Lady Brett Ashley--- Bad Role Model Essay Example

The Sun Also Rises is a very interesting book written in the 1920's. The character of Lady Brett Ashley also influenced many women in that time period on how they acted, dressed, and the choices they made in their everyday lifes. Lady Brett Ashley is a very tart character. She goes after men and has sex with them and then they provide everything for her. She is probably the most unsympathic character in the whole story. She uses men then discards them once they are of no use to her. As Cohn, "says she is Circe, who turns men into swine". By turning them into lower creatures, she uses them and then kills them at the right moment. To start with; Lady Brett Ashley is as a very odd character taking on masculine roles. Instead of playing the timid young woman, Brett, known as the "New Woman," is able to take what she wants. She is first introduced arriving at a bar with a group of homosexual men. Her association with homosexuals may be that she relates to them better than her straight friends because, like Brett, the homosexual men are also looking for male companionship. Another masculine detail Lady Brett Ashley shows is her excessive drinking habits. According to John W. Crowley in The White Logic," drinking is a masculine trait." The act of drinking, especially in a bar, is inherently male and “integral to the rugged ideal of manliness." "There is more to Lady Brett Ashley than just sex and booze, but everything is intertwined with both. She is shallow and self-centered, caring only for herself. Brett’s relationship with Jake is a love/hate relationship at best." She knows they both love each other, but because she is so selfish, and herinability to come to terms with his impotence;she continues to stay in his life, leaving them both miserable. "Oh darling," Brett said, "I’m so miserable." I had that feeling of going through something that has all happened before. "You were happy a minute ago." Brett is usually able to hide her misery from other members of the