The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway is a meticulously constructed story in the era of disillusionment that followed the First World War. It frames a loose alliance of the "lost generation" and shows an indirect view of the forces that drive them. After the "Great War" love was among the many emotions that remained extinguished. The ideals of love that existed from the Romantic era to the Victorian age were in steady decline during the age of industry. The dilution and redefinition of love in The Sun Also Rises is revealed from different perspectives through its damaged characters in both a romantic and platonic sense. Hemingway effectively uses the characters of Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn to represent different perspectives on love brought about by war and post-war sentiment. Although the two have contrasting attitudes towards love and life, they share a very similar perception of themselves. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Of all the characters in the story, Brett Ashley is probably the most damaged. Having lost her first husband and "true love" to dysentery, she soon after married Lord Ashley in the midst of the war. During the war he had served as a member of the Volunteer Relief Detachment. Brett would witness every atrocity of the war and witness few, if any, of its triumphs. Adding to her experiences, her shell-shocked sailor husband, Lord Ashley, had become emotionally abusive and threatening. Undoubtedly scarred by this, she becomes engaged to the bankrupt Mike Cambell and begins to display an emotionally detached promiscuity while in the process of divorcing her wartime husband. Swoonful by many but swayed only by temptation, she uses her looks as an asset and remorsefully obeys her disillusioned heart. Brett's character's self-image is best displayed when he confides in his rarest and most loyal platonic friend, Jake: “I'm a goner. I'm crazy about the Romero guy. I'm in love with him, I think” (Hemingway 187). Having recently met Pedro Romero, it becomes clear that Brett is unable to distinguish between interest, attraction and love. Jake further investigates her motives, and Brett reveals an irrational vulnerability: “I have to do something. I have to do something I really want to do. I have lost my self-respect” (187). This loss of self-respect is a driving force behind Brett's lustful behavior. Jake neither doubts nor denies his lack of dignity; having met Brett while she was a VAD, Jake is attuned to her fragile and distorted emotional state. Even if he can't fully understand his decisions, he is certainly aware of the trauma he carries with him. For Brett Ashley, romantic love is dictated by emotions devoid of reason and is completely distinct from, but included in, the relationship. It appears that Brett used sex on a platonic level as a means of comforting or sympathizing, as must have been the case with Robert Cohn in San Sebastian. One of the major disparities that differentiate Cohn from other depictions in the novel is the fact that Robert Cohn, "... would have rather been in America" ​​(13). Unlike the unaffiliated entities he surrounds himself with, Cohn reveres his home country. His time in Europe was less of an opportunity for change and more of an extended vacation. Cohn had had no involvement in the war and was therefore little affected by it. He had lived a repressed and self-centered life as a Jew in an age of anti-Semitism. When he was at Princeton, to escape negative feelings of inferiority and self-consciousness, Cohn began reading "too much" (11). He adopted many of his own””.