Lady Brett Ashley is a very unique character in the novel The Sun Also Rises. She is a strong and for the most part very independent woman. However, the major flaw in Brett's character is nymphomania. This causes her to lose the one love of her life and spend the rest of it wandering from relationship to relationship searching for true love much as the lost generation searched for their prewar values of love and romance that simply didn't exist when they came back. .
Brett Ashley is a very free spirited and strong individual. As the novel begins she has just called off her marriage and is awaiting the divorce. Throughout the novel you immediately realize that she is not the typical woman especially for the time period in which she lives. Lady Brett is also blessed with stunning beauty and great charisma. Knowing that men find her this attractive she uses it to her advantage, and is very controlling over any of the men she meets. Even as all of these things represent Brett she is still plagued by a very unsatisfying life. She is constantly complaining to Jake how miserable she is.
The major flaw in Brett's character though is her nymphomania. She can not control her urges and just simply can not get enough sex. She is very controlling over men and wanders from relationship to relationship using different men to get what she wants. She refuses to commit to just one man for some unknown reason. Whether its because she compares them all to Jake, or that she can not love anymore and just wants to be satisfied, or perhaps she fears getting into another relationship. Whatever it is, it is not stated in the novel. .
Brett and Jake have a very odd relationship. They love each other, but they both know the nothing will work out. Jake asked a few times through the novel if Brett would live with him but she turned him saying that she would hurt him to much with all the men she would sleep with. Jake still tries and tries to get with her even after this and Brett continuously refuses.