Throughout the world many individuals believe love is the cure for everything. In the novel, A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is a typical love story between a nurse and a war soldier. Their love affair must survive the obstacles of World War one. Hemingway develops this theme by means of characters, tone, and setting.
Hemingway expresses the theme through the use of two main characters, Frederick Henry and Catherine Barkley. Frederick henry is a young American ambulance driver in the Italian army during World War one. At the beginning of the novel Henry never experienced love he believed it was an elaborate game. When he is wounded and sent back to the American hospital where Catherine works their relationship progresses. Frederick slowly falls in love with her and in his love for her, he finds commitment. At the conclusion of the novel, Frederick realizes that he cannot base his life on another person or thing because it will eventually leave him. Catherine Barkley is an English nurse who serves in Italy. On the other hand Catherine is experienced when it comes to love since she has already lost a loved one which was killed earlier in the war. Hemingway also lets us know Catherine already has the knowledge that her life cannot be dependent on another through her husband’s death. This all sets the tone for the novel.
Hemingway also develops the theme through tone. The tone of this novel is a tragic one. Throughout the novel Hemingway foreshadows Catherine’s death. When Catherine is brought into the delivering room, the doctor tells her he has concerns about her narrow hips. Therefore, they had to get a caesarean, and the baby dies. Then Catherine starts to hemorrhage and Henry realizes why he did not want to become involved with love and now he must suffer the consequences. Frederick then states “it was like saying goodbye to a statue,” he walks back to his hotel without finding a way to say good-bye. Frederick realizes that Catherine was just a symbol of strength in his life. Evidently, Hemingway conveys this novel as a tragic one.
One last ingredient the author expresses to develop the theme is the novel’s setting. The story takes place during World War one. However, the plot is always active. The characters were never staying in one place too long.
Destiny, Fate, Free Will and Free Choice in Oedipus the King – Oedipus and Fate
Oedipus the King and Fate
D.T. Suzuki, a renowned expert on Zen Buddhism, called attention to the
topic of free will in one of his lectures by stating that it was the battle of
“God versus Man, Man versus God, God versus Nature, Nature versus God, Man
versus Nature, Nature versus Man1.” These six battles constitute an ultimately
greater battle: the battle of free will versus determinism. Free will is that
ability for a human being to make decisions as to what life he or she would like
to lead and have the freedom to live according to their own means and thus
choose their own destiny; determinism is the circumstance of a higher being
ordaining a man’s life from the day he was born until the day he dies. Free
will is in itself a far-reaching ideal that exemplifies the essence of what
mankind could be when he determines his own fate. But with determinism, a man
has a predetermined destiny and fate that absolutely cannot be altered by the
man himself. Yet, it has been the desire of man to avoid the perils that his
fate ho lds andthus he unceasingly attempts to thwart fate and the will of the
divine.. Within the principle of determinism, this outright contention to divine
mandate is blasphemous and considered sin. This ideal itself, and the whole
concept of determinism, is quite common in the workings of Greek and Classical
literature. A manifest example of this was the infamous Oedipus of The Theban
Plays, a man who tried to defy fate, and therefore sinned.
The logic of Oedipus’ transgression is actually quite obvious, and
Oedipus’ father, King Laius, also has an analogous methodology and transgression.
They both had unfortunate destinies: Laius was destined to be killed by his own
son, and Oedipus was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. This was
the ominous decree from the divinatory Oracle at Delphi. King Laius feared the
Oracle’s proclamation and had his son, the one and only Oedipus, abandoned on a
mountain with iron spikes as nails so that he would remain there to eventually
die. And yet, his attempt to obstruct fate was a failure, for a kindly shepherd