How Is Love Presented In The Great Gatsby

JATHU’S GATSBY ESSAY
Explore the ways in which a comparative study of your TWO prescribed texts demonstrates how context plays a significant role in portraying values.

In exploring the views expressed by composers of varying epochs, audiences are privy to the ways of thinking in these respective times to shape their own perspectives. Elizabeth Barret Browning’s poetry Sonnets from the Portuguese (Sonnets) (1850) expresses her perspective on the values of romanticism which includes the transcendental nature of love but at the same time critiquing societal values of woman as being lower in status under the guise of the patriarchy. Scott Fitzgerald in his satirical novel The Great Gatsby (Gatsby) (1925) is influenced by the post-war, jazz

The emerging socio-economic changes after world war 1 which lead to the Great Depression has transformed the perceptions on love as influenced by materialistic values and ideas; wealth, class, and status. Fitzgerald has an almost naively romanticised understanding of Love, one that is harshly rebuked by his callous and apathetic society. Whereas Daisy, as ‘the best a girl can be is a beautiful little fool’ ironically endorses his sarcasm through the paradox. Daisy’s emotion becomes hollow, superficial and unfulfilling, much like the life that she and Tom Buchanan lead. By succumbing to material pleasures and retreating from loyalty and honour, they protect their unfeeling lives, although the emptiness of their reality is emphasized through tactical repetition within the narrative; we find ourselves continually walking through Gatsby’s house, seeing Tom and Daisy’s place again, and the repetition almost becomes sickening as we hear the increasingly flat, reiterated tone of phrases which do not have a place among those using them. “It’s very romantic outdoors...It’s romantic, isn’t it Tom?... Very romantic.” Daisy’s voice may be ‘golden,’ but her speech is not. In much disparity to the poetry of Browning, She is only able to express the appearance of sincerity through repetition, a feature of

The 19th century marks the beginning of the awareness of the lack of individualism and recognition of women. In sonnet XIV Browning maintains a conversational tone through the monologue as she addresses her male audience ‘if thou must love me,’ offering a perspective on behalf of all women and endorsing her point through the pronouns ‘thou’ and ‘me’. She insists that a man’s portrayal of love shouldn’t be, ‘for nothing’ but ‘Except for love’s sake only’. Clearly there is an allusion to the cultural perspective of men seeking monetary gains as reflected by the semantics of word choice for the emphasis on “only” which emphasizes a strong voice of feminism. ADD MORE TO THIS