The storylines of both novels, The Great Gatsby and Great Expectations, follow favourably to Plato’s statement of human behaviour flowing from three factors; emotion, desire and knowledge, forming and developing the antagonist in both stories of Pip and Jay Gatsby. Desire, particularly for wealth, seemingly reflects and dictates their behaviour, however realising that wealth is a means to win over their loves. Both stories documents the changes of human behaviour through the course of each respective story.
Pip’s particular aspiration to be a gentleman is evident in his first encounter
with Estella. Through her dialogue, accompanied with a patronising tone towards Pip; who is introduced during the exposition of the novel as an uneducated
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child. Addressed as ‘boy’, Estella makes this indication of his age and social status of not deserving of a similar title of ‘Miss’.
This difference in class alludes to Pip possessing a clear desire to be a gentleman, to win over Estella, who has a preconceived impression of him of his social class rather than his true character. The character of Pip can draw parallels to the author of the novel, Charles Dickens, who moved to Camden Town as a young boy, with his father being imprisoned after being convicted on charges of debt. Living the life of a poor boy, he also wished to be a gentleman as shown through Pip, during his younger years. Pips lack of education is also a point of relevance to Dickens who had to leave school at the age of 12 and again at 15, to support the family financially. This element of desire, shown through a character like Pip, sheds light on people of the victorian era, amid the industrial revolution. With children and people of lower …show more content…
class, aspiring to be of higher social status, the novel follows the trend of subject matters for literature of the time, about the desire of the poor wanting tone rich, a theme also present in other works by Dickens, including Oliver. Pip’s desire for Estella highlights his naivety, not being able to see clearly what is actually happening around him, the fact the Estella as being used as a puppet for Miss Havisham’s preconceived notion to cause harm to all of the opposite gender, being a child he does not see past this, nut is instead focused on the fact that estella is “proud” and “pretty”. Miss Havisham, Estella’s adoptive other, hinders all opportunity for Estella to form an opinion or personality, instead being relegated to a tool of Havisham’s revenge, who suffers a broken heart from being jilted at the altar by her former fiancé. Her signs of a plan of revenge is evident in the exposition of the novel as well as providing an insight to her bitter nature by which she responds to Estella , refusing to play with Pip, dismissively replying “Well, you can break his heart”. She reduces such powerful emotion to an object that can be toyed around and broken at her desire. It is evident by the aforementioned statement that Miss Havisham’s behaviour and conviction has been changed by emotion with her particular case being rejected and depressed post-event, which in turn, ultimately fuelled her burning desire to exact revenge on the male gender as a whole. Her agenda on men and her seemingly strong influence on Estella, is an anomaly of the trend for the role of women during the times the novel was set, Victorian England, a time where women were seen as passive to men, being controlled and easily swayed by the action of the opposite gender, not forming an opinion and having little ton say, rather partaking in the domestic activities of day to day life. she has a strong role to play in exacting her revenge, which is dissimilar to the roles of working class women, who were subject to the functions of the abode, rather than matters that human behaviour conflicted emotion and desire, with dickens indicating that these women were objectified in their roles within society. The reader is shown that the sole function of Miss Havisham has an agenda to hurt anyone for her own gain, revenge on the opposite gender for her own failed relationship, she has no compassion and feeling for others, after being left so bitter, a distinct change in her behaviour. In comparison, Jay Gatsby, formerly known as James Gatz, was a farmer of lower class, pre-Great Depression, where the divisions of class were more prominent and the American Dream, an notion to live a life of great wealth and prosperity became a benchmark for all those unable to attain such a lifestyle, Jay Gatsby included.
