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Are The Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And Sonnets From The Portuguese

963 Words4 Pages
Discuss the treatment of individual desire in Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the
Portuguese and TGG.

The interplay of love, mortality and identity as being intrinsic to the human experience has designed a society that is inherently infatuated by ones unique zeitgeist. Through a comparative study of F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel The Great Gatsby and Elizabeth Barrett Browning 's Sonnets From The Portuguese these innate human desires can be inherently defined by their relationship to the historical context and social-milieu. The work of Fitzgerald therefore sees the exploration of the love in the 1920’s and its inherent spiritual failings due to the creation of a world dominated by materialism and hedonism. An era not only exploring love but rather the mortality of character and the shape of which identity takes place. Contrastingly, Browning explores a romantic vision of love through the subversion of the traditional petrarchan form, whilst also exploring the transcendence of life and the social aspects of identity. Thus, through the comparison of The Great Gatsby and Sonnets From The Portuguese one is able to witness human desire in a (something) of context.

The desire for a spiritual and transcendent love is a key motivator behind Barrett Browning 's sonnet sequence, with her ideals greatly contrasting the rational and restricting notions associated within the Victorian period. Specifically, this is witnessed through her subversion of the traditional petrarchan form,
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