Relationships are complex, as are the forces which cause them to change and evolve. A comparative study of F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s novel 'The Great Gatsby' (TGG) and the ‘Sonnets of the Portuguese’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (EBB) provides insights into the forces, both personal and societal, which shaped their relationships with those around them. Both composers explore the themes of love and memories from the past through the lens of their social, historical and cultural contexts, shaping their values. EBB’s poems caution against relationships built on changing things such as appearances, whereas in TGG, relationships are based on materialism. Both texts deal with the complex nature of relationships and how this complexity is further …show more content…
In TGG, Fitzgerald explores how love and relationships are impacted by the pursuit of material things, best seen in the concept of the American dream. EBB, on the other hand, shows that love with integrity will grow and strengthen over time, as reflected in her relationship with Robert Browning. Love in TGG, it is almost universally a selfish love, which is reflective of the growing American obsession with materialism and the loss of innocence in the post-war 1920s. Fitzgerald saw this suffused into relationships around him. Gatsby himself was pursuing Daisy, with a love he believed was pure but had become tainted by the world around him. When we first see Gatsby, he has “stretched out his arm towards... a single green light, minute and far away.” The green light symbolises a once-pure love that has become tainted by the pursuit of wealth; the once-bright light has now become far away and tinged with green, the colour of money. The lack of integrity Gatsby has in his love for Daisy has led to the corruption of that love by the social forces of the 1920s. George and Myrtle Wilson are another example of how relationships are corrupted by materialism “God knows what you’ve been doing... You may fool me, but you can’t fool God!”’ the repetition of the biblical references to ‘god’, depicts how Myrtle lacks integrity and George can see her infidelity, resulting in their relationship