He is similar to Pip in the sense that he aspires to earn wealth in order to win the love of their emotional desires, Estella and Daisy respectively. Wealth motivated both characters to pursue their loves. As they both realised, riches was the only way to win them over. health equates to happy emotions, dictating their behaviour, represented by Gatsby’s desire for a happier life. “To Young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world”, to which he equates his happiness and success with his desire for materialistic possessions. This captured all what someone like Gatsby from a lower class envisaged wealth to be, and a goal he’d hope one day he could reach. However, as the novel progresses, despite gaining the reality of wealth, he quickly understands that a price can’t be named on his true love for Daisy, which for him, was his actual happiness, rather than the glitz and glamour of the world. The era by which the novel was set, the 1920’s, historically known in the present day as the Roaring 20’s, prioritised and showcased the wealth and strong livelihoods in which many people
attained, prospered under post-WW1. Gatsby ultimately confused this dream with his real intentions of winning Daisy. It becomes evident as both characters obtain and earn money, and as they climb the social ladder is when they comprise their personal values, and start to change in their overall behaviour and interactions with others, believing wealth is a key to both their happiness, to win over their women, however as they reach their seemingly set goal, do they actually change ethically and morally, changing as characters and stray from proper values. The corruption of these dreams asked as a desire to lead lives to the ideals of their respective societies, the American Dream and higher class England, not having to work in factories and farms, leads them on a path by which they lose bearing ultimately on whats right, wrong and with moral duty. “But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily towards that lost voice across the room ” a point in the novel where Gatsby ultimately realises his desire for Daisy has been fuelled wrongly by the construct of money, and that it is a pinnacle by which the protagonist has realised money is the cause of the failed relationships up until this point. Money, proving to a driving force between characters in the novel, witH Tom and said who claims to love each other, are only together because of the desire to be with someone rich, the story seems to shift from this love story to the idea that chasing an ideal, which in reality is hard to catch like the American Dream, was difficult and unattainable for the masses, ask proved by Jay Gatsby, part of the general population during the times, who died living up to the expectations of the Roaring 20s. A bound recipe for disaster, when an individual focuses so heavily on his own social bearing, leaving what he loves deals to be abandoned, resulting in his own unhappiness. Portrayed in Dickens novel, there is a clear shift of overall happiness of Pip, and Great Expectations follows his desire to be with Estella his happiness, on a path which to a reader, is a path for unhappiness, his desires are make by the social luxuries that he is starting to encounter, he eventually grows tired of his “common” life his desire for Estella has been plagued with his new found wealth, causing him unhappiness and the loss of what he really loves, as well his life he has life behind on his desire to earn money, rather than chase Estella ‘Finally, I remember that when I got into my little bed-room, I was truly retched, and had a strong conviction on me that I should never like Joe’s trade. I had liked it once, but once was not now”, he has set himself up to rise on the social ladder exponentially and whilst doing so, realising whatsoever that it is his desire, that is for money, not love, that will cause him his own personal description of his life and relationships he once had enjoyed, falsely believing that happiness can only be found in the highest ranks of society, and to be a gentleman meant to be happy, as he believes that in order to be happy he must hate what he has now, all lower class jobs that he was once part of, to fit the mood of being a gentleman, confusing this desire of social class with that of his desire for Estella. His behaviour changes towards Joe which he loses respect for, that he soon realises as the novel progresses he misses recalling on domestic comforts, of his past life, that really made him happy, not the wealth he has earned on his pursuit for Estella. “He would sit and talk to me in the old confidence, and with the old simplicity, and in the old unassertive protecting way, so that I would half believe that all my life since the days of the old kitchen was one if the mental troubles of the fever that was gone, his desires have been focused on what he had, despite being so simple and insignificant in perspective when considering the entire social construct of Victorian England, it is Pips realisation, known he has changed as a person, that Plato’s statement is agreeable and not in positive sense, as his desires has caused him to change his behaviour in a way that has caused unhappiness rather than what he thought of a life of happiness and success with the girl he loves, he must forego such a preconceived and naive focus of his desire in a way to win over Estella, and to recognise his place, which resonates with his won personal values, prides balance, that he eventually wins over Estella. Overall it is conclusive that the statement Human behaviour flows from three main sources: desire, emotion and knowledge made By Plato is agreeable, with both novels showing changes of all characters as a result of either emotion desire or knowledge, in particular the protagonists of each respective novels Jay and Pip. desire is ultimately what the premise of each story is about, however their focus on desire its what makes them to unhappy, and they must realise this in order to be truly happy. Emotion dictates their actions, as they forego all notions of what they thought desire was in order to win over the women, with varying success. the stories show that the desire for wealth is detrimental to the happiness of people, and it is unethical to chase an ideal that is out of bounds, which only leads to unhappiness and failures, it is ultimately the result of their own emotion, love for another, that causes them to embark on such a story.
