Sun Also Rises

5 Pages 1175 Words

Lady Brett as a “Modern Woman”
“Brett was damned good-looking. She wore a slipover jersey sweater and a tweed skirt, and her hair was brushed back like a boy’s (Hemingway 29-30).” This was not a normal look for a lady at the time and Hemingway is using this to give the reader a feel how the “modern woman” looks. Brett stands out as the type of girl that all men would love to take home with them and, she knows it. Brett denies the only man she truly loves, distances herself from another man in which she shares a short-lived love affair, breaks it off with a bullfighter for whom she fell, and plans to marry a man for superficial reasons. Hemingway’s condemnation of Brett and the “modern woman” are shown through her relationships with Jake, Mike, Robert, and Pedro.
In the first pages of the novel, we are introduced to Robert Cohn. Cohn is a middle-aged Jewish writer with a dream of one day going to South America in order to get away from Paris. As soon as Brett is introduced into Cohn’s life, he forgets all about his dream because it is worth staying Paris if he can be with her. One of his first comments about her is, “She’s a remarkably attractive woman (46).” Hemingway’s condemnation of the “modern woman” is first exemplified when Cohn asks Brett to dance. “The music started and Robert Cohn said: ‘Will you dance with me, Lady Brett?’ Brett smiled at him. ‘I’ve promised to dance this with Jacob…’ ‘How about the next?’ asked Cohn. ‘We’re going,’ Brett said. ‘We’ve a date up at Montmartre (30).” Although the reader might not suspect anything from this quote, it is ironic because later on in the novel Brett and Cohn make a trip to San Sebastian, Spain together. Brett is in control of the situation with Cohn and has him at her disposal. Brett asks Cohn on this trip for purely her own sexual desires. Hemingway uses Brett and Cohn’s relationship to show th...