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Robbie And Cecilia's Relationship In Atonement

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Robbie and Cecilia’s relationship is central to the novel Atonement. It is at first a slow burning one but it essentially becomes what the novel is centred around. Their interlude in the library is the moment they revisit consistently, Robbie whilst at war and Cecilia during her nursing. In the library the ‘words spoken aloud were like signatures on an unseen contract’. The simile here creates the idea that their connection is so strong they have somewhat entered a marriage. Briony sacrifices their relationship from progressing after blaming the rape of Lola on Robbie by saying ‘[she] saw him’, in order to create the neat ending of her story that she desires. Robbie and Cecilia’s relationship is to a degree cemented through their sexual intercourse; …show more content…

In The Great Gatsby, Tom sacrifices the marriage he has with Daisy by pursuing an affair with Myrtle Wilson. However, it can be argued how big of a sacrifice it is that he made as in the 1930s, it was common for upper class men to have a mistress as well as a wife, and it is suggested that Daisy is aware of the affair but remains with Tom anyway. Tom’s physical power is exhibited through ‘“Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” Shouted Mrs Wilson… making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.’ It is possible to infer from this that Tom is concerned about the possible outcome of putting his marriage with Daisy at risk as he gets increasingly aggravated and aggressive when Myrtle speaks of her. However the brutality he shows towards myrtle implies that she is somewhat meaningless to him and acts as more of a possession. Even though he may be sacrificing his marriage to have a relationship with her, he understands it is unlikely due to his status. ‘Short deft movement’ illustrates his physical strength and dominance as his ability to ‘break her nose’ appears almost

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Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I 'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai –– "Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand"(Fitzgerald 41). Tom is attempting to keep his two women, and in turn, his two lives entirely separate by setting a collection of rules that must be

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830 Words | 4 Pages

“‘Even that’s a lie,’ said Tom savagely. She didn’t know you were alive. Why- there’re things between Daisy and me that you’ll never know, things that neither of us can ever forget.” (Fitzgerald 132). Even when Tom knows that Daisy is cheating on him with Jay Gatsby, he contends his marriage and fights for her.

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The actions Tom takes near the end of the story show how hypocritical Tom really is. For some reason, Tom is irritated that Gatsby and Daisy seem to have feelings for each other, but his affair with Myrtle is completely fine with him. To Tom, there is nothing wrong with him cheating on Daisy, but Daisy wanting to be with Gatsby is a horrid thing, even

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1266 Words | 6 Pages

The desire for love impairs the moral judgment of the individuals, especially Gatsby in the novel. As much as the readers of 1984 wish to cast Gatsby as a great man for his love for Daisy, his attachment to Daisy is actually nothing more than an illusion as he cannot distinguish his feeling as desire or love. True love is a deep attachment to someone in an unconditional and a sacrificial manner where one is selfless to put the other before oneself and is understanding of the other’s flaws. Yet, Gatsby possesses none of the characteristics. Although Gatsby knows that Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, he hosts dazzling parties and even “[buys] the [mansion] so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald, 78).

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In today’s duplicitous society, men often pursue the “perfect woman”. This woman is construed to be; fit, provocative and ravishing. However, in greatly distinguished American novel, The Great Gatsby, the men have strayed from stalking women for their looks. Instead, Gatsby chases Daisy to achieve her as a prize of his bounty and any affection Gatsby demonstrates toward her, is simply to appease to her sense of status and wealth. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald, exhibits Gatsby’s these feelings for Daisy through the clever usage of connotation, symbolism and metaphors.

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In The Great Gatsby there was a huge absence of intimacy and admiration in the marriages, and no one was trying to secure their union to each other either because they were in the relationship for their spouse’s money, or cheated because they felt lavish and could get away with it. F. Scott Fitzgerald wants the reader to know that pretending that everything is okay just leads to false illusions of a perfect reality in the eyes of one person or another. The fact that everyone knows that Tom has a mistress and that Daisy looks the other way makes her look clueless and foolish. “The fact that he had one [a mistress] was insisted upon wherever he was known.

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She chooses the extravagant lifestyle that Tom is capable of providing instead of patiently waiting for her true love. The self-centered desires she displays demonstrates the lack of authetic love she promised Gatsby. Instead, she marries Tom “without so much as a shiver”, demonstrating her hedonistic mindset (76). Since Tom treats Daisy with minimal care, she thoughtlessly dives into an adulterous affair with Jay Gatsby. With no severe intentions towards marriage, she always “ought to have something in her life” to fulfill her heart (79).

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Daisy!” shouted Mrs. Wilson. “I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai—” Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand. Then there were bloody towels upon the bathroom floor, and women’s voices scolding, and high over the confusion a long broken wail of pain.”

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In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy is portrayed as a modern woman; she is sophisticated, careless and beautifully shallow. Daisy knows who she is, and what it takes for her to be able to keep the lifestyle she grew up in, and this adds to her carelessness and her feigned interest in life. In all, Daisy is a woman who will not sacrifice material desires or comfort for love or for others, and her character is politely cruel in this way. Daisy’s main strength, which buoyed her throughout her youth and when she was in Louisville, is her ability to know what was expected of her and feign cluelessness.

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1238 Words | 5 Pages

In “The Great Gatsby” by F.Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Buchanan represents a man who is unfaithful, selfish, and arrogant. Throughout this essay, the character Tom Buchanan will be analyzed and will explain his purpose in this story as well as the many flaws he possesses which make him an unlikable person. Tom is considered to be the antagonist in this novel, but his main purpose in this story is to be the barrier between Daisy and Gatsby. Unbeknownst to Tom, Daisy eventually gets back with Gatsby but has a massive fit once he finds out they’re together.

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The era’s “perfect woman”, Daisy Buchanan, is a bubbly, conflicted woman whose choice is between two men: her husband, Tom Buchanan, and her former lover Jay Gatsby. Since Daisy’s character was written in the 1920s, women’s characters were based on the traditional women of the time period, and many women then were still seen as objects and as less desirable than men. When Daisy is invited to Gatsby’s mansion, her first sight of him in many years upon seeing his expensive clothing, she is so overcome with emotion that she begins to weep “with a strained sound” and begins to “cry stormily” showing her true reaction to something as petty as material objects (92). She continues, claiming that

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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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1384 Words | 6 Pages

Money, power, and success have blinded people into thinking they are in love and it has led to these women being oppressed. Tom and Gatsby in this book are what is called the patriarchy. According to Revise Sociology, the patriarchy is “The systematic domination of women by men in some or all of society’s spheres and institutions.” In Tom and Daisy’s marriage; they are both having an affair, Tom wasn’t at his child’s birth, and he oppresses Daisy physically, maybe by accident, and socially, by not allowing her to go wherever she wants to go. In Tom and Myrtle’s affair; they are both married, yet they have this affair, she is dependent on him because he oppresses her economically and psychologically, and he also oppresses her physically when he broke her nose.

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974 Words | 4 Pages

Atonement by Ian McEwan explores the theme of love through a variety of techniques such as symbolism, metaphors and repetition to explore various aspects of love, such as misspent, newfound and unavailable love. McEwan often intertwines the techniques with foreshadowing and imagery to convey complex emotions. Through the symbolism of Uncle Clem’s vase, McEwan explores and foreshadows the outcomes of Cecilia and Robbie’s love. Robbie and Cecilia break the vase the day they discover their love for each other, signifying their love would not be forever. Moreover, it is later revealed that” She [Betty] said the pieces had simply come away in her hand, but that was hardly to be believed” (pg. 279).

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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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