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.
Because of his wealth, everything in Gatsby’s life hints at having power through status and money, but he is not happy because all he wants to do is be with hard to reach Daisy; she is the reason why he acquires the materialistic things he does in the first place.
The Great Gatsby set in the glistening and glittering world of wealth and glamour of 1920s Jazz Age in America. However, the story of the poor boy who tried to fulfill the American Dream of living a richer and fuller life ends in Gatsby’s demise. One of the reasons for the tragedy is the corrupting influence of greed on Gatsby. As soon as Gatsby starts to see money as means of transforming his fantasy of winning Daisy’s love into reality, his dream turns into illusion. However, other characters of the novel are also affected by greed. On closer inspection it turns out that almost every individual in the novel is covetous of something other people have. In this view, the meaning of greed in the novel may be varied The greed is universally seen as desire for material things. However, in recent studies the definition of “greed” has come to include sexual greed and greed as idolatry, understood as fascination with a deity or a certain image (Rosner 2007, p. 7). The extended definition of greed provides valuable framework for research on The Great Gatsby because the objects of characters’ desires can be material, such as money and possessions, or less tangible, such as love or relationship.
For five years, Gatsby was denied the one thing that he desired more than anything in the world: Daisy. While she was willing to wait for him until after the war, he did not want to return to her a poor man who would, in his eyes, be unworthy of her love. Gatsby did not want to force Daisy to choose between the comfortable lifestyle she was used to and his love. Before he would return to her, he was determined to make something of himself so that Daisy would not lose the affluence that she was accustomed to possessing. His desire for Daisy made Gatsby willing to do whatever was necessary to earn the money that would in turn lead to Daisy’s love, even if it meant participating in actions...
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of a man of meager wealth who chases after his dreams, only to find them crumble before him once he finally reaches them. Young James Gatz had always had dreams of being upper class, he didn't only want to have wealth, but he wanted to live the way the wealthy lived. At a young age he ran away from home; on the way he met Dan Cody, a rich sailor who taught him much of what he would later use to give the world an impression that he was wealthy. After becoming a soldier, Gatsby met an upper class girl named Daisy - the two fell in love. When he came back from the war Daisy had grown impatient of waiting for him and married a man named Tom Buchanan. Gatsby now has two coinciding dreams to chase after - wealth and love. Symbols in the story, such as the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, the contrast between the East Egg and West Egg, and the death of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson work together to expose a larger theme in the story. Gatsby develops this idea that wealth can bring anything - status, love, and even the past; but what Gatsby doesn't realize is that wealth can only bring so much, and it’s this fatal mistake that leads to the death of his dreams.
Gatsby is a dreamer, he dreams that one day he and Daisy will be able to be together once again. To achieve this dream Gatsby has made himself a rich man. He knows that in order to win Daisy back he must be wealthy and of high social stature. Gatsby becomes rich, has a beautiful mansion, nice things, things like shirts “They’re such beautiful shirts. . . it makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-such beautiful clothes” (pg.98).Gatsby believes his dream will come true because of all the money and nice things he has. The way that Gatsby becomes rich is in a way the demise of his dream. Gatsby becomes wealthy by participating in organized crime, including distributing illegal alcohol and trading in stolen securities. Daisy eventually learns about this and it is one of the reasons she will never again be with Gatsby. The other reason is Daisy a...
Gatsby’s obsession of his love for Daisy and wealth prove his dream as unattainable. Throughout the novel, he consumes himself into lies to cheat his way into people’s minds convincing them he is this wealthy and prosperous man. Gatsby tries to win Daisy’s love through his illusion of success and relive the past, but fails to comprehend his mind as too hopeful for something impossible. In the end, Nick is the only one to truly understand Gatsby’s hopeful aspirations he set out for himself but ultimately could not obtain. In the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to parallel many themes of the roaring twenties to current society. The ideas of high expectations and obsession of the material world are noticeable throughout the history and is evident in many lives of people today.
