Gee!! I Wish I Were a Man: How Fetterly Disregarded Women's History in "A Farewell to Arms"

            In her article, “A Farewell to Arms’: Hemingway’s “Resentful Cryptogram,” critic Judith Fetterly argues that Catherine Barkley from A Farewell to Arms is a weak unnecessary character who disgraces women everywhere by being a doormat to the male soldiers in her life. I disagree with Fetterly’s argument about Catherine because the very characteristics that Fetterly sees as weak, actually act as a buffer for Frederic Henry as she balances his character flaws. The minute amount of mistreatments she does deal with both show her strength and accurately depict the way women were treated during World War I. Also, without Catherine, there wouldn’t be much of a storyline in the novel. In this novel, Hemingway needed characters that could express the horrors of war for those who are involved. He chose Frederic Henry to demonstrate the men’s pain and suffering, and Catherine Barkley to demonstrate the women’s. Catherine’s impact on Henry begins almost immediately after their first meeting. She asks if Henry has ever been in love and he says no. She explains that her fiancée had been killed in the Battle of Somme and admits that “he could have had anything he wanted if [she] would have known” (19). This dialogue begins to show readers what a good self-less heart Catherine possesses compared to the hard closed-off heart of Henry. As their relationship progresses, she teaches Henry how to love another and how to be a good person.

            While I do admit that the nurses in the story, especially Catherine, do endure some mistreatments, I do not believe that this makes them weak or disgraceful the way Fetterly does. In her argument, Fetterly states that “in the male world of the Italian front women are seen solely in sexual terms and relegated to a solely sexual role.” She believes that this portrayal of Catherine is the result of her lack of strength. However, enduring the sexual advances and condescending attitudes, all while keeping her sanity and fulfilling her job, express the great mental and emotional strength of Catherine. Fetterly also fails to realize that this treatment was normal for female nurses during WWI. In fact, women didn’t even have the right to vote in America until 1920; two years after the war was over.

            Finally, Catherine’s character is essential to the storyline for the simple fact that if she did not exist exactly the way she does in the novel, there would be no story. If she were the raging feminist that Fetterly desires, Henry would not have fallen in love with her and A Farewell to Arms would just be another boring biography of WWI.