A "round" character according to E.M. Forster in his
"Aspects of the Novel" is a character who changes not just physically but
also mentally and emotionally throughout the
novel.
Catherine Barkley is certainly a "round" character
who changes dynamically throughout the course of the
novel.
Most modernist novels are existentialist and are
characterised by the fragmentation of the identity of a single character. Hemingway
reveals to us different facets of the character Catherine in the following
manner:
1. At the end of Ch.5 Frederic tells Rinaldi that
he and Catherine are "friends,"
readability="5">
So you make progress with Miss
Barkley?
We are
friends.
2.
At the end of Ch. 14 they are lovers.
3. In Ch. 18 they are
virtually husband and wife:Catherine says:
readability="5">
"We're really married. I
couldn't be any more
married."
4.
In Ch. 23 Catherine feels like a whore :
readability="5">
"But it isn't nice to
feel like one (a
whore)."
5.
At the end of Ch.23 Frederic quotes two lines from Marvell's "To His Coy
Mistress,"
And
always at my back I hearTime's winged chariot hurrying
near
Was Frederic hinting
that Catherine was like a mistress to
him.?
6. The novel ends with Catherine's death after she
had given birth to a still born child. The physical changes are: when the novel begins
she is just another woman but after she meets Frederic and falls in love with him she
becomes an unwed mother who gives birth to a still born
child.
So Catherine is a character with multiple facets to
her personality and it is impossible to comprehend her fully: she is friend, lover,
wife, whore, mistress and mother of a still born
child.
More research would certainly reveal more complex
facets to Catherine's multiple and dynamic personality and
character.
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