Is Brett the Main Character in The Sun Also Rises?

During panel presentations today, one group while discussing the role Brett plays in the novel brought up the idea that in some ways she is the main character of The Sun Also Rises. Although Jake is the narrator of the novel and the only character whose thoughts we have access to, Brett is truly the person who drives the plot and who the other characters are defined in relation to. She is also the character who arguably shows the most growth over the course of the novel.

Although Brett is not introduced until the end of chapter three, it is only when she makes her first appearance that we get some real insight into Jake and the plot starts to pick up. Jake’s feelings for Brett are the first thing in the novel to dismantle his “tough-guy” facade and allow the reader to see through to his actual character. The scenes in the taxi with Jake and Brett, and then of Jake alone in his room thinking about her paint a clearer and more honest picture of him than we had gotten in the entire three chapters preceding. This theme of the reader learning more about Jake through his interactions with and feelings for Brett continues throughout the novel, from where she comforts him in his bedroom to their conversations in Pamplona to the final scene in the taxi in Madrid.

Brett is also the character who drives the plot of The Sun Also Rises. If she were not in the novel, there would not be much of a story to tell. Jake would continue with his life on the outskirts of expatriate society in Paris, interrupted by a brief interlude in Spain where he fishes with his old friend Bill. The trip would be made only slightly less relaxing by the presence of his annoying acquaintance Cohn. There would be almost none of the tension that exists between Cohn and Jake, Mike would be out of the picture entirely, and Jake’s value system would remain unchallenged as he and his friends wholeheartedly joined Montoya in supporting Romero in the bullfights. Brett is the character who again and again defies the reader and characters’ expectations, creates the tension and drama, and forces the other characters to question their values and what they hold to be true.

Brett is also the character who grows the most over the course of the novel. At the beginning, she is perpetually drinking and rushes from one relationship to the next to avoid looking back at the damage both that she’s caused and that’s been done to her. However, in the last chapters she acknowledges that she “can’t just stay tight all the time” and is able to stop and reflect on the status of her relationships instead of just continuing to rush forwards. She sends Romero away when his intention to marry and reform her becomes apparent, plans on returning to Mike whom she identifies as the best match personality-wise for her and someone who will still allow her to have the freedom and lifestyle she wants, and in the final scene appears to be resigned to the fact that she and Jake will never be able to have the relationship they had hoped for.

The Lost Generation

“You are all a lost generation.” -Gertrude Stein in conversation

“One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever. . . . The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose. . . . The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. . . . All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” -Ecclesiastes

The two epigraphs that Hemingway includes at the beginning of The Sun Also Rises paint an ambiguous portrait of the generation of young adults affected by WWI whose lives he depicts in the novel.

There are two ways that the second epigraph (Ecclesiastes) could be interpreted. One could read it as saying that generations are simply something that come and go against the larger background of the earth that “abideth forever” and the natural world. Human life is presented as transient, temporary, and ultimately unimportant against this background. Regardless of the state of human life, the earth keeps turning and the sun will continue to rise and set. In this context, having Gertrude Stein describe Hemingway and the characters’ of The Sun Also Rises generation as “lost” does not have a large impact. The little blip in the cycle that they are is insignificant in the larger cycle of generations, and even more so when compared to the natural world.

However, you could also read the second epigraph as comparing the cycle from one generation to the next to things as fundamental as the sun rising and setting. All of the elements of nature mentioned in the epigraph are described in a cyclical way. The sun rises, sets, and goes back to the place where it rose. The wind “whirleth about continually, and … returneth again according to its circuits”. The rivers flow into the sea and then back to the places where they began. This imagery echoes how as “one generation passeth away… another cometh”. In this context, Stein’s description of the generation described in The Sun Also Rises as “lost” takes on a much greater significance. Imagine if one day the sun didn’t rise, or rivers just stopped flowing. Like in those extreme cases, a piece of a recurring cycle we take for granted is simply gone.

So which reading of the epigraphs did Hemingway intend and base his novel on? I would say both. On the surface, the struggles of the “lost generation” seem negligible. Almost none of the characters we’ve met has a job, they spend almost every night out drinking, dancing, and talking, and none of them (except for Robert Cohn who Jake makes fun of) take anything seriously. However, once you get beneath the surface, the reader sees that the characters do have very real struggles, as well as trauma associated with the war.

The Admirable Hugh

A large amount of the comic relief in Mrs. Dalloway comes in the form of Hugh Whitbread. Although a relatively minor character, Hugh, who was a friend of Clarissa’s at Bourton and is now in the same social circle as she and Richard, has had two substantial appearances so far. Woolf has taken advantage of both of these to poke fun at “the admirable Hugh”. He is introduced as “Hugh Whitbread; her old friend Hugh--the admirable Hugh!”, and is described a having a “very well-covered, manly, extremely handsome, perfectly upholstered body”, and while not particularly intelligent or original, “a good sort in his own way” and “still not a positive imbecile”.

The mockery continues when Hugh and Mr. Dalloway attend a lunch at Lady Bruton’s. Hugh is reintroduced as he walks down the street, “ruminating” on a variety of topics he has in the past brushed the surface of (“dead languages, the living, life in Constantinople, Paris, Rome; riding shooting, tennis,”) without pursuing at any meaningful depth. When he arrives at Lady Bruton’s, he greets the secretary by asking, as he always has, if her brother is doing well in South Africa despite the fact that “for half a dozen years, he had been doing badly in Portsmouth”, and when Lady Bruton mentions that Peter is back in town “They all smiled. Peter Walsh! And Mr. Dalloway was genuinely glad, Milly Brush thought; and Mr. Whitbread thought only of his chicken.”

I could continue to catalog a list of Hugh’s funniest moments, but why does Woolf take this mockery to such an extent? And why even include a character like Hugh at all in a novel as serious and nostalgia-laden as Mrs. Dalloway in the first place? I think to Woolf, Hugh is another representation of the Edwardians she criticizes in her essays and of the English upper class and their culture in general. He has a vaguely described job in Parliament or Buckingham Palace, and is described by Peter, one of the most astute characters we have encountered so far as having “no heart, no brain, nothing but the manners and breeding of an English gentleman”. Despite having perfect manners, a job in government, and being well-off and part of an elite social circle, we see that on the inside Hugh is shallow, materialistic, less than intelligent, and so blundering it’s comical.

These criticisms also fit in with how Woolf critiques the people lining the streets and trying to catch a glimpse of the Queen (or maybe it’s the Prime Minister) during the motor car montage sequence. Again using irony and humor she undermines their reverence, patriotism, and awe with the fact that nobody has any idea who’s in the car, and by diverting the attention of the crowd with a toffee advertisement as the car finally enters Buckingham Palace. It will be interesting to see if Woolf continues to use humor and irony as methods of social criticism, and how the critiques she makes in Mrs. Dalloway connect to her identity as a modern writer and her ideas on how novels should be written.