The role is written how Hemingway would have liked to have been seen. The womanizing and drinking, that's true, but the action, the military stuff it's a 'Boy's Own' portrayal, rawlings is a guy who is very jaded and very tired and his job is taking a toll on him. But there is love for Dorothy. He convinces himself he can't have her and his work, so he makes the choice. To be so awful to her so that she pushes him away.