Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And Hamlet

The Great Gatsby (Luhrmann, B. 2013) and Hamlet (Shakespeare, W. 2013) are similar in ways that the protagonists of both stories are willing to sacrifice all that they have to achieve unrealistic objectives that result in tragedy. This similarity allows both stories to have similar conclusions about how the protagonists victimize themselves, leading to their downfall and death.

The love that Hamlet holds for his father and the search to avenge his death leads to Hamlet's death and his tendency to overthink. Hamlet thinks about killing Claudius and there could not be a better opportunity, but his overthinking gets in the way, and he starts to freeze up, “and am I then revenged, / To take him in the purging of his soul, / When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?”(3.3.84-87). Hamlet, who is standing behind the man who murdered his father and married his mother, concludes that he cannot kill Claudius now. He starts

He creates a new identity for himself as a wealthy man who came from nothing, and who has built up everything that he had hoped and dreamed of. He lives a glamorous life by throwing huge parties all in the hopes that his love from the past, Daisy, would come. “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.”(Luhrmann, B. 2013) In this quote, Nick is describing Gatsby's behavior and how he feels. Gatsby describes his love for Daisy in the quote, “And what’s more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart, I love her all the time.” (Luhrmann, B. 2013) Gatsby was willing to lie and be blamed for the hit-and-run accident to protect Daisy. These actions led to his death when George Wilson shoots and kills Gatsby because he believed him to be the driver who killed his wife,