A Rebellious Woman Against Tradition

The Sun Also Rises is one of the masterpieces by Ernest Hemingway. Brett Ashley,the female protagonist, has long been the focus of attention from the critical world. For her superficial promiscuity and immorality many critics held negative attitudes towards Brett Ashley. Consequently, Brett has been regarded as a "Circe" or"the Fatal Woman of the Twenties". Owing to the portrayal of Brett as a destructive woman, Hemingway himself has long been accused of being a misogynist. This thesis attempts to reexamine the novel and its female protagonist from a new perspective, applying the theory of psychoanalysis to the analysis of the character, discovering that Brett emerges as a woman in a special historical background, pushed by the modernity and fettered by tradition. Meanwhile, based on the deep analysis of Brett's complex personality, it is possible to say that Hemingway is a writer, who has strong female consciousness and excellent ability to depict how women of his times lived their lives in the world. As a result, it's not hard for us to conclude that despite his complicated affection for women, Hemingway is still a writer with positive attitude towards women on the whole.