Similarities Between The Scrutiny And The Great Gatsby

Love in The Scrutiny vs The Great Gatsby

‘Why should you swear I am foresworn,

Since thine I vowed to be?

Lady it is already morn,

And ‘twas last night I swore to thee

That fond impossibility.’

Lovelace expresses the selfish attitudes that can occur in men when they seduce women with empty promises in order to have a sexual encounter.

Addressing his lover, he renounces the promise he made last night that he would love her and her alone.

Surely, she didn’t think he meant it when he swore to be faithful to her?

And it was a silly (‘fond’) thing to expect of him, because it’s impossible for him to be faithful to just one woman.

‘That fond impossibility’ – disingenuous tone, making the situation seem nicer than it is,

‘impossibility’ implies genuine

inability to be monogamous
Links to Tom Buchanan, he also doesn’t try and hide his affair, he even brings Nick along to the apartment in Morningside Heights where he maintains his affair with Myrtle
Not only that but ‘The fact that he had one [a mistress] was insisted upon wherever he was known […] he turned up in popular restaurants with her’ making sure that everyone sees her with him and is apparently unconcerned about Daisy finding out.
They’re both unfaithful and arrogant and don’t care to hide it. Because of their egotistical personalities, they both expect that their women won’t leave them, Tom, since he is of high standing and knows that Daisy won’t leave the security that his wealth provides her and her daughter, and even if she tried he wouldn’t allow it, especially not for Gatsby who acquired his wealth through illegal methods and is of lower social status.
“She's not leaving me!" Tom's words suddenly leaned down over Gatsby. "Certainly not for a common swindler who'd have to steal the ring he put on her finger."
The speaker in the poem, because he thinks he is a treasure to women and that women love being with him, and will wait for him while he satisfies his needs “Then if, when I have loved my round, Thou prov'st the pleasant she […] I laden will return to thee”

‘Have I not loved thee much and long,
A tedious twelve hours’ space?
I must all other Beauties wrong,
And rob thee of a new embrace;
Could I still dote upon thy face.’

He argues that he’s loved her for the last twelve hours – what more does she want? He then claims that it would be doing a disservice to other women if he was forced to be true to her, thus depriving these other women of his company and attention. What’s more, he’d be robbing her of ‘a new embrace’ – that is, a new lover, other beaux to love her. In short, he’d be missing out on the chance to be with other people if he swore fidelity to her, He's really suggesting that she ought to go and do a similar thing too - otherwise she's missing out as well - how unusual for the times! But he will come back to her if he ends up preferring her. So he's confident in himself but does he really care about her??
‘A tedious twelve hours space’ – the alliteration reflects the boredom and tediousness of the perceived situation
‘I must all other Beauties wrong’ – use of ‘beauties’ reinforces the objectification and commodification of women in this era, as well as revealing the narrator’s priorities when it comes to women

Contrasts with Tom.
Lovelace tells the woman that if he was faithful, then she’d be missing out on a ‘new embrace’, showing how he doesn’t care about her faithfulness or her infidelity either, which again shows how he doesn’t really care about her, in this sense it could be seen as him not being a hypocrite, whereas Tom has double standards, Tom expects a lot more from Daisy than he does from himself, but this was just par for the course in upper class marriages of the time. Men got to play around; women got to produce heirs.

"Self-control!" repeated Tom incredulously. "I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out […] Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they'll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white."
This is one of the most powerful things Tom Buchanan says, it sums his personality up in a line, ridiculing Gatsby's achievements to his face. He actively speaks out about his snobbery against 'New Money' people such as Gatsby and also continues to convey his racist ideology.
Tom is an arrogant, hypocritical bully. His social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and he never even considers trying to live up to the moral standard he demands from those around him. He has no moral qualms about his own extramarital affair with Myrtle, but when he begins to suspect Daisy and Gatsby of having an affair, he becomes outraged and forces a confrontation.

"You're crazy!" he exploded. "I can't speak about what happened five years ago, because I didn't know Daisy then—and I'll be damned if I see how you got within a mile of her unless you brought the groceries to the back door. But all the rest of that's a God damned lie. Daisy loved me when she married me and she loves me now."
Daisy's love is like a possession to Tom, he sees marriage as a system of ownership, and he's all about controlling access.

‘Not but all joy in thy brown hair
By others may be found; —
But I must search the black and fair,
Like skilful mineralists that sound
For treasure in unploughed-up ground.’

In the third stanza, Lovelace (or his speaker) praises his lover’s brown hair and says that all joy is to be found in such beautiful locks; nevertheless, he must go in search of raven-headed beauties and blondes, likening himself to a mineralogist searching in the earth for rare gems.
Superficiality in this stanza and in ALL of Gatsby

Gatsby could be seen as a superficial man because all he cared about was wealth and showing off, also because fell in love with Daisy because he thought that her looks and her social status would complete his ideal image of himself.
Daisy is materialistic and superficial and is obsessed with material value.
“She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me.

