When reading Ernest Hemingway's novel Farewell to Arms, the finale is most memorable. It is so sad and tragic that it penetrates into the very heart of the reader. Few people know that the author repeatedly altered the final lines of the novel.
In the last scene, the main character of the novel, Frederick Henry, leaves the hospital and walks in the rain to the hotel. He lost everything - only a few days ago he had a pregnant wife, hope for happiness, plans for a real life. Now he had a dead son, and Catherine died of bleeding, life has lost its meaning.
Hemingway rewrote this ending 47 times (although he himself admitted to the press that there were 39 options for endings). It was very important to finish the novel on the right note, the impression of the work as a whole depended on it. It was the laconicism and accuracy of the last phrases that brought the author the fame of the greatest American writer and placed this work at the highest level of modern literature.
Finding the right words was important, since the death of Catherine meant not only the loneliness of the hero, but also the complete collapse of his ideals in life, to which he strove, having said goodbye to weapons. He tried to escape from society into the world of personal happiness - and this attempt failed. Henry is again at a crossroads, and even the author himself does not know where his hero will go.
In search of the right option, Hemingway compiled about 47 endings, some of which were just a proposal, others were several paragraphs long. In one version, Henry's son remains alive, in the other, everyone is alive, including the protagonist's wife. However, these options are full of sweetness that is not typical for Hemingway, so they could not satisfy him. One of the endings is full of appeals to God and performed in a religious manner.
Hemingway devoted most of all his options to a sad and tragic ending. The only question was how to communicate this to the reader. The author chose a cold and impartial style, with the help of which he perfectly managed to show that nothing will protect a person from the cruel and full of surprises of the outside world. Behind the simplicity of the style lies a complex content and secret meaning, this could be achieved only with careful selection and accurate use of words - the ending of the novel "Farewell to Arms" was a success for Hemingway to the fullest.
