A Farewell to Arms

The rains have begun, it is cold, and Frederic has developed jaundice, which he suffers from for two weeks. He tells the reader that he and Catherine were going to spend his convalescence leave at Pallanza on Lago Maggiore. He then fills in his story to explain why they didn’t go.

Miss Van Campen had found the empty alcohol bottles and thought that his jaundice was a result of the alcohol. She accused him of self-inflicting jaundice to avoid the front. When Miss Gage offers to help Frederic by removing the bottles and saying she never saw any drinking, Miss Van Campen returns and takes the bottles from her.

Frederic’s train leaves for the front at midnight. The train arrives in Milan at 10:30, and he asks the porter to hold a seat for him since the train would be full by midnight. Frederic meets Catherine, and they spend their last evening together. They see another couple by the cathedral and when Frederic says that the couple is like them, Catherine responds, “Nobody is like us” (129). They go to an armorer’s shop because Frederic needs a gun since he no longer has his: “Now we’re fully armed” (130). They go to a hotel across the station after Catherine purchases a nightgown.