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Comparison between Gatsby and Othello
Comparison between Gatsby and Othello
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F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Shakespeare illustrate the struggle of outside characters in their respective works, The Great Gatsby and Othello. The main characters, Jay Gatsby and Othello, live in different time periods. Gatsby lives in magnificent New York in the Roaring Twenties, where life is all about reaching and living the American Dream of money and status. As for Othello, life in the seventeenth century is about maintaining a good social reputation. Fitzgerald paints a picture of the “American Dream” in the Roaring Twenties and the desperate pursuit of it and he depicts distinct social classes—old money, new money, and no money. Gatsby was raised in an underprivileged family in rural North Dakota but later manages to become stupendously wealthy. However, he is treated as an outcast because of the way he acquired his wealth, by participating in organized crime. Comparatively, Shakespeare’s play, Othello, is centered around a Venetian general, who is a highly respected Moor but is later driven by jealousy and deception, and treated as an outsider in the Venetian society because of his racial background. Nowadays being an outsider is just as bad as it was back then. The consequences of being an outsider still has grave implications and consequences but back then life is a living nightmare for an outsider and the only way to change that is by ceaselessly working towards fitting into society and being treated equally in the society. Fitzgerald and Shakespeare strive to make the readers understand that outsiders will always remain outsiders no matter how hard they try to remove the label from themselves. Gatsby and Othello experience discrimination due to their background, they are not able to maintain a healthy relationsh...
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...heir novels by illustrating the horrendous lives of outsiders and how they go through the same trials in their society. Fitzgerald and Shakespeare portray the lives of their main characters and how they go through various challenges such as dealing with discrimination due to their background and due to their outsider status and background prevents them from keeping a healthy relationship with their loved once. This demonstrates that the outsider traits and qualities are still the same from the 17th century till the present time but the consequences and advantages differ. The authors also prove because Gatsby and Othello work hard to achieve equality within the society, they manage to achieve it for a short time but then they end up going over board and losing it. Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print.
Love is the central and fundamental aspect in the play in which King Lear struggles to perceive due to his lack of awareness. Similarly in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as an ambitious individual who is blinded by the deceptive appearance of love, where he attempts to obtain what he desires. Furthermore, the era of this novel ideally reflects the theme Fitzgerald conveys in The Great Gatsby, as Gatsby's misguided pursuit of false love mirrors the deceptive, yet intriguingly hedonistic belief of the American Dream. Fitzgerald evidently illustrates the moral decay of the human condition during the time period of this novel as many Americans strive to achieve the American Dream. Consequently, failed relationships between characters are inevitable since they are founded upon materialism rather than love.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby provides the reader with a unique outlook on the life of the newly rich. Gatsby is an enigma and a subject of great curiosity, furthermore, he is content with a lot in life until he strives too hard. His obsession with wealth, his lonely life and his delusion allow the reader to sympathize with him. Initially, Gatsby stirs up sympathetic feelings because of his obsession with wealth.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby many characters are not as they seem. The one character that intrigues me the most is James Gatsby. In the story Gatsby is always thought of as rich, confident, and very popular. However, when I paint a picture of him in my mind I see someone very different. In fact, I see the opposite of what everyone portrays him to be. I see someone who has very little confidence and who tries to fit in the best he can. There are several scenes in which this observation is very obvious to me. It is clear that Gatsby is not the man that everyone claims he is.
A more thorough investigation of The Great Gatsby is necessary to uncover a well-disguised theme by Fitzgerald in this work. Upon a simple read through one would probably not notice the great similarities of Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson, but the two characters seemed to have the same agenda for their lives. While Gatsby took the route of acquiring money at all costs to join the upper class of society and to be acceptable in the eyes of a woman, Myrtle chose to make her way up in society at the cost of her marriage by attaching herself to money. The underlying question is who had the most success.
Throughout the tale of The Great Gatsby the reader is treated to a vivid description of Gatsby's parties and his prolific residence. It would appear that Gatsby had everything a person could want. Loads of money and friends and surrounded by the finer things of life. However, the book takes a turn towards its e...
By distinguishing Gatsby from the flaws he possesses allows the reader to care for Gatsby, and the impact of his death all the more powerful when it finally occurs. By making Gatsby a victim of the American Dream rather than just the embodiment of it, Fitzgerald is able to convince his audience of the iniquity of the American Dream by making them mourn the life of the poor son-of-a-bitch from West Egg.
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare and the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the objective is to divulge the quintessence of humanity. Although the protagonists in both works of literature have drastically different journeys that lead to climactic endings, the use of plot is to demonstrate that the essence of mankind is ultimately a tragedy if great care is not taken. Both Hamlet and Jay Gatsby are unable to focus on the reality of the situation, and rather waste valuable time focusing on simply the appearance of things. However, Hamlet is a character completely consumed by despair and ultimately believes that life is futile. In contrast, Gatsby is a character who is rather obsessive of achieving the American Dream, and winning the love of Daisy, and is decisively far too anticipative.
Struggling for perfection and reaching for the impossible are the driving factors in the lives of Gatsby, and Hamlet. In both The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the theme of idealism is demonstrated as the main contributing factor into the evident downfall of both Gatsby, and Hamlet. Although each respectable character is faced with dissimilar scenarios, it is the similarities of Gatsby and Hamlet's character traits that allow them both to be victims of their own idealism. Gatsby and Hamlet both lose their lovers, leaving them to live heartbroken and lonesome lives. The tendency to masquerade as their true personalities, whether it be to escape the past or to plot the perfect revenge, displays the idealistic attitude of the two characters.
Throughout the majority of “Othello”, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and “The Great Gatsby”, Shakespeare, Lawrence and Fitzgerald seems to have this common focus on the changes in society in terms of relationships. It appears that each text has a major event in which the dynamics of the relationships change due to some aspect in society in which they are set.
This essay discusses the role of social mobility in The Great Gatsby. It argues that not all people can reach the highest social class, this is a class you must belong to from the beginning of life or marry in to. However, the characters are living the American dream which makes social mobility to the other social classes available. The essay addresses the American Dream, the difference in social class between the main characters and how some social mobility is unreachable.
Characters in books can reveal the author feeling toward the world. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald suggested the moral decline of the period in America history through the interpersonal relationships among his characters. The book indicates the worthlessness of materialism, the futile quest of Myrtle and Gatsby, and how America's moral values had diminished. Despite his newly acquired fortune, Gatsby's monitory means could not afford his only true wish, therefore he cannot buy everything which is important to Daisy. (Fitzgerald, -page 42) What you wish for is not always what you want or not all that glitters is gold.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is an absurd story, whether considered as romance, melodrama, or plain record of New York high life. The occasional insights into character stand out as very green oases on an arid desert of waste paper. Throughout the first half of the book the author shadows his leading character in mystery, but when in the latter part he unfolds his life story it is difficult to find the brains, the cleverness, and the glamour that one might expect of a main character.