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Similarities Between Hamlet And The Great Gatsby

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Hiding oneself is common in people and characters to portray a harmless or convincing act to make them seem like they are someone they honestly aren’t. Throughout great literature, irony and characterization are vigorous elements that authors use to convey themes to readers. Two works of literature that exemplify this are Shakespeare's Hamlet and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. One theme they both explore is the idea that not everything is as it seems. Shakespeare employs irony in the play Hamlet to develop the theme of not everything is what it appears to be. The character Hamlet, for example, initially presents himself as a madman after the play is over when he exclaims to the queen “I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft” (Shakespeare 3.4.187). This madness is later revealed that it is merely a scheme to deceive his enemies. The reason Shakespeare chose madness as a characteristic for Hamlet is that no one would question his actions in the play or other actions he made because of his so-called “madness”. The irony of his “madman” act is ironic because he actually does become mad at the fact Polonius will not reveal himself as the killer of his father and highlights the complexity of the human persona. …show more content…

His death is caused when he is trying to prove his point to Claudius that Hamlet’s “madness” is from the love for his daughter. To prove this he tells the queen, “He will come straight. Look you lay home to him;...pray you to be round with him”(Shakespeare 3.4. 1-3/5). The irony in this quote is that Polonius's view on Hamlet’s madness wasn’t for the love of his daughter but for the man he was trying to prove his point

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Hamlet and The Great Gatsby are very similar because of their themes. Hamlet, written by Shakespeare in 1603, and The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925 share the themes of madness, vengeance, mortality, murder, and disloyalty. Although the plots are not very alike, the two main characters in each have similar qualities. These characters are not exactly the same, their flaws and actions both lead them to being disloyal to others, including themselves, and in the end, their death. Both Hamlet and Gatsby were obsessed with their past and trying to solve it.

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