Imagery within the novel The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemmingway, serves as a function of epiphany. Simply stated, an “epiphany” is a showing forth of character through some seemingly inconsequential action or detail. It can also be described as a moment of truth or revelatory manifestation, especially of a divine being. The minimalist style that Hemmingway so effectively utilizes within this novel allows for a simple and descriptive line of prose to hold, very simply, a weight of meaning. A seemingly inconsequential image or moment that Jake Barnes journalistically describes may actually bring forth a level of symbolic meaning that is never actually stated.
Minimalism encourages the reader to look beyond the words and absorb the images, to draw conclusions and make connections where one sees fit. In essence, it bestows the reader with an intimate and unique relationship to the prose. One such image that functions as an epiphany is the moment when Jake looks upon Pedro Romero in his dressing room just prior to Romero’s bullfight. However, the epiphany does not lie within the mind of Jake Barnes, instead it is made evident to the reader. This moment is a showing forth to the reader of Jake Barnes’s emasculated sense of self, not only physically but emotionally, through the foil of Pedro Romero, Jake’s masculine ideal.
In order to fully comprehend the thematic representations of the scene in Romero’s dressing room, one first must analyze the role bull fighting plays within this novel. The role of the steers in the bullfight especially must be considered. Steers are castrated bulls that are used to calm down the bulls as they enter the arena. They are not aggressive like the bulls, they simply want to “make friends with them” and lead them into the corrals. However, they often take the grunt of the bulls’ aggression and physically pay for it with their lives. A parallel can be drawn between the role of the castrated steers among the bulls and the role of sexually impotent Jake Barnes among his sexually viable friends. One can sense this parallel when Jake describes the steers’ part in the bullfight:
They let the bulls out of the cages one at a time, and they have the steers in the corral to receive them and keep them from fighting, and the bulls tear in the steers and the steers run around like old maids trying to quiet them down.
“Do they ever gore the steers?”
“Sure. Sometimes they go right after them and kill them”
“Can’t the steers do anything?”
“No. They’re trying to make friends.” (138 Sribner Paperback Fiction)
Jake’s personification of the steers as “old maids” is relevant in the fact that he perceives castration to be feminization; therefore he interprets his own castration to be feminizing.
The parallels between Jake and the steers go beyond their similar states of sexual impotence. Jake’s relationship with other men can be compared to that of the steer and the bull. Jake consistently takes the mediating back seat within any of the confrontations between his friends. In the scene where Mike confronts Cohn and expresses his irritation with him, both Brett and Bill take some sort of action to do something about the encounter. Jake just sits there, quietly enjoying the humiliation of Cohn, but not participating either way. He does not want to make waves, but instead remains passive in order to maintain friendship with all.
His role as the non-threatening mediator, as the friend to all, also places him on the receiving end the of pent-up aggression of his non-castrated friends, just like the steers. Cohn unreasonably hits Jake, “gores” him so to speak, as a result of his passionate love for Brett. This is not the only time which Jake endures such pain as a result of a love for lady Brett. Jake loves Brett, and she loves him, but she is unwilling to enter into a relationship with him due to his sexual impotence. He is continually pained by Brett and her unceasing relationships with other men, especially Robert Cohn. The emasculating effect of being “gored” by a woman pulls Jake even farther away from his masculine ideal.
The masculine ideal that Jake holds is manifested in the talented, young bullfighter, Pedro Romero. The image that Jake describes as he first encounters Romero in his dressing room is evidence of this ideal:
There were two beds separated by a monastic partition. The electric light was on. The boy stood very straight and unsmiling in his bull-fighting clothes. His jacket hung over the back of his chair. They were just finishing winding his sash. His black hair shone under the electric light. He wore a white linen shirt and the sword-handler finished his sash, stood up and stepped back. Pedro Romero nodded and seemed very far away and dignifies when we shook hands…He was the best-looking boy I had ever seen. (166-167)
The very language of this passage evokes the notion that Jake looks upon Romero as the ultimate “man”. The description of the beds being separated by a monastic partition brings forth a religious connotation to the image. The rest of the description depicts Romero as being almost kingly, which correlates with the religious elements of his dressing room, as kings were often believed to be directly below God in the hierarchy of beings. The dressing of Romero and the tying of his sash by his many attendants are reminiscent of a king being dressed by his servants.
