Yes, that's the way it's done in the very best families. Robert's sending me. He's going to give me two hundred pounds and then I'm going to visit friends. Won't it be lovely? The friends don't know about it, yet.

While sitting in a café with Robert and Jake, Frances caustically describes to Jake the plan Robert devised to leave her. By sending her away to England with a sum of money for an extended visit, Robert hopes to tastefully end their relationship. Robert refuses to marry Frances even though they have been together for years. Frances has confided to Jake her fury about the situation. Here, while sitting with both Jake and Robert, she confronts Robert with thinly veiled sarcasm.

Don't just sit there looking like a bloody funeral. What if Brett did sleep with you? She’s slept with lots of better people than you.

In Pamplona, Mike lashes out at Robert Cohn, accusing him of following Brett around, moping and hanging out where he’s not wanted. Mike’s mean, aggressive rant, fueled by alcohol, resentment, and insecurity, accuses Robert of self-pity. After Robert leaves, the others agree that Mike’s words were true but that his tone and style were unkind. However, the next day, everyone acts friendly again.

Some dancers formed a circle around Brett and started to dance . . . They took Bill and me by the arms and put us in the circle . . . Brett wanted to dance but they did not want her to. They wanted her as an image to dance around.

Jake describes the scene when the fiesta explodes into a ritual of sexuality and fertility, in stark contrast to the formal, repressed sensuality of Paris and the idyllic pastoral of Burguete. Here, Brett plays the role of fertility goddess with all the men encircling her. At this moment, all the male characters, one by one, fall in love with Brett, yet they never fully succeed in becoming her mate.

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