The bullfight: a bull is killed for the enjoyment of others. Yet the bullfight isn't really all about the killing, either; the art of bullfighting is also the art of baiting and teasing the bull into its own demise.
The Sun Also Rises is the melancholic representation of a bullfight, but with actual people. When the representation is extended to the characters of the novel, Brett, the only main female character, actually seems to be the bullfighter. For the majority of the novel, she antagonizes the main male characters Jake, Mike, and Robert, and manipulates them at her desire and will. Like how the bullfighter waves his cloth to tease and attract the bull's movement, Brett's geographical displacement triggers the movement of the men.
Finally, her brief attraction to and relationship with Romero, the actual famed bullfighter, embodies the actual physicality of the bullfight. Like the flashy cloth the bullfighter waves around, Romero is the young and attractive object that Robert feels compelled to target. Their physical fight, leaving Romero bruised and injured, is the final point to which Brett's toxic man-handling is actualized.
Yet what does it mean for Hemingway to have Brett assume the role of the most traditionally masculine (and controversial) occupation? How does his own bitterness reflect into her character?
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