Do I really need this post? I feel like the topic of Brett has been exhausted is class discussions, but it never hurts to hate on a deserving character some more. I've decided to give Brett the benefit of the doubt, and argue that she isn't an inconsiderate bitch (that argument is too easy to make). Instead, I think that she is just clueless. That is the only plausible explanation for a lot of her actions, if being heartless and inconsiderate is not an option. Given her obvious feelings for Jake, I think that (at least in situations regarding our handicapped narrator) she just fails to realize how much her flings with other men hurt him. If she was aware of the effect they had on Jake, surely she would stop immediately. Only at the end of the book does she start to become aware of the fact that she really has the power to chance a man's life, and she is frightened by this knowledge. In fact, when she is realizing this, I actually come close to pitying her--that is, until I realize that she is only frightened and confused because she led on multiple guys and was quite ungrateful to them in the process.
I think that part of the reason Brett is ignorant about Jake's true feelings is that he is determined to not let her know. He's a great guy, so he wants her to be happy no matter what--even if that means more emotional pain for himself. Still, it seems pretty obvious that you don't ask your "one true love" to hook you up with some random spanish guy.
Nevertheless, I find it impossible to maintain that Brett is just stupid; there is undeniably some ungratefulness and inconsiderateness going on with her. What we did not cover as much as I had hoped for in class was her relationship with Mike, since her actions affect him as well as Jake. Mike, however, is not nearly as good of a guy as Jake is. (As Brett says, they are good for each other.) He isn't as good at putting her misguided happiness ahead of his emotional wellbeing, so his reaction to her going off with Romero and Cohn is more jealous than Jake's which is mainly regretful. At the end of the book, Brett expects to go back to Mike, assuming that he will take her no matter what. For me, this really speaks volumes about how ungrateful she is. He doesn't have to take her back, he doesn't owe her anything! She left him! What Brett assumes is that she can do basically whatever she wants, with no consequences. After all, whats to stop her from hooking up with whoever she wants if she can go back to her fiancee afterwards and pretend it never happened? No level of simply stupidity could account for that; it remains that Brett is without a doubt ungrateful.
The final argument I have against Brett is that she seems to pretend to reform without having any real commitment to doing so. At the end of the novel, when she is talking to Jake, she says that she's going to change, and wants him to help her through the hard times that will surely be encountered. Of course, this could be her cluelessness, but to me it seems obvious that Jake is not going to hold her to ANY OBLIGATION WHATSOEVER. If she decides to sleep with the Count next week, Jake won't do anything to stop her, since he sees the act as one that makes her happy. If it isn't cluelessness, Brett is saying an empty resolution with the knowledge that she will not be held to it if she chooses to go against it. I can't truly be annoyed at her for this, since we never find out what happens after she decides to "go straight", but judging from her past actions, the reformation will be short-lived.
Overall, I have to say that I just do not respect Lady Brett Ashley.
2 comments:
Yeah, Mike is kind of the wild card here. He "behaves badly," which among this crew means "making a scene" instead of swallowing it down, like Jake does. But I'm not even sure I agree that this makes him less of a "good guy"--he just wears his emotions on his sleeve, and he is hurt and outraged at Brett flaunting her affairs in his face like this. Because unlike Jake, Mike seems equally hurt by her attraction to Romero as to Cohn (the "bullfighter" and the "Jew"--both *others*), whereas Jake pretty willingly sets her up with Romero (for which Mike should have some beef with Jake, no? Some friend!).
That's a really good point; I didn't really address how Mike and Jake differ in their opinions of Romero. While "wearing his emotions on his sleeve" does not necessarily disqualify him from the "good guy" pool, it does mean that he lacks some of the tact Jake shows when dealing with Romero and Cohn (most of the time). Now that I think about it, your point about Mike not being mad at Jake seems to say something about either his expectations of Brett or his closeness with Jake-- which never struck me as anywhere near the level of Jake and Bill's attachment, so I am inclined to think that Mike assumes that Brett will be Brett, and would have slept with Romero without Jake's help.
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