One of the details that I wanted to focus on in The Sun Also Rises is how Hemingway depicts love in the novel. The main reason that Brett could not be with Jake was because of his physical faults despite the fact that they both love each other very much. Hemingway seems to view love as a physical relationship. Hemingway's depiction of love mirrors Sigmund Freud's interpretation of love, radically different from Plato's view.
Plato separates love into two different forms. The first kind of love is the "Vulgar Eros" or earthly love. The other kind is the "Divine Eros" or divine love. Divine love is also known as platonic love. Vulgar Eros is physical attraction towards an attractive body for pleasure while Divine Eros may start out as a physical attraction but gradually transcends it to become a supreme love that is non-sexual, a meeting of minds.
Freud's interpretation of Eros is that it is strictly the sexual component. This seems to fit with The Sun Also Rises the best because Brett engages in many different relationships throughout the book. One of the most interesting points that I noticed Freud mention was something called the Oedipus complex after Oedipus Rex who was in love with his mother. Surprisingly, this actually relates to The Sun Also Rises. One of the things I noticed from writing the Hemingway essay along with reading some interpretations online is that Brett occasionally acts as a motherly figure (ignore the partying and drinking). For instance, when they were in Spain and Mike was drunk and causing trouble, Brett acted as the intermediary. We also know that she was a nurse in the war and a nurse is a very motherly like figure. So if Brett is the mother like figure, that would partially explain the reason that so many men are in love with Brett or at least where Hemingway got the idea for this love story from.
In my opinion, I find this theory kind of far-fetched. Though Brett does exhibit some motherly-like characteristics, we also know that there is a side to her that isn't really parent-like, her habits of partying and hooking up with other men. I'm not really sure where Freud got this idea of all men are in love with their mothers but I can definitely see where some of Hemingway's influences might have come from.
On the contrary, I would say that Hemingway's depiction of the love between Jake and Brett more closely resembles Plato's notions of love. As you said, he separates love into a physical attraction, and a non-physical, "meeting of minds." You also said that it can start out as a physical and transform into a non-physical love. Putting this into the context of Brett and Jake's relationship, they are unable to have a physical relationship and therefore simply cannot have "vulgar eros." Yet, as you said, they still are deeply in love with each other. So, I think that Jake and Brett may well have "divine eros." Additionally, it is clear that they do have a physical attraction towards one another, but, as they have not been able to realize that attraction, their love has evolved into divine eros.
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