that Hemingway utilized role-playing as a way to "explore the
strengths and weaknesses of his two characters." Stubbs says that by placing
Henry's ordered life in opposition to Catherine's topsy-turvy one, and then
letting each one assume a role which will bring them closer together, Hemingway
shows the pair's inability to accept "the hard, gratuitous quality of life."

Stubbs begins by showing other examples, notably in In Our Time and The Sun Also
Rises, in which Hemingway's characters revert to role-playing in order to escape
or retreat from their lives. The ability to create characters who play roles, he
says, either to "maintain self-esteem" or to escape, is one Hemingway exploits
extraordinarily well in A Farewell to Arms and therefore it "is his richest and
most successful handling of human beings trying to come to terms with their
vulnerability."

As far as Stubbs is concerned, Hemingway is quite blatant in letting us know
that role-playing is what is occurring. He tells that the role-playing begins
during Henry and Catherine's third encounter, when Catherine directly dictates
what is spoken by Henry. After this meeting the two become increasingly
comfortable with their roles and easily adopt them whenever the other is nearby.
This is apparent also in that they can only successfully play their roles when
they are in private and any disturbance causes the "game" to be disrupted. The
intrusion of the outside world in any form makes their role-playing impossible,
as evidenced at the race track in...