Lady Brett Ashley from The Sun Also Rises and Daisy Buchanan
from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great
Gatsby are both tragic and flawed women of the 1920s. The Great Gatsby was published in 1925, and The Sun Also Rises was published shortly after in 1926. I do not
think that Fitzgerald influenced Hemingway, but that both authors were depicting
a lifestyle they saw among wealthy women
living at the time in the new “flapper” culture. Daisy and Brett also seem to be examples of a
new expression of feminism in the 1920s.
Both
Brett and Daisy are unable to love in a genuine fashion. This has an effect on
the men they are involved with—Robert Cohn describes Brett as “Circe, because
she turns men to swine.” Brett moves from lover to lover, never having any
meaningful connection. Throughout the novel, she also maintains a tragic love
relationship with Jake, who sometimes seems to serve as an enabler for her
behavior. Jake is impotent in more ways than one, unable to give Brett physical
love or the loving stability of friendship.
He is impassive when Cohn goes off with her and even seems to set her up
with Romero the bullfighter. Daisy Buchanan displays similarly problematic
traits, flirting with her cousin Nick, in love with Jay Gatsby, and eventually
settling for Tom. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Daisy shows a lack of
commitment as her affections go back and forth between Gatsby and Tom.
When
I began to read The Sun Also Rises, my first impressions of Brett as uncaring and
aloof reminded me strongly of Daisy. Both
Daisy and Brett live with a carefree attitude, disregarding the implications of
their actions. Brett’s alcoholism adds another level to this self-destructive
and seemingly hedonistic lifestyle. Both Daisy and Brett’s aloof worldviews
seem to be at least partially to blame for their inability to love. The only
thing Daisy truly seems to love is material possessions, as seen in the famous
scene where Gatsby’s shirts drive Daisy to tears: “It makes me sad because I’ve
never seen such beautiful shirts before.”
Both
women are beautiful and socially charming, but when we see them with their
confidents (and our narrators) Nick and Jake, the truth comes to the surface.
Daisy confides, “Well, I’ve had a very bad time, Nick, and I’m pretty cynical
about everything.” While Brett tells
Jake, “Oh, darling, I’ve been so miserable” at the beginning of the book and
“Darling, I’ve had a hell of a time” at the end. They are both deeply unhappy people, who try
to appear carefree. Their unconventional behavior, which is frivolous or even
wild, only masks tragedy.
It
is interesting that both Fitzgerald and Hemingway conceived very unsentimental
female characters. Are they reacting in some way to the “flapper” movement or
to early stirrings of feminism? Though Daisy and Brett are flawed, neither
author is overtly critical of their lifestyles. Fitzgerald and Hemingway are keen
observers of a new type of female character they have introduced into fiction.
The connection between Daisy and Brett is very noticeable and both are clearly reflecting on the new woman of the 1920s and her new freedoms in regards to clothing, activities, and romantic involvement. It's interesting to contemplate what Hemingway and Fitzgerald are trying to say about these women because to me both Brett and Daisy came off as trying really hard to be independent but still falling back into the arms of men every time they had a problem. They don't really come off as intelligent or rational people. However, like you said, the authors aren't exactly critical of them because both attract a certain amount of sympathy and completely shape the lives of the male characters in the book. I think maybe some of the negative readings towards Brett and Daisy come from a modern perspective on what feminism should be and how these women don't seem to be doing enough--or the right thing--to show women as equally competent and responsible as men.
ReplyDeleteYour presentation of Brett as a "flapper' is a good one, and I think you are right to place this right alongside contemporaries like Gatsby's Daisy. However I don't think that Jake is exactly unable to give her friendship. I think he succeeds at doing that (that's perhaps why she doesn't just discard him, among other reasons), but only *because* he's impotent in the first place. This leads to an impossible relationship that forces Jake to keep at bay no matter how much he may yearn for her.
ReplyDeleteThis is important historical and cultural context for Brett's character. It's hard to say for sure how Hemingway views Brett, and her character remains ambiguous, but I am struck that the novel isn't obviously a reaction against her and the social/sexual revolution a character like her ("she stared all that") might represent. Jake appraises her androgynous qualities with approval, despite his conservatism on other sexual matters, like his intolerant views on her companions at the start of the novel. And while he resents the universe making a sexual relationship with her impossible, Jake (and Hemingway?) doesn't really harsh on her for her promiscuity--he tolerates it, but he also seems to accept and eventually enable it. We could easily imagine this novel going in another direction, depicting Brett as a kind of evil temptress, a "Circe" as Cohn calls her. But Cohn sounds ridiculous and melodramatic when he says this, and the novel takes a much more "tolerant" approach to Brett--and maybe, by extension, to the "New Woman"?
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