Gatsby encompasses many physiognomies such as ambitious. Ambitious outlines one who is eagerly desirous of achieving or obtaining success, Jay Gatsby. It is evident that Gatsby generates his own fantasy world, a realm where he is not the underprivileged James Gatz, but the fantasized Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald conceives him as, “… the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (98). This quote expresses how he dreams up a new world to escape the blandness of his own existence. But his imagination and turmoil pays off because he ends up making his dreams reality. He personifies a man who goes from “rags to riches” because he strives to better himself as opposed t...
After being very ill Pip realises that being a gentleman means more than having money and an education. Many of Dickens books are about childhood difficulties. Perhaps this is because he was drawing on the experience of his own difficult childhood and his own desire, like Pips to become a gentleman. Dickens books are also about the class struggle, cruelty, inequality and injustice. Punishment was harsh such as deportation to do hard labour in Australia for small crimes or public hanging.
Many people in life are different from one another, although many people are also very similar. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald has his characters act in very odd fashions. The characters in this book would practically do anything for wealth. Fitzgerald shows that wealth and upper class were big in the 1920’s just like it is today. Tom and Gatsby, who are both wealthy, show that class does not make you a better person.struggle They both struggle with a girl named Daisy, which in the end chooses to stay with one of them. These two characters share some similarities along with many differences.
Throughout Dickens’ novel Great Expectations, the character, personality, and social beliefs of Pip undergo complete transformations as he interacts with an ever-changing pool of characters presented in the book. Pip’s moral values remain more or less constant at the beginning and the end; however, it is evident that in the time between, the years of his maturation and coming of adulthood, he is fledgling to find his place in society. Although Pip is influenced by many characters throughout the novel, his two most influential role models are: Estella, the object of Miss Havisham’s revenge against men, and Magwitch, the benevolent convict. Exposing himself to such diverse characters Pip has to learn to discern right from wrong and chose role models who are worthy of the title.
Estella is raised in a prosperous household and is judgmental of Pip because he is from the working class. She insults his appearance when she says, "But he is a common laboring boy. And look at his boots! (Dickens 45)" because he is not of the upper class. She also criticizes the way he speaks when he calls one of the playing cards Jacks instead of Knaves (Dickens 46). Dickens uses her negative comments about Pip’s appearance and use of slang to highlight the differences between the two classes. She also insults Pip with a comment calling him a “stupid, clumsy laboring boy (Dickens46)." Because of the differences between their classes, she instantly labels him as unintelligent because of the way she has been raised with uncommon people. Pip thinks about what Estella would think of his family and what Joe does to earn a living. Pip also contemplates how his sister and Joe eat dinner at the kitchen table and how
It can be seen through Dickens’s highly successful novel Great Expectations, that his early life events are reflected into the novel. Firstly the reader can relate to Dickens’s early experiences, as the novel’s protagonist Pip, lives in the marsh country, and hates his job. Pip also considers himself, to be too good for his ...
Pip’s first and only love is Estella. Estella is very mean and nasty to Pip. Although he receives verbal abuse from Estella, he continues to like her and will not stop liking her, he sees the good inside of her and will not stop until the good comes out. In contrast to her treatment of Pip as a child when she had called him a common laboratory boy with coarse hands and thick boots, she tries to explain to him that emotion is something that she is incapable of feeling. The fact of that is evidence of his illusion, not her cruelty.
As a bildungsroman, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations presents the growth and development of Philip Pirrip, better known as Pip. Pip is both the main character in the story and the narrator, telling his tale many years after the events take place. Pip goes from being a young boy living in poverty in the marsh country of Kent, to being a gentleman of high status in London. Pip’s growth and maturation in Great Expectations lead him to realize that social status is in no way related to one’s real character.