The Relationship Between Brett and Jake in the Sun Also Rises?

The Relationship between Brett and Jake in The Sun Also Rises?

Without some sort of relationships you and I would not be here today. Obviously, relationships are important and significant things. A relationship is a complex bond between two people, who learn about themselves through each other. In Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley’s relationship is like most, complex and eventful but both characters learn more from each other than what is typical in most relationships. However, by the end of the novel, Hemingway’s character Brett has more of an influence on Jake than he has on her.

Lady Brett Ashley and Jake Barnes relationship in the novel changes throughout the course of the novel. The book is unclear how the two came to know each other but it alludes to the fact that they have known each other for some time. At the beginning of The Sun Also Rises it doesn’t start off telling whether or not either of the two are in a relationship. However the reader knows that Jake Barnes has feelings towards Lady Brett because of the first time they meet in a Paris club. “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. She started all that. She was built with curves like the hull of a racing yacht, and you missed none of it with that wool jersey.”(Hemingway 29-30).

Jake has an obvious physical attraction to Brett but, in chapter IV the novel begins to explain the real relationship between the two. “Brett’s face was white and the long line of her neck showed in the bright light of the flares. The street was dark again and I kissed her. Our lips were tight together and then she turned away and pressed against the corner of the seat, as far away as she could get. Her head was down.

�Don’t touch me,’ she said. �Please don’t touch me.’

�What’s the matter?’

�I can’t stand it.’

�Oh, Brett’

�You mustn’t. You must know I can’t stand it, hat’s all. Oh, darling, please understand!’

�Don’t you love me?’

�Love you? I simply turn all to jelly when you touch me.’” (Hemingway 33-34).

At this point Hemmingway shows that Brett and Jake’s relationship is more then just friendship. However their relationship can never escalate to sexual level because Jake became impotent through an injury to his manhood during his services in the war.

“�Isn’t there anything we can do about it?...’

�And there’s a not a damn thing we could do,’ I said

�I don’t know she said. “I don’t want