Receptive Changes Of Brett Ashley In Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises

Brett Ashley, the female protagonist of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, has been viewed as a destructive force since the publication of the novel. Critics see her as an emasculating bitch, nymphomaniac, or Circe who dehumanizes men. Negative charges against Brett Ashley prevail until the1980s in America and the1990s in China. Based on reader response theories, this thesis aims to discuss the receptive changes of Brett Ashley.There are three chapters apart from the introduction and conclusion. The introduction discusses the significance of the re-assessment of this character due to the changing responses to her. Chapter Ⅱ ushers in the main arguments devoted to Brett Ashley in America and in China. Chapter Ⅱ explores the receptive changes of Brett Ashley. By investigating the social and historical background of her time, this chapter discusses whether she is a destructive and dissipated androgynous woman or a recuperative and moral woman. Chapter Ⅲ analyzes the new woman quality of Brett Ashley. By discussing her behavior and attributes and contrasting her with two other female characters of her time, this chapter positions Brett Ashley as a positive force, a complex character with mothering qualities, a determined new woman who makes an attempt to define her own moral code and to live honestly in a postwar society. The conclusion points out the fact that the positive view about Brett Ashley might still be challenged at present.