Theme of Love and Pain in Ernest Hemingway the Sun also Rises

Abstract

The story centers on the narrator, Jake Barnes and his love interest, Lady Brett Ashley, with whom he is unable to sustain a romantic relationship due to a war injury that has rendered him impotent. In this article love is shown in a very superficial manner. It is so because most of the characters are self-seeking in love. Love fails to offer it’s natural and becomes a dehumanizing force. The love between Jake and Brett does not rise to desirable proportions because Jake is physically disabled and Brett is spiritually incapacitated. Had Brett not been so, the union with Romero should have proved to be a perfect one. The failure of their love was not the failure of Romero who is both bodily and spiritually sound; it is owing to the inadequacy of Brett as a beloved her in ability of total absorption in love and surrender to her lover. Jake is the suitable partner in love who can act for the happiness of another and can rising above all self-seeking, but he fails to give physical satisfaction. Romero’s love possesses Brett fully for a time and brings some change which has a moral significance in her character and sheds light on what love can really do if it is perfect. This novel provides a clue about Hemingway’s negative attitude to love.