His straight posture and serious manner are characteristic of a powerful and serious leader of men. His striking good looks and youth make him a symbol of sexual prowess and viability. This is why Jake feels “very far away” from Romero when they shake hands. He is unable to relate to Romero’s blatant masculine power. Jake admires the craftsmanship of Romero’s bull-fighting skill and analyzes his every move. To him, a bullfighter such as Romero encapsulates his passion, his “aficion”, for bull fighting. A master such as Romero has the power to control and conquer the aggression of the raging bulls. It is this power that Jake lacks in his own life and therefore seeks it out in others.
The further relevance of the bullfighter and the bullfight in this novel lies in the parallels between the players of this novel and the players of the bullfights. In the bullfights the bulls’ confrontations with the steers are secondary to the ensuing battle between matador and bull. The passion of the fight is completely entrenched in the fight between bullfighter and bull. The incidents regarding the steers are simply unfortunate, but necessary scenarios. Jake saw himself as the steer, the emasculated, secondary figure to the real show down between man and bull, Romero and Cohn, respectively.
Cohn, the bull, unreasonably lashes out on Jake, the steer, because of his aggression that has been triggered by unrequited love. Cohn’s aggression was stirred because of the sexual nature of his and Brett’s relationship. In fact, all the men that had sexual relationships with Brett were at some point stirred to violent confrontation. The only man who does not interact violently with other men is Jake, who is also the only man who is unable to consummate his love for Brett with sex. Once again, Jake’s impotence renders him the passive observer and mediator of sexually potent men.
Jake’s description of Romero in his dressing room emphasizes the gap of power and masculinity that Jake feels between him and Romero. After Cohn hits Jake, he apologizes and Jake accepts. However, when Cohn attacks Romero, Romero does not cower. He fights back even after Cohn, the boxer, has pummeled him. His defeat of Cohn does not come until the next day when he masterfully kills the bulls and then runs off with Brett. However, Romero in all his masculine power is unable to subdue Brett. That is, he is unable to make her his feminine counter-part. She will not grow her hair out nor become Romero’s feminine ideal of a wife and mother. She explains to Jake, “I am thirty-four, you know. I am not going to be one of those women these bitches that ruin children” (247).
Brett is able to admit to herself that she is not capable of such womanly behavior. She is much more comfortable within the world of men in the novel. Hemmingway, who is often criticized for his portrayal of women in his texts, emphasized the masculine qualities in Brett that make her, in essence, the “bull” that defeats Romero. Her strength is not her physical strength, but her ability to drive men wild with their love for her. As aforementioned, she emotionally “gores” Jake and Cohn. However, they did not try to “conquer” her nature, like Romero did. They simply wanted to be with her. Jake, as the castrated bull, painfully and passively watches Brett “make friends with” other men.
Cohn, too, was forced to observe Brett with other men, but due to his sexual relationship with her he is stirred to violence. It is Romero who actively engages in enchanting Brett with his skillful manipulations in the bullfight. He brings her the bull’s ear as a sign of his strength, not only in the ring, but outside as well. Like the bulls, Brett is mesmerized by each of Romero’s calculated movements. Like the bulls, Brett is stirred to conquer Romero with every flip of his cape. However, unlike the bulls Brett is able to have Romero. She conquers him with his love for her and then sets him free. He too is ruined by her love.
Brett’s treatment of Romero provides a moment of peace for Jake. Even Jake’s masculine ideal could not withstand the power of Lady Brett Ashley. This allows for the distance that Jake feels between Romero and him to close just slightly. When Brett says to Jake, “We could have had such a damned good time together”, Jake’s answer is stated with no sense of anxiety, regret, or inadequacy, “Yes…Isn’t it pretty to think so?”(251).
