Now let’s look at a few ways we can analyze the title using the word "arms." Since the book spends much time describing the horrors of World War I, the title can be seen as a plea to the world to say "farewell" to wars and the weapons we use to fight them. The fighting itself is not romanticized, but instead presented starkly and realistically as something nobody in their right mind would be sad to stop doing.
While the novel presents a romantic view of war, in that the fact of war intensifies the characters’ relationships, some of the characters wound themselves in terrible ways to keep from facing the horror of the battlefield. Unless the poem is ironic as well, we don’t think this is quite what Hemingway had in mind. The poem was written to Queen Elizabeth and is a lament that the poet can longer serve the queen by fighting in battles. If Hemingway did refer to the poem intentionally, it’s an ironic homage for sure. Critics note that the poem shows the poet undergoing a series of transformations, somewhat similar to those experienced by Frederic Henry. Nobody knows for sure if he even knew the poem existed.
There is also a poem, written by George Peel in the 1500s, called "A Farewell to Arms." (Check it out here.) Although it has become a commonly accepted "fact," it is only assumed that Hemingway consciously borrowed his title from the George Peele poem. The first two interpretations stem from the dual meaning of the word "arms." "Arms" refers to the "arms" or weapons used in wars, and to the embracing "arms" of human beings. Critics are basically in agreement that there are three straightforward interpretations of the title, though there are many different ways to analyze the novel in terms of those interpretations.
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