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Moral Judgement In Atonement

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Conflicting moral judgement is a common theme in both novels, Atonement and The Great Gatsby, as shown by their protagonists. The Great Gatsby is set in New York during the early 1920’s before the Wall Street crash, not long after the first World War. Many of the American soldiers did not get home for a long time after the official end due to them helping to rebuild the rest of the world. Not long home from war himself, Nick moves in next door to Jay Gatsby mansion on West Egg. Nick’s old friend Tom and cousin Daisy live across the body of water on East Egg, where the ‘old money’ lives. East and West Egg are based on the Great Neck and Port Washington peninsulas on Long Island. Tom and Daisy are married to each other and in spite of this …show more content…

McEwan mainly focuses on how the negative emotions can affect moral judgement. In the case of Briony jealousy causes her to want to hurt Robbie. Rejection and replacement cause Briony’s jealousy as her love, Robbie, chose to be with her sister rather than with her. The lingering effect of jealousy can be attributed to the leading cause of her immoral judgement. By giving this character a hamartia such as this McEwan made it possible for the readers to eventually feel empathetic towards Briony, as many would have felt jealousy due to an unrequited …show more content…

Much like how Gatsby’s love for Daisy allows her to act immorally. Moreover, this can be seen in how he lets her drive the car even though she is drunk, consequently taking the blame for Myrtle’s death which was caused by Daisy. Fitzgerald, by showing the lack of judgement that comes along with love, proves to audiences that immorality does not only come from negativity but also from holding any person in a particular light. The aforementioned incident caused Myrtle’s husband, George, to become angry, resulting in the death of Jay

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409 Words | 2 Pages

Daisy Buchanan is merely at fault for Gatsby 's death. Daisy’s lack of self reliance and ignorance prompt her to be easily led into making bad decisions, causing her to lash out and be held responsible for the death of Gatsby. Being a women of the east egg society Daisy Buchanan has always been apart of the idea of “old money”, signifying that her whole life she has had everything given to her and she doesn 't have to rely on herself for her own self making. These factors impact her in her later life when she is faced with the consequences of Myrtle 's death. Daisy being responsible for the death of Myrtle ultimately leaves her to make the careless decision of letting Gatsby take the blame, because Daisy 's ignorance and lack of self reliance

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569 Words | 3 Pages

The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates a morally ambiguous character that can’t be defined as strictly good or evil. Moral ambiguity is the driving force towards Gatsby’s actions. The character Gatsby demonstrates morally ambiguous qualities that initiate plot throughout the whole novel. Morally ambiguous choices can be viewed towards Gatsby’s character throughout the novel. The first glimpse of Gatsby is introduced in the first chapter while Nick is “exempting him from his reaction” of a “uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever” already placing Gatsby in a position of moral ambiguity (Fitzgerald 2).

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696 Words | 3 Pages

Her motivation to do this is because she wants people to think she is rich just like Daisy’s motivation. The outcome of her having an affair makes her an unfaithful wife to her husband. Finally, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson are the characters in the novel that put on untruthful identity for them to cover their mistakes, and their motivations show what kind of

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648 Words | 3 Pages

As for Jay Gatbsy, we see that after Myrtle's death, He has somewhat accepted that his dream will never come true and was eventually killed but his desire to keep Daisy safe. In the end, both Gatsby and Myrtle knew deep down that their dreams and goals were lost and crushed, But not wanting to let go of them just yet caused them to both lose their lives and everything they worked

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366 Words | 2 Pages

Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway are two of the most important characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Throughout the novel many comparisons and contrasts can be made, however, this may be arguably the most important due to the magnitude of importance of these two characters and the roles they play in progressing the story. Jay Gatsby, a fabulously wealthy young man living in a Gothic Mansion in West Egg and the protagonist, throws constant parties every Saturday night, but nobody has much insight about him. Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota who lives in New York City to learn the bond business, is typically an honest and tolerant man. Although they do share some similarities, they also share a plethora of differences in their

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985 Words | 4 Pages

Later on in the novel the violence escalates, “The death car, as the newspapers called it, never stopped...” (Fitzgerald 137). This quote is referring to Myrtle getting hit by a car. This incident causes a reaction from her husband, George Wilson. From his reaction we get to see a glimpse into the nature of man.

