NEW APPROACH OF HEMINGWAY’S IRONY-FOCUSING ON A FAREWELL TO ARMS-

The irony in A Farewell to Arms has been analyzed through the prism of ambiguity or paradox emphasizing a nihilistic interpretation. Unlike the existing approach, this study is to elucidate irony as a role to pursue a new vision of life, noting that the hero in this novel recognizes an absurd world and purifies his soul beyond unbearable limits. Søren Kierkegaard (1992) says that human beings can be spiritually matured by recognizing irony. [1, p504] This quote helps readers understand how the protagonist, Frederic Henry, is able to maintain an existential life without losing stoicism under the absurd circumstances that he should not be able to endure. This study will also observe how the emotion of fear when people are faced with death, is sublimated into irony, which transcends the suffering, and how Hemingway makes readers, who can never be free from unfair situations, aware of what true life is by realizing irony. By suggesting the direction of the existential life with irony, A Farewell to Arms is worth discussing through a new perspective for its educational value by those who are in countries in which the possibility of war still exists, such as Korea.