Amber's

Lady Brett Ashley in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises represents liberated post

World War 1 women. “Her hair was brushed back like a boys” (30) and her

dominating personality dances like a feminine chap throughout the novel. While it may

seem Brett Ashley is unsympathetic she is a positive and radical role model. She is defiant

to behavioral rules of the time period and she believes in equal rights between man and

women. She exercises her strength and equality immediately after being introduced in the

Novel by saying, “…give a chap a brandy and soda.”(29) Lady Ashley is not a meek

woman however her free spirit was earned and not always prominate. It is suggested that

she had an abusive marriage and her husband made her sleep on the floor. As a twice

divorced thirty four-year-old women it is clear she is not happy. Her spell put upon men

around her is an unnoticed action of revenge from her own broken up marriages.

Independent by choice Lady Brett Ashley aimlessly bounces flamboyantly from

relationship to relationship drowning casually in liquor along the way. It is easy to

sympathize with Lady Brett Ashley because of her soft spot for Jake Barnes, a man who

Became impotent from a war wound. When Jake asks Brett if she loves him she says she

“Simply turns to jelly” when he touches her. During the same conversation her blasé

Attitude changes and after Jake laughs off his war injury Bretts “eyes looked flat again”

(35) Showing her sadness of the situation. Brett complains to Jake that her life is

Unsatisfactory and miserable. As a liberated women sex and is significant to Lady Ashley

And without it she is incapable of a commitment but it is clear that her wild heart is loyal to

Her friend Jake regardless of her many affairs. Brett may prefer independence with her

Actions but her sadness is a strong price to pay for a liberated lifestyle. World War 1 is

Essential in Hemingway’s creation of Brett’s Character. The women of The Lost generation

Act out in antagonistic ways, and Brett is no exception. She displays her parade of men in

Front of other romances in a way that could appear cruel. However because her display is so

Extremely defiant it appears she is only testing the men and their loyalty towards her in a

Testing game. She delights in the attention she receives from men but her happiness is never

Truly existent. Brett is not a selfish woman and this is apparent again when she becomes

Involved with a young bullfighter fifteen years younger than her. This is an obvious attempt

At recapturing the youth she once had before her abusive marriages. In a selfless attempt she

breaks off the relationship in order to spare the career of the young bullfighter. Brett never

treats any man cruelly however her puppetry of men is displayed in a disruptive manner just

as any other chap of the post war period would do in order to exude masculinity, which may

be a symbol of strength. Like a bullfighter Brett kills bold hearts in a charming performance

balancing her feminine and equal rights as a woman chap. Lady Ashley like the other

characters in Hemingway’s novel know that during this time “Nobody ever lives their lives

all the way up except (bull) fighters”(18) and Brett is a liberated fighter.