ROBERT COHN’S PROBLEM WITH MASOCHISM IN THE SUN ALSO RISES

Critics have widely explored the issue of masochism and Jake Barnes in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. However, the connection between masochism and Robert Cohn (who is Jewish) remains unexplored, which becomes the central theme of this paper. The first section of the paper analyzes the formation of Cohn’s masochism based on his encounter with dominant women, the practice of boxing, and the anti-Semitic society he is surrounded by. Focusing on the climax of the plot, which includes the fight between Cohn and the Spanish bullfighter Pedro Romero in Pamplona, the second section indicates that through this fight, Cohn comes to embrace his inherent Jewish self and masculinity. The paper continues to suggest that Cohn’s act of hand-shaking symbolizes a process of self-forgiveness. Taking Jake Barnes’ unreliable narration into consideration, the last part of the paper proposes a rather optimistic interpretation of Cohn’s life after the book ends, that his leaving of Pamplona represents a sign of his mastery of submission.

Keywords: masochism, anti-Semitism, the dominant women, boxing, inherent (Jewish) masculinity, self-realization, otherness

This article was published in Ege Journal of British and American Studies's Interactions, vol. 28, no. 1-2, 2019, pp. 61-72.