It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except for me.”

Despite her affection for Gatsby, she ultimately chooses to stay with Tom because of Gatsby’s apparently dubious past and his connection to bootlegging and illegal crimes, and because of the safety net that Tom’s wealth provided her.

"Her voice is full of money [...] that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it”

This quote contains symbolism as Daisy is the ultimate symbol of the American Dream for Gatsby. She is wealthy and well off, and she fits right into his elaborate dream.


This quote provides character insight as Daisy's character is undeniably linked to material wealth, which adds to the reason Gatsby is so infatuated with her and it is the reason for her "inexhaustible charm"

Fitzgerald may have based some of Daisy’s characteristics on his own wife. Although she was truly in love with Scott, she refused to commit herself to him because his economic prospects were not promising. Not only this, but Zelda Fitzgerald became infatuated with a young French pilot, which angered Scott and influenced the theme of infidelity in the Great

Gatsby.

Most of the relationships in the novel are superficial; that is, they lack depth of feeling and are based on surface qualities only, just like the relationships the speaker in the poem has with women, which is similar to the relationship Tom has with Myrtle.
Daisy and Tom are married because it was expected of both of them to marry someone with money - which they did by marrying one another. Their marriage is not based on a deep love for one another. That is evident throughout the novel as we hear about Tom's escapades that started as early as his honeymoon.
Daisy quickly falls back into a relationship with Gatsby, and even that pairing has some superficial qualities to it. Daisy may truly have some feelings for Jay, but she also wanted to break out of her luxurious, but dull, daily routine by having an affair. While Jay wanted her to leave Tom and marry him, she had no intention of leaving her husband. It was just an affair to Daisy.
The relationship between Tom and Myrtle is purely superficial. Myrtle is with Tom because he has money and she thinks he can and will pull her out of her oppressive life in the Valley of Ashes. Tom is with Myrtle for the sex and the excitement of having an affair.
Even Nick and Jordan don't have a deep love for one another; neither is committed to the relationship and neither is very upset when it ends. Going beyond romantic relationships, there are superficial qualities in the connections between people outside of romantic pairs.
The people flock to Gatsby's parties for what they can get - a fun night with free food, music, and booze. When Gatsby dies, not even Klipspringer who, like a leech, lived at Gatsby's house as a guest, goes to the funeral.
Disgust at all this lack of concern and care for others is one of the reasons Nick left New York to return to the Midwest.

‘Then if, when I have loved my round,
Thou prov'st the pleasant she,
With spoils of meaner beauties crowned
I laden will return to thee,
Ev'n sated with variety.’

In this stanza, the speaker says once he has had his fill of all these other women, and finds he still wants to be with her above all else, he will come back to her as a better lover because he’ll be certain of his affections for her, and that she’s the right one for him, having spent time with other women.
Selfish
Conceited
Flaky

DIRECT LINK to Tom (again)
Says something very similar to this last stanza
“And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time”
Tom’s claim shows that he is aware that his affair makes him look bad, but he doesn’t admit that what he’s doing is wrong, however, the speaker in the poem doesn’t acknowledge his wrongdoings at all.
Even at the end, it is doubted that they will truly stay faithful in their relationships after they return to their partner.

It also links to Daisy
She chooses Tom over Gatsby because, in her case, he was the more beneficial choice for her, just like the speaker in this poem when he says to the woman if he likes her the most, then he will return to her.
She felt Tom was better for her because he fulfils her needs better than Gatsby, Tom was old money, of higher class, he was not associated with illegal activities and can provide more security for her and her daughter, if she had chosen Gatsby she would’ve tainted her reputation and been shunned, because she would’ve been associated with a bootlegger and because she’d have left one of the most powerful men in that society.

Daisy is also very flaky, she unintentionally lead Gatsby on with the notion that they will be together, but when the time came for her to finally decide between him and Tom, she chooses to stay with Tom.
“I never loved him,' she said with perceptible reluctance.”
“Daisy’s leaving you.’ ‘Nonsense’ I am though,’ she said with visible effort.”
She is talking about never loving Tom, but it is obvious to Nick that she does not mean what she is saying, when Gatsby says that Daisy is leaving, and Tom laughs, that is the only time she tries to suggest that she wants to go, and it’s only in reaction to Tom's disbelief - she wants Tom to react, to fight for her.
It could be seen that Daisy was only messing with Gatsby in retaliation to Tom's cheating. Daisy was all in it for the attention because she was longing for her husband to pay attention to her and acknowledge that he wanted her to be his. Although I have to say I think she still had some feelings for Gatsby but they were not enough, as she already had an established life, and family.