Lady Brett's life is ultimately empty and unfulfilling no matter how many men she finds herself with, but she "can't go anywhere alone" as Jake points out. Her lack of commitment to any one man can be seen as a representation of how the War destroyed traditional ideas of love and romance. In the final lines of the novel, she muses on what a relationship between her and Jake could have been, but she is stopped by a policeman signaling the cab they are riding in to stop. This moment sums up the sad state that Hemingway found the world when Jake says, "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

Robert Cohn can be seen as the old values in a new post-War world. He is the only non-veteran among the characters presented in the book, and therefore he has retained his sense of dignity, romance, and morality. The problem is...
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