"Love"

“‘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’ve never been able to help anything.’

‘You ought to stop it.’

‘How can I stop it? I can’t stop things.’”

-The Sun Also Rises, p 187

Reading this passage, it occurred to me that romantically, Cohn and Brett are actually remarkably similar. Both display a sort of romantic naïveté; upon meeting a person once or twice, they both believe they are in love. Cohn fell in love with his first wife because she was nice to him, then fell in love with Frances because she stayed with him. Now he is in love with Brett because of their vacation in San Sebastian.

Brett is not much better than Cohn; in many ways, actually, she is worse. First she is in love with Jake, and still claims to love him; yet she is also in love with Mike, despite her clear annoyance with him. Now she is in love with Pedro because he’s dangerous and graceful. Without knowing really anything about Pedro, other than the fact that he’s a bullfighter, Brett claims that she is “in love with him.” To me, it almost seems a bit unfair that only Cohn is being criticized for his romantic endeavors; Lady Brett has been doing the same thing for years.