In Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry finds in his relationship with Catherine Barkley – a relationship they consider a marriage – security, comfort, and tangible sensations of love: things that devotion and conventional religious practice had not been able to offer him. Federico does not love God, he is only "afraid of Him at night sometimes", a consequence of the guilt felt after having abandoned himself to the immoral sexual pleasures of the brothel (72). Frederic and Catherine have no religion other than mutual love, yet he retains a sort of deep-rooted religious sensitivity. Sex is something at the heart of both the Catholic tradition (in terms of dogma) and the relationship between Frederic and Catherine, and is a source of mental conflict for Frederic. Their love for each other becomes like a substitute for religion, their ritual practice is sex; however, Catherine's death at the end of the novel is a direct result of their premarital sexual relations. Although Frederic cannot completely shake off his guilt and religiously inspired sexual anxiety, he continues to have premarital sex. At the end of the novel, he is blindsided by a great loss and is forced to recognize, too late, that his great love - his religion - could not last and that the premarital sex that was his ritual could only provide temporary happiness. , such as sexual activity inevitably results in emotional and physical degradation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Italian Catholicism featured in A Farewell to Arms is hostile to premarital sexuality. Aymo's two “probably very religious” Catholic virgin peasants have a strong emotional response to Aymo's use of the word “––––“, “the vulgar word” for sex (197,196). They misunderstand its meaning; we begin to sob in fear. Frederic's sexual improprieties are the source of much emotional and spiritual turmoil and affect him in a way not entirely dissimilar to that of Catholic girls, their fear inspired by a desire not to violate the tenets of their religion. Frederic fears God at night, guilty of what the priest calls "passion and lust" (72). Rinaldi jokingly describes Federico's actions upon returning home from the brothels: he tries to “brush Villa Rossa away from [his] teeth,” to “[sweep away] prostitution with a toothbrush” (168). There is a stigma linked to sexuality due to the cultural prevalence of Catholic belief, the repercussions of which (guilt) can also affect those who do not necessarily believe or follow the precepts of the religion. Despite feelings of guilt and fear inspired by religion, Frederic has no affection for God or Catholicism. “I have always been embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, sacrifice, and the expression in vain,” he says (184). These abstractions are not identifiable: “I had seen nothing sacred” (185). Where the abstract is obscene, the concrete has dignity. For Frederic, Catholicism cannot offer him anything tangible, and therefore it is of no use to him, it has no meaning. However, his love for Catherine is something that can be made tangible and intimately relatable through sex – their sex thus achieving something akin to the status of religious ritual. Their love is not based on sacrifice, but on the need, emotional and physical, that can be satisfied by their relationship. However, Federico's "religious" love for Catherine must compete with his peculiar tendency to adhere, without thinking, to elements of the Catholic tradition. Catherine, however, is firmly against the thought” (327).