Lady Brett Ashley Love and Relationship Analysis Hemingway once said, “The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too” (Ernest M. Hemingway). His novel, The Sun Also Rises, demonstrated through the characters that love can be painful. He based his life through the character, Jake Barnes, throughout the novel in many ways especially love. Hemingway served in World War I where he sustained injuries and landed him in the hospital where he met a nurse named Agnes Kurowsky.
Kurowsky soon accepted his proposal of marriage but later left him for another man. Jake also served in World War I where he suffered an injury making him impotent and sending him to the hospital where he falls in love with Brett. Brett was a Voluntary Aid Detachment or V. A. D in the hospital during the war. In Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, the character, Lady Brett Ashley, is a British, charismatic and independent woman who is the emblematic of the modern women. In the beginning of the novel Jake Barnes, the narrator, describes his friend Robert Cohn and meets Lady Brett Ashley through him.
Robert is an American expatriate living in Paris, but he did not fight in World War I. One night, Jake was out with Robert Cohn and other people where he meets Lady Brett Ashley. Brett is an independent, tomboy-ish, soon-to-be divorced wife of an English Lord. She volunteered during the war and helped treat Jake’s wound he received during the war where they fell in love. She confesses to Jake that she is miserable and still loves him. His injury made him impotent and Brett is not willing to give up sex and that’s why they can’t be together.
One day, Lady Brett tells Jake that it is too hard to be near each other and she’s leaving the next day to go to San Sebastian. Jake, Bill Gorton and Cohn plan to go to Spain together to go fishing. While there, Jake runs into Brett who has returned with her fiance, Mike Campbell. They all go to Pamplona to see the bullfights. One bullfighter, Pedro Romero, stands out especially to Brett. She asks Jake to introduce her to Romero and soon after, her and Romero go off together. A couple days after, Jake learns from Mike that Romero and Brett left Pamplona together.
Jake decided to stay in San Sebastian, then receives two telegrams from Brett stating she needs his help in Madrid. He meets Brett and realizes she left Romero because he wanted her to act like a more traditional woman. That night, Brett and Jake ride in a taxi and Brett says, “We could have had such a good time together. ” He replied, “Yes, isn’t it pretty to think so? ” From the first interaction from Lady Brett Ashley in Ernest Hemingway’s, The Sun Also Rises, it becomes obvious that Brett likes to have some type of physical attraction with someone she is interested in.
Brett is truthful with herself and honest about her relationship with other men. She is an alcoholic nymphomaniac. Lady Brett is admired and pursued by all kinds of men especially Jake. Jake receives a war wound of some kind that makes him impotent. According to Chris Coyne (n. d) in the article “The Character of Lady Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises,” “She is the love of Jake’s life and she loves him too, but she and Jake both see his impotence as an impossible obstacle to a relationship and she leads a promiscuous life of romantic adventures” (para. 1). Jake talks about how his injuries are supposed to be funny.
He comments about not thinking about his war wound false and how Brett hates having anything that forces her to do something, even love. According to Ernest Hemingway (2006) in the novel The Sun Also Rises, “Besides, What happened to me is supposed to be funny. I never think about that” (p. 34). Brett will not even change her mind about the state of their relationship, not even when Jake continually pleads with her. Knowing in her heart that she would surely destroy him if they did get together, she stands against him.
Brett wants to be free above all else, and soon they both escape aving to talk about the tough situations. In the middle of the novel, Brett demonstrates that she is a harlot to men. When Jake goes to the club, he meets Brett again and develops those feelings for her again. According to Stephanie LaCava (2012) in the article “Character Studies: Lady Brett Ashley,” “Damned good-looking is better than pretty. It’s better than the colloquial hot, better than beautiful, even” (para. 1). Readers realize how much Brett’s presence has affected Jake’s mood, he deflects his feelings for her onto the other male characters mainly more on Cohn’s crush than his own.
According to Ernest Hemingway (2006) in the novel, The Sun Also Rises, “Brett was damned good-looking” (p. 30). Ernest Hemingway describes Brett as a damned good looking person because she wore a slipover jersey sweater and a tweed skirt and her hair was brushed back like a boy’s. Brett is like a magnet because Jake follows her. She may lure men with her charm. Hemingway thinks the highest female is funny, smart, and good in bed. Nothing can bother her. Lady Brett can never settle for anyone, but she is very seductive and can be channeled by anyone.
When Brett opens up, she reveals that she is unhappy, despite the whole show at the club. Later in the novel, Brett demonstrated that she is terminally unhappy and is always wanting to be with someone else. The cycle of Brett’s love story is never ending as is Jake’s sense of duty toward Brett. She always turns to Jake, the one whose love is always true because it can never be consummated, when she is in trouble. According to Chris Coyne (n. d) in the article “The Character of Lady Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises,” “Brett reiterates the idea that only Jake weren’t injured that she and Jake would have been happy together” (para. ).
This is a sentiment that Jake too has felt and believed in the past. He realizes that the only reason their love seems like it might work is that it can’t actually work. According to Ernest Hemingway (2006) in the novel, The Sun Also Rises, “We could have had such a damned good time together” (p. 250). Jake sees that if he were another ordinary man, Brett would tire of him just as she would tire others. He describes this false belief in a perfect love that is so close and yet unattainable as pretty. Jake expresses regret and pleasure at once, which defines the impossible nature of his era and experience.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway demonstrates that women in the 1920’s can have authority, determination and in need of physical attraction with someone they are interested in. In the novel, the character Lady Brett Ashley shows that she is the emblematic of the modern women. Throughout the novel, she wears clothes that she wants and can seduce men whenever. She is never satisfied with who she is with and admits she is terminally unhappy and can never be alone. In the end it is revealed that Brett still wants Jake, but also doesn’t due to the fact she won’t receive the physical attraction, only emotional.