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1396 Words | 6 Pages

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Jay Gatsby was murdered by George Wilson Husband of Myrtle. In the court of law there’s only one person who was responsible and guilty for the murder of Jay Gatsby. Although in the eyes of god there was more than one person responsible for the murder or had the ability to stop the outcome of the murder. Weather it was Tom being honest about his affair, Daisy doing the right thing and stopping during the accident or Jay Gatsby himself by taking control of the situation and doing what was good for both Daisy and himself instead of just what 's best for Daisy. Tom, Myrtle, Daisy, and Gatsby were selfish and self centered leading them to become Morally responsible for the death of Jay Gatsby.

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625 Words | 3 Pages

Also when Myrtle is hit by the car that he thinks is Tom’s, he shows up to Tom’s house with a gun. When Tom points George in the direction of Gatsby, George kills Gatsby and then himself. “It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete” (Fitzgerald

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951 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout The Great Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson desired to fit in with the upper class; however, her marriage to George Wilson prevented such from occurring. Myrtle failed to recognize her husband’s hard work and true character due to her efforts to rise in social status. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald emphasized Myrtle’s hatred towards her marriage through her conversation with Catherine, depicting how people of the twenties focused more on wealth and power compared to moral American values. As readers closely evaluate the moment of Myrtle’s dialogue, she dictated her feelings towards her marriage in a way that supposedly justified her infidelity.

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644 Words | 3 Pages

Harry S. Truman once said, “Actions are the seed of fate, deeds grow into destiny”. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is killed by George Wilson who mistakenly believes that Gatsby Murdered his wife, Myrtle. Jay Gatsby is welcoming, optimistic and innocent of murdering Myrtle Wilson. Because Gatsby is generous, romantic and innocent, he definitely did not deserve his horrible fate. With Gatsby’s fate being two-sided, readers will better understand why Jay Gatsby did not deserve his fate.

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1219 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby by F Scotts Fitzgerald love and money motivates every character. They all had made decisions based on love and money, no matter the consequences, no matter if it was good or bad they still made those decisions through the love they had for someone and their desire for money. Tom Buchanan 's love for daisy was pure and true throughout the book the great gatsby he even made some hard decisions all out the love possesed for her. A very critical part of the the novel was when tom 's wife had killed George Wilson 's wife Myrtle Wilson in a automotive accident. When George came to tom about what happened questioning him about who killed his wife, Tom could see that George was furious and would be willing to do anything to the person who killed his beloved wife.

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1149 Words | 5 Pages

How does the desire to pursue money and power negatively impact the characters' moral sense of right or wrong? Many people allow their social class and wealth to determine their belonging in life. In The Great Gatsby people with "old money" are more respected and superior than those with "new money". The characters' actions are driven by their desire for wealth and power.

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925 Words | 4 Pages

The theme of The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is that the upper class tend to participate in actions that are commonly seen as dishonest, unfaithful, or sketchy. Characters like Nick, Gatsby, Tom and George have twisted views on their own reality due to unfaithfulness and dishonesty. Nick was constantly lied to in the story, for example, Gatsby lied to him about where he got his money. Lies, similar to the one above, gave Nick some twisted views on the reality of his friendship. Gatsby had a twisted view on love due to Daisy marrying Tom right after he left for the war, rather than waiting for him.

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609 Words | 3 Pages

The Great Gatsby. In the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald demonstrates how the wealthy’s excessive consumption of alcohol brings out the worst in their characters. For instance, the negative parts of Tom’s personality are highlighted when he drinks. Tom drinks all throughout the party he attends with Nick. He becomes violent and aggressive with Myrtle, his mistress, and “making a short deft movement ...broke her nose with his open hand (Fitzgerald 41).”

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1399 Words | 6 Pages

Myrtle is accustomed to living an underprivileged life where feminine power engulfs her, but Tom is too egotistical to allow Myrtle to speak with such authority to him. Similarly, Gatsby’s need for assurance from Daisy pressures her into revealing to Tom that she never loved him (Fitzgerald 132). Deep down, Daisy knows that she truly did love Tom once, but Gatsby’s assertiveness and persistence drives her over the edge to telling Tom that what the two of them shared meant nothing to her. Daisy’s attribute of being a pushover is revealed immensely because she refuses to stand up for herself. Daisy is used to enabling Tom to constantly control all aspects of her life, and that leaves her powerless in society.

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