Symbolism in A Farewell to Arms

Darkness

Directions: Consider the following references to darkness or night in the novel. Does Hemingway draw on the traditional connotations of darkness or make his own association or meaning for darkness? Look up each reference, confirm or change the note on the content of the instance, and make notes about which instances suggest similar connotations.

page     instance                                             your notes

3 artillery in the dark is "like
summer lightning"; troops & guns
go by in the dark

13 night is "better"

46 hills dark in the sunset; attack
starts at sunset

56 waiting in the dark for treatment
outside the field surgical station

61 man hemorrhages to death in dark
British ambulance

68 priest visits at dusk

72 Lt. H. fears God in the night

88 nightmare

92 the night is for love

146 F.H.'s train leaves Milan in the
dark & rain at midnight

186 Croatian night attack, word of
breakthrough in the north, and
retreat order

212 dark = possible safety from German troops

218 dark & rain as Lt. H. & Piani skirt
Udine and rejoin retreat

221 trying to cross the swollen Tagliamento 
River in the dark

233 Lt. H. escapes in the night and the
dark of the gondola car

249 night is not day

258 dark as F.H. leaves C.B. to play
billiards with Count Greffi

266 dark & rain during flight from
Stresa (but moonlight on lake = 272)

312 dark when labor starts & during taxi
ride to hospital

327 dark & rain during stillbirth & news
news of baby being born dead

332 F.H. turns light out to be in dark
with Catherine

Assembling a thesis: Could there be one association with darkness and a different association with night? Summarize your notes to make a statement about what darkness seems to mean.

Copyright and Permission: This web on Ernest Hemingway's early novel was begun under a small grant from the VCCS, which holds copyright.  © 2001 by the Virginia Community College System.  This web was made by Dr. Eric Hibbison, Professor of English and Chief Chair, VCCS Regional Centers for Teaching Excellence (1998-2002). Materials in this web may be used free for educational purposes, but this web should not be behind a portal for which users must pay a fee without written permission from the VCCS.  If you're an educator using this web, please inform ehibbison@jsr.vccs.edu, especially if you'd like contact with other educators who are using this web.