Symbolism In The Great Gatsby

In both the Great Gatsby (1926) by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) by Elizabeth Barret Browning, we are given insight to a contrasting of emotions due to their differing perspective contexts. Browning’s sonnets establish a Victorian Patriarchal context of the persona’s pity and eventual compassion through hope. From this she heightens our understanding of interactive human emotion through a subversion of the rigid principles within her society. Additionally Fitzgerald’s novel revolves around Jay Gatsby’s false hope for the corrupted vision of the American Dream during Jazz Age. Gatsby, who is a flamboyant, hedonistic and fecund individual aspires to recapture his romantic relationship with Daisy Buchanan, though

Gatsby’s corrupted version of the American dream is symbolised by the green light on Daisy’s deck across the bay, a recurring symbol throughout the novel. Fitzgerald writes “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us” Gatsby’s dream is a reflection of the context at the time, illustrating his capacity to dream though every year the dream alludes further and further into the past “borne back ceaselessly into the past”. Gatsby’s “incorruptible dream”, has sprung through his desire for Daisy, the reason behind his constructed identity. Nick narrates, “It excited him to, that many men had already loved Daisy – it increased her values his eyes” which, as a metaphor reflects the shallowness of the context, as tenderness has been reputed with material prosperity. This motif of Daisy being objectified is created through Gatsby’s realisation of her spiritual persona: “her voice is full of money.” Thus furthering the motif, as Daisy is seen as merely another possession to add to Gatsby’s collection. This relates to Fitzgerald’s context as having a large assortment of material possession, directly correlates you with being wealthy and

Fitzgerald’s novel establishes the false hope of Gatsby’s corrupted dream which is represented though the surreal imagery scattered throughout the novel. The surreality represents the extravagant edifices of Gatsby’s identity in order to pursue his dream. Fitzgerald writes, “Men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars”, which through the polysyndeton and metaphor heightens the