What is love and how does the characters in The Sun Also Rises express it.

I've never thought too hard about love and what it means, I just assumed it was pretty much like all the other emotions, similar to happiness, sadness and whatnot. However, after reading through The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, it made me think much harder on this topic due to it being a main part of the plot as well as being "present" (more accurately, talked about) in almost if not all the characters in the novel. I first realized love is not exactly an emotion, so got me thinking: "what really is love?" Is it a feeling? perhaps an action? or something entirely different?

The Oxford dictionary describes the word "love" as: "an intense feeling of deep affection." Even the official definition of the word is quite broad and confusing. Even with just affection, there are many different ways of showing it. In the novel, different characters treat love...well more like intimacy, differently. From Cohn towards Brett, Jake towards Brett, Romero towards Brett, and well...Brett towards everyone else, they behave quite differently to the people they are affectional towards. 

The most common way love is thought of, and I guess romanticized about, is how Cohn and Romero behave towards Brett. The two treats love quite...innocently and simple, trying to behave like a gentleman and such. When Cohn first meets Brett at the club, it was so cinematic I could almost imagine it as a scene within a movie; everything slows down and the background blurs, first a shot of Cohn's bewildered face, then cut to Brett flipping her hair due to a completely random gust of wind. Cohn also associates physical intimacy and emotional intimacy as one thing, believing due his time with Brett in San Sebastion it means she had returned his love and they would live happily ever after, which Brett certainly did not think so. Pedro Romero, the handsome bull fighter, also thought similarly, after leaving with Brett and going to Madrid, he decides he would like to marry Brett but also want Brett to change to be more traditional. I think this shows both Romero and Jake have an idealized view of love, a lot of their behaviors and views are quite common in fantasy stories and traditional beliefs, and their interpretation of love is after being attracted to someone, they have to complete quite a specific set of actions based on societal norms and fantasized tales to display and prove their affection. In both cases however, Brett does not return the same beliefs. 

The love that Brett and Jake displays, one could say, are more mature and complicated. Due to situations out of their control, their feeling of love feels more...somber and melancholic compared to Cohn and Romero's interpretations. In my opinion, their view of love feels more realistic and not idealized. With the previous two, love seemed to be perfect and when you fall in love, you will have a happily ever after, with Brett and Jake, however, there simply can't be a happy ending with their love and they realize that. Even so, Jake, knowing Brett's imperfections, still supports her and stay besides her even when it seems like complete torture and extremely painful, and Brett...well I'm not so sure about Brett's "love" towards her so-called "true love" Jake, but we definitely still see pain and confliction from her during the plot of the novel. This also show the separation of physical and emotional intimacy within their love, how even though they can't perform quite a... common part of what people in love supposedly does, they still find support, care, and somewhat joy through each other, expressing their love in a different way.

After thinking for quite a while, I don't think I could ever find a completely true definition for love that fits every single person on earth, but from what I've gathered, love seems to be instinctual. Each person will behave differently to the person they love, both physically in terms of intimacy, and emotionally through care and support. and even these things could be influenced by beliefs gained through their experiences from stories or simply by just living life. Honestly, I'm still quite confused and conflicted, but I thought this topic was very interesting and I hope you did too.