In The Sun Also Rises, Earnest Hemingway describes the independent Lady Brett Ashley, the novel's female protagonist, as a selfish, careless, and superficial woman. Perhaps she was once a compassionate woman: she was a nurse during the Great War, and was at Jake Barnes' side during his recovery from his wound. 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. He is as unhappy and aimless as every other character in the novel; she drinks constantly and sleeps with almost every man she meets. Furthermore, like the sorceress Circe in Homer's Odyssey, she "turns men into pigs" (148). Often her mere presence is disruptive: on many occasions just appearing is enough and men begin to fight among themselves 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 unhappy” (32), Brett is just as unhappy as the other characters in the novel, and her depression leads her to engage in self-destructive behavior. Just as the men in the novel wander aimlessly from bar to bar, trying to drink enough alcohol to forget their problems, Brett wanders from man to man, vainly using sex as a method of lifting his spirits. She often accompanies men on their bar crawls, drinking as much as they do. His involvement in these two destructive behaviors demonstrates his misery; Brett is probably the most depressed character in the novel, second only to Jake. His emotional agony has similar origins to those of the men in the novel: the Great War. Not only has Brett been affected by the loss of her "true love" to dysentery and an abusive marriage to Lord Ashley, but she is also mentally compromised. marked by her experiences as a nurse. Even though she didn't fight in the dirt-filled trenches, Brett cared for the men who did. One can imagine that he had to calm screaming men who had lost all hope of survival, constantly telling them that they would survive. It was during her time as 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 both Brett and Jake, they are aware that there is great tension between them due to their inability to physically love each other. During their time together in Paris, unable to do anything else, Brett and Jake drive around aimlessly in taxis; their wanderings serve as a metaphor for their directionless relationships and lives. Furthermore, Brett's sexual promiscuity is her method of trying to convince herself that she is not deeply troubled by her inability to physically love Jake. While Brett is extraordinarily unhappy and disillusioned, she is also unforgivably neglectful, selfish, and destructive. As her boyfriend Mike observes, 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 immediately attracted to her and she further keeps them in check with her charisma. Unfortunately, men behave at their worst when they are around her, constantly fighting over her. For example, every time Brett appears at a restaurant or bar, arguments arise between men like her alcoholic boyfriend Mike and Robert Cohn, who is in love with her. Brett never tries to stop them, instead she sits and listens, passively absorbing everything that happens around her. Brett also "turns men into pigs".