Brett and Circe

I was reading the story of Circe in the library, and since I was looking for it, a lot of similarities came up with Brett from The Sun Also Rises. Circe is a witch who trapped Odysseus’ men and turned them into pigs, but then fell in love with Odysseus who remained immune to her magical powers due to Hermes’ antidote. Circe frees all of the men and they remain on the island until Odysseus decides to leave. She ends up helping him in the end, telling him his next path in the journey- although this is the Underworld, so it’s not a great place. She lives on an island, in control over her victims, a mistress to her land. She has tamed animals, and lives with a bunch of nymphs. When Odysseus comes, she tries and gives him everything he desired (but freedom), and holds onto him quite tightly. She poisons people with a drink before she touches them with her wand.

Brett is much the same. She sort of lives alone in her own world- not that she may want to, but everyone treats her differently. For instance, in Spain, Brett attracts the attention of not only men, but also women: “The woman standing in the door of the wine-shop looked at us as we passed. She called to some one in the house and three girls came to the window and stared. They were staring at Brett” (142). Brett is separate from other women, and hangs around mostly guys, as Circe does around Odysseus and his men. She has control over these men- she being both Circe and Brett. With her beauty and her “magic” (in Brett’s case, I think her independent and elegant atmosphere), both of them have power over their “victims”, the people whom they turn into swine. Cohn in The Sun Also Rises makes this direct connection: “'He calls here Circe,’ Mike said. ‘He claims she turns men into swine’” (148). While Brett does not literally turn men into animals, she does bring out the worst in people. In an essay I read, the author describes:

“Cohn engages in brawls with a number of Brett’s other lovers, including Mike, Romero, and even his close friend, Jake Barnes. Brett weakens men by heightening their desires, turning men into animals and against each other, like Circe. In doing so, Brett strips them of their masculine unity. She sleeps around, though one man at a time, performing sexually as a man would stereotypically do, turning the men in her path into hopeless monogamist saps.”

While this may be a bit harsh, I do think there is a point made here; what I find particularly interesting is the idea that “Brett strips them of their masculine unity”. And it’s somewhat true. Brett is “one of the guys”, and in doing this she may make some of the friends question who they are. She pits the men against one another, Cohn and Jake fighting, Mike and Cohn fighting- in fact, it is only Bill who seems immune to her “powers”. I wonder why that is.

The difference between Circe and Brett is that Circe only fell in love with one man, while Brett debatably falls in love numerous times. However, both of them have a certain hatred for love and attachment, and yet both of them fall pray to it.

I’m not sure where Brett would parallel the part where Circe helps Odysseus move on with his life. I mean, assuming that Odysseus is Jake, the author of the essay mentioned above says something to the contrary:

“Brett specifically targets Jake, though certainly not with malicious intent. In the ending scene, Brett presses aggressively into Jake as she speculates about what they could have had, taunting him with unattainable love as well as her bodily presence. Assuming the masculine role Jake is unable to fill, Brett emasculates Jake psychologically."

Brett certainly in the end makes Jake tumble off the cliff. He finally gets really drunk when Brett goes off with Romero, and admits that he is “tight” (227) for the first time. More than that, after he is all alone he goes back to Paris and returns to the philosophy about paying what you get- for example he spends a lot of money so he can get a lot of friends. He seems to be a lot less sure of himself, and feels the need for people to like him. In a way, he is emasculated. Brett, unknowingly or not, “taunts” Jake. I noticed as I read a version of Circe’s story, however, that Odysseus helps Circe just as much as she helps him. Before, Circe had a “dark past” where I gathered that she was married earlier or something, which is paralleled with Brett’s lost love. In the end of The Sun Also Rises, I think Brett realizes that she isn’t that great of a person. She mentions how Romero wanted her to get “more womanly” (246), and then she starts to cry: “’I’m thirty-four, you know. I’m not going to be one of these bitches that ruins children” (247). Here she knows that she shouldn’t ever marry, that she doesn’t want to ruin people’s lives. In fact, she goes back to Mike not only because “he’s so damned nice” (247) but also because “he’s so awful” (247). So he’s right for her because she doesn’t have to mind hurting him sometimes. She feels happy, because of Jake, and so I think Jake has helped her a bit. At the end, however, where she says “’we could have had such a damned good time together’” (251) and Jake replies, “’Isn’t it pretty to think so?’” (251), I’m not sure if Jake believes her or not. Or that he’s let go/accepted his love. So as to whether Brett helps Jake move on with his life, I can’t tell. I mean, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a happy happy ending, since Odysseus after leaving Circe goes to the Underworld, but hey. While Jake may not be immune, she doesn’t harm him as she does everyone else, that is to say, Brett makes fun of everyone but Jake.

To add onto the similarities between Circe and Brett, they both have “nobility” in them. Circe is the daughter of Perse and Helios, so she has some God blood in her. And Brett is Lady Ashley. To add onto this, they both have a positive and negative connotation to them. Circe is beautiful, elegant, and goddess-like, yet a witch, just as Brett is both beautiful and promiscuous. On a side note, one of the books I was reading talked about Circe’s enchanting eyes, which reminded me of how Brett’s eyes always crinkle- I wonder why? There is also a similar element- the poisonous drink. Circe gives a toxic drink to her guests right before she transforms them, and Brett- well, she drinks a lot. Odysseus’ men first go to Circe’s island for food and shelter, and I think men flock to Brett because they think she is perfect (Cohn, for instance, won’t accept any bad words about her). Brett has class, and everyone loves her- yet she may do more harm than good. Now that I think about it, most of the conflicts that arise surround Brett, but never include her. Cohn might actually not be so annoying if Brett wasn't there. And all the other tensions exist, I think, because of her.

Anyways, that’s a lot of Circe and Brett.

Sources:

1. Atsma, Aaron J. "Kirke." Theoi Greek Mythology. 2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2011.<http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Kirke.html>.
2. Lahrmann, Jessica E. "Metaphorical Illness in Hemingway's Works." Diss. University of Pennsylvania, 2006. Print.
3. Mangum, Marc. "Circe." Encyclopedia Mythica. 26 May 1999. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. <http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/circe.html>.