Love

“L is for the way you look at me O is for the only one I see V is very, very extraordinary E is even more than anyone that you adore” (Cole, 1965). This theme of love is represented in the novel The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. In  The Sun Also Rises, there are two types of love that are  strongly displayed. Unfulfilled love and unrequited love. Unrequited is one sided love, not reciprocated. Unfulfilled is never ending love, but due to circumstances will never come to be.  Throughout this novel, both loves are shown and displayed. Jake and Brett show unfulfilled love and Cohn shows unrequited love toward Brett.

Cohn, one of the main characters appears to be happily married to his wife. However Jake does not believe this to be true love. Jake says “ For three years, or almost three years, he had never seen beyond Frances. I am sure he had never been in love in his life” (Hemingway, 5). Beyond obligation, Cohn has not really been in love. He does not really know what love is. This all changed when he met Brett. The one woman he really loved he cannot have. He demonstrates unrequited love with Brett when Jake says “Cohn sat at the table. His face had the sallow, yellow look it got when he was insulted but somehow he seemed to be enjoying it. The childish, drunken heroics of it. It was his affair with a lady of title” (Hemingway, 94). Cohn is only in love with her because of her title of “Lady”. However,  he is still in love.  Brett is with another man at this time and this love to Cohn is unrequited. This rejection from Brett creates such anger and jealousy. In a fit of anger Cohn almost kills Brett’s boyfriend Romero, and  in turn almost loses his best friend Jake. This love for Brett is one sided , it  will never become more than that.  

Jake and Brett display themes of unfulfilled love. Due to Jake’s injury,  he is unable to be in a loving  physical relationship. Both he and Brett love each other, but could never be together due to this. In one of their conversations, they say “Do you still love me, Jake?”  “Yes,” I said. “Because I’m a goner,” Brett said. “How?”  “I’m a goner. I’m mad about the Romero boy. I’m in love with him I think.” “I wouldn’t be if I were you.” “I can’t help it. I’m a goner. It’s tearing me all up inside” (Hemingway, 97).  Brett and  Romero  are in a relationship, however she and Jake still show signs of  love for  each other. Brett is trying not to, but she continues to have feeling for Jake. As Ms. Waterman said in class “you do not choose who you love”,  Jake and Brett demonstrate this.  Also in the novel, Jake says “Couldn’t we live together, Brett? Couldn’t we just live together?” (Hemingway, 33).  This is another example of them loving each other and wanting to be with  each other, but knowing it would not and could not work. The worst feeling is wanting something you cannot have. Brett said  “No,” she said. “I think it’s hell on earth.” (Hemmingway, 14).  When she says ‘hell on earth’, she is referring to the love between her and Jake. It is like ‘hell’ because it will never work out and the feeling of not knowing what they could have been.

The final line of the book  exemplifies unfulfilled love. In the final discussion, Jake and Brett say to each other  “Oh, Jake,” Brett said, “we could have had such a damned good time together.” Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki  directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me. “Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” (Hemingway, 129). This is the moment when Jake finally realizes there love is unfulfilled. When he says ‘Isn’t it pretty to think so?’, he is imagining what it could have been, but acknowledging it will not happen. When Brett says ‘we could have had such a damned good time together’, she is wishing they could have worked out, that love could have been enough.

Jake and Brett will never know what could have been. Cohn loves Brett but, it can’t be reciprocated.  Cohn’s unrequited love does not last when he realizes how one sided his situation is. Jake and Brett’s love remains unfulfilled . The love they feel for one another may never end. As Ernest Hemingway once said “[we are] always in love.”