In The Sun Also Rises, Earnest Hemingway portrays the independent Lady Brett Ashley, the main female character of the novel, as a selfish, careless, and superficial woman . She may once have been a compassionate woman: she was a nurse during the Great War and was by Jake Barnes' side during his recovery from his injury. However, the loss of her "true love" to dysentery during the war and Jake's inability to love her physically are two factors that have left her disillusioned. She is just as unhappy and aimless as all the other characters in the novel; she drinks constantly and sleeps with almost every man she meets. Moreover, like the witch Circe in Homer's Odyssey, she “transforms men into pigs” (148). Often her mere presence is disturbing: often all it takes is her appearance and men start fighting over her. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay As she confides to Jake Barnes: "Oh, honey, I've been so miserable" (32), Brett is just as unhappy than the other characters in the novel, and her depression leads her to adopt self-destructive behavior. Just as the men in the novel wander aimlessly from bar to bar, trying to imbibe enough alcohol to forget their problems, Brett wanders from man to man, unsuccessfully using sex as a method to cheer himself up. She often accompanies the men on their bar crawls, drinking as much as they do. His engagement in these two destructive behaviors demonstrates his misery; Brett is arguably the most depressed character in the novel, just behind Jake. His emotional agony has origins similar to those of the men in the novel: the Great War. Brett was not only affected by the loss of her "true love" to dysentery and an abusive marriage to Lord Ashley, but was also mentally affected. marked by her experiences as a nurse. Although she didn't fight in the filthy trenches, Brett cared for the men who did. We can imagine that she had to calm screaming men who no longer had any hope of survival, constantly telling them that they would live. It was while she was a nurse that Brett met Jake and therefore always knew about his injury. Despite this, they still fall in love. However, as the reader gets to know Brett and Jake, they realize that there is a lot of tension between them due to their inability to love each other physically. During their time together in Paris, unable to do anything else, Brett and Jake drive aimlessly in a taxi; their wanderings serve as a metaphor for their relationship and their directionless lives. Additionally, Brett's sexual promiscuity is her method of trying to convince herself that she is not deeply upset by her inability to physically love Jake. Although Brett is extraordinarily unhappy and disillusioned, she is also inexcusably carefree, selfish, and disruptive. As her fiancé Mike points out, Brett, like Circe, “turns men into pigs” (148). An extremely beautiful woman who knows how to show off her figure, Brett constantly attracts both positive and negative attention to herself. Men are instantly attracted to her and she overpowers them further with her charisma. Unfortunately, men are on their worst behavior when around her, constantly fighting over her. For example, whenever Brett appears at a restaurant or bar, quarrels ensue between men like her alcoholic fiancé Mike and Robert Cohn, who is in love with her. Brett doesn't try.