A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is somewhat of a Romeo and Juliet love story, with a tragic ending. In this novel, Romeo is Frederick Henry and Juliet is Catherine Barkley. Their love affair must survive the everything that is around them during World War I. The setting of this novel is war-torn Italy. The love between Catherine and Frederick must outlast long separations, life-threatening war situations, and the uncertainty of each other's whereabouts or condition. This is a love story of two people who need each other in a period of chaos.

             The book A Farewell to Arms is partly autobiographical. Hemingway , like his hero, was a Red Cross ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I. Not only was Hemingway wounded in the war, but he also recuperated in a hospital in Italy. During his recuperation, Hemingway had a very romantic liaison with a nurse. The relationships between the characters in the novel, including doctors, soldiers, etc., reflect the actual relationships Hemingway had during his stay in Italy, and the plot of the story is historically as well as geographically accurate. Before Ernest Hemingway wrote the book A Farewell to Arms, he was already regarded as a good literary writer, but after the publication of this book he was considered a great one. A Farewell to Arms was Hemingway's first commercial success, selling over 80,000 copies in the first four months.

             In this story there are only two main characters, Frederick Henry and Catherine .

             Barkley. Frederick Henry acts as both the narrator and central character in the novel. The reader is not told so much about Catherine, only what is understood from Frederick's point of view. Catherine acts as a static character in the novel. She has already known love and lost it so she understands that she cannot build her whole life around Frederick. Frederick, on the other hand, is a very dynamic character, and he has to come to grips with many of the principles of life and death that Catherine has already learned.