Hope In The Great Gatsby

By cross-referencing interesting texts which examine similar issues but present them from different perspectives, they become more illuminating and meaningful. This particularly applies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s (EBB) Sonnets From the Portuguese and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (TGG) and their exploration of Love and Hope. This concurrent study enables greater insight and increased appreciation and reflection, particularly when the contexts of these texts are taken into consideration. By comparing and contrasting The Great Gatsby and Sonnets from the Portuguese and their contexts, we learn that intertextual perspectives on love and hope can lead to an increased knowledge of their complexities.

LOVE

Love should not be defined

It is the idea that individuals can hold to desire and anticipate for a better future. Sonnets from the Portuguese explores this concept hope through its aspirations and values of idealism. BB at the start of her Sonnets is doubtful and uncertain based on her perceptions of a possible relationship with her lover. This is enforced in Sonnet 13, “And that I stand unwon, however, wooed, Rending the garment of my life, in brief, Lest one touch of this heart, convey its grief”. This indicates that BB even though is pursued by her lover, is, however, doubtful and hopeless on his intentions again referring to way courtly love is often presented, and whether his intentions are actually meaningful. BB reinforces herself throughout her journey as she soon discovers that there is hope to gain.Emphasised in Sonnet 28, “My Letters! - all dead paper, ..mute and white! And yet they seem alive and quivering”. The use of the letters describes her excited but nervous emotions making the letters come alive in the process just by her excitement of what is contained in the letters. This symbolism is also encapsulated in the image as the letter resembles the paper of hope as hope can bring commotion but yet agitation at the same time. Hope signifies motivation to help individuals to have the passion for their goals. In comparison to The Great Gatsby, Hope is a motivator for Jay Gatsby who

Hope is presented through the form of imagery and symbolism throughout the text which is quickly introduced at the end of Chapter 1 where Nick Carraway catches Jay Gatsby staring out towards East Egg, just were Daisy and tom lived, “I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntary I glanced seaward - and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock”. (pg. 25). The Green Light in the novel represents Gatsby’s dreams and aspirations in hope of his future, in fact, it is Daisy, in which it is so close yet so far to achieve. The Green Light can also be related to the American Dream in particular where its colour symbolises wealth and money of the materialistic society of which Gatsby lives in. The American Dream’s purpose was to give individuals hope and a belief that all individuals can be successful regardless of what class they reside. Gatsby holds this ideal by believing that the only way his life could be achieved and filled with happiness is by wealth and materialism. Although Gatsby believes in what he was doing is the way to buy Daisy’s love, Nick Carraway takes note of the hopeless idealisation that Gatsby has made in Chapter 5 “There have been moments, when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams - not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had