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Comparison of the great gatsby and macbeth
Comparative essay gatsby and macbeth
Comparative essay gatsby and macbeth
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From the Middle Ages in Scotland along with early 1900s “Roaring twenties” period, Scott Fitzgerald and William Shakespeare, two famous authors with their two infamous stories of The Great Gatsby and Macbeth, leave their impact on the world. Although the characters in these stories both faced conflict and ended with the same fatal death, the main characters developed their unique progressive stories. Arguably, one of these main characters, Macbeth and Jay Gatsby, progressive story was the more tragic of the two. Which progressive story was more tragic can be determined by the decisions made by Macbeth or Jay Gatsby based on their motivation, tragic flaw and outside flaws.
The fear of loneliness far outweighs the the fear of snakes and spiders
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Jay Gatsby’s downfall was not due to his love for Daisy but rather due to his resistance to change or his unwillingness to accept change. This is shown when Gatsby says “ “Can’t repeat the past ?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!”......”I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before,” he said, nodding determinedly. “She’ll see.”” (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby is unwilling to accept that Daisy is not the same person she was back when her and Gatsby were in love. Taking the blame for Daisy’s accident displays that Gatsby is still living off of the idea that Daisy will come back to him and he will live with a ‘happily ever after” ending. On the contrary, there is a clear difference between Gatsby's fatal flaw and the fatal flaw of Macbeth. Macbeth’s lust for power and greed overtook his senses to think rationally. This is exhibited when Macbeth claims ; “Why hath it given me earnest of success,Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor: If good, why do I yield to that suggestion” (Act I Sc III). Mcbeth found a way to convince himself that he deserves the power he's about to take and uses it as a justification for all the murders he commits and the pain he causes. His downfall was essentially avarice and once he committed his first murder, he was too far …show more content…
By calling Macbeth a coward, she is essentially degrading Macbeth because his lack of masculinity. Lady Macbeth’s reasoning is that because Macbeth cannot keep Lady Macbeth in a happy marriage by not giving her the power she feels they both are entitled to, Macbeth is not the hero or man he thinks he is, but in fact he is coward. Gatsby and Macbeth greatest influence was in fact their significant others however the intentions behind each S.O’s was completely different. In other words, Lady macbeth wanted a share in the power Macbeth would seize while Daisy had no intention in being the object of Gatsby’s
All stories have the same blueprint structure with the same type of ending whether it be good triumphs over evil, rags to riches, the voyage and the return, tragedy, or rebirth. The thing that sets these stories apart is the message they intend to in our minds. “ The power of a story to shift and show itself to anew is part of what attracts people to it, at different ages, in different moods, with different concerns” (Auxier 7). These messages are given by the characters in the story that all have their own reasoning but in the end have one meaning behind it. Some messages give specified personal messages rather than a broad stated such as the stories The Wizard of Oz and The Great Gatsby. Blinded by the ignorance of desires, the characters
The quote, “Man is not truly one, but truly two.” can be analyzed from a behaviorally or mentally aspect. Physically, man is one, but if you delve deeper into the man, he can be separated into two parts which creates a whole man. In the play Macbeth and in the novel Lord of the Flies, some of the characters can be split into two conflicting parts. The characters are neither entirely good or entirely bad. In both the novel and the play, something happens to the characters that made them split into an evil side, thus creating two men.
Gatsby is unrealistic. He believes he can relive the past and rekindle the flame he and Daisy once had. He is lost in his dream and accepts that anything can be repeated, "Can't repeat the past…Why of course you can!" (116, Fitzgerald). For Gatsby, failure to realize this resurrection of love is utterly appalling. His whole career, his conception of himself and his life is totally shattered. Gatsby's death when it comes is almost insignificant, for with the collapse of his dream, he is spiritually dead.
The character of Jay Gatsby was a wealthy business man, who the author developed as arrogant and tasteless. Gatsby's love interest, Daisy Buchanan, was a subdued socialite who was married to the dim witted Tom Buchanan. She is the perfect example of how women of her level of society were supposed to act in her day. The circumstances surrounding Gatsby and Daisy's relationship kept them eternally apart. For Daisy to have been with Gatsby would have been forbidden, due to the fact that she was married. That very concept of their love being forbidden, also made it all the more intense, for the idea of having a prohibited love, like William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, made it all the more desirable. Gatsby was remembering back five years to when Daisy was not married and they were together:
I believe that Jay Gatsby and Othello’s inability to face the truth lead to their tragic consequences, but in real life I believe it is not the case. The Great Gatsby and ‘Othello’ are both stories beautifully constructed by William Shakespeare and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I believe that the refusal to face the truth for Gatsby and Othello, was definitely an element used by the authors to construct them as tragic protagonists.
Fitzgerald creates the madness due to the corruption of the desire for wealth in the form of Jay Gatsby, who possesses “an extraordinary gift for hope”, is the “son of God”, and is also a man consumed by his desire for wealth (6, 104). This desire comes full force with the introduction of Daisy into Gatsby’s life. Daisy is representative of Gatsby’s true desires: wealth and love. Gatsby and Daisy meet and fall immediately for one another; Daisy “blossomed for him like a flower” and Gatsby became “forever wed” (117). Fitzgerald is specific in his diction when saying that Gatsby is “forever wed”, because the phrase explains to the reader that Gatsby is bound to Daisy for the eternity, whether she continues to blossom or not. Gatsby and Daisy are separated, but upon their reunion he recounts their departure from one another as exactly “five years next November,” whereas Daisy describes it much more unattentive way, saying that it has been “many years” since they last met (92). “The automatic quality of Gatsby’s answer” demonstrates to the reader that Gatsby engrosses himself in loving Daisy (92). This causes the reader to begin questioning the reasonable qualities of Gatsby’s desire for wealth as it uncovers itself as a madness. This continues as Gatsby begins to integrate Daisy back into his reality. For example, as Gatsby shows Daisy his
...illingly for a murder Daisy committed and not him. Gatsby had a period of happiness when he was with Daisy and thought it was the best time of his life, and Daisy seemed to think the same. Gatsby was still not good enough for Daisy though because he was part of West Egg, the lesser wealthy. But everything seemed to be an illusion; the story took place in the time of the Gilded Age. Nothing was how it seemed to be, while everything seems to be good on the outside, deep down there are always problems and abandoned memories, which eventually come up again and often causes problems. We all make mistakes in our life, love can influence our decisions greatly, but what’s important in life is setting your priorities straight, becoming a better person from our mistakes, and lastly, loving a person for whom they are on the inside rather than any material possessions or looks.
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, both Lady Macbeth and Daisy experience similar conflicts that they have to cope with. Throughout both the novel and the play both women play a part in the role of murder as well as the theme of alienation. Both characters use different ways to cope with the event that occurred.
...s drive him to be patient, determined, secretive, and careless with his wealth. He truly was a “great” man, as title suggest, stating from nothing but through hope and inspiration from his one true love he creates a “promising future” for himself (Myer). While at first the traits Gatsby posses may seem in some ways beneficial, they prove themselves to be just the opposite as this story progressed. One reason proving that these qualities were detrimental was the fact that Jay Gatsby possessed and used the qualities for all the wrong reasons. The main reason being that Gatsby did everything for Daisy was one of his greatest assets and sweetest downfalls. Furthermore, Gatsby allowed these traits to consume him and cause him to make poor mistakes, thus leading to his tragic death. And although that is true, his unbending love for her ruined him even before his death.
All tragedies eventually end in chaos; however, Othello and The Great Gatsby both begin with innocent characters thinking little about the possibility of disarray. During the climax of both works it becomes evident that the idea of order is doomed, inevitably leading to a bounding spiral of problems. The Great Gatsby and Othello both end in chaos because the protagonists, Othello and Gatsby are outsiders entering an ordered society. The actions of many characters cause confusion in the storyline, and the chaos in both works gradually impact the downfall of every character.
Throughout history, women’s place and role in society has changed. Women are often seen as a lower status and have a need to be taken care of by men. There are conflicts with the idealization of women as they are often overlooked and viewed as secondary characters. This idealization is well established in the characters of Desdemona in Othello and Daisy in The Great Gatsby. In F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and Shakespeare‘s play Othello, Desdemona and Daisy are both responsible for their tragedies due to the manipulation and impact of the outsiders, their loss of innocence, and their vulnerability as women.
Jay Gatsby believes that wealth and power can lead to love and happiness. He spends his entire life trying to create himself and change his past so that he can rekindle his love affair with the love of his life Daisy Buchanan. The two were young lovers, unable to be together because of very different social statuses. After Gatsby learns that he cannot be with Daisy because of this, he spends the rest of his life attempting to acquire wealth and power.
The Great Gatsby presents the main character Jay Gatsby, as a poor man who is in love with his best friends cousin, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby was in love with Daisy, his first real love. He was impressed with what she represented, great comfort with extravagant living. Gatsby knew he was not good enough for her, but he was deeply in love. “For a moment a phrase tried to take shape in my mouth and my lips parted like a dumb man’s”(Fitzgerald 107). Gatsby could not think of the right words to say. Daisy was too perfect beyond anything he was able to think of. Soon Gatsby and Daisy went their separate ways. Jay Gatsby went into the war while telling Daisy to find someone better for her, someone that will be able to keep her happy and provide for her. Gatsby and Daisy loved one another, but he had to do what was best for her. Gatsby knew the two might not meet again, but if they did, he wanted things to be the same. “I 'm going to fix everything just the way it was before”(Fitzgerald 106). He wanted Daisy to fall in love with him all over again. Unsure if Daisy would ever see Gatsby again, she got married while he was away. The two were still hugely in love with one another, but had to go separate ways in their
Essay 4: Comparative Analysis of Two Texts When comparing two texts, one must look at the characters and themes to find similarities and differences and we see a similarity with the theme of accepting reality in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and The Great Gatsby. There are differences in both texts with the way the characters fight reality, but the outcome is the same. The power of love in both texts is looked at as more important than social priorities and the main characters will do anything to get what they want and it results in death. One might come to conclusions to say that F. Scott Fitzgerald based the relationship of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan on Romeo and Juliet, seeing that both stories have characters who do not accept the reality and in their minds, love overpowers everything. When looking at these two texts side to side, one would notice many similarities in the actions of the main characters.
In the play Othello and the play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the main characters in both plays as warriors. Both characters in each of their plays, had constant outside voices seeping into their minds which ultimately contributed to the fate of both Othello and Macbeth. The witches in the play Macbeth had more of an effect of Macbeth’s actions then Iago had on Othello’s actions in the play Othello. Each character had a lot of pressure on them throughout the play however the witches influence on Macbeth resulted in more destruction than Iago’s influence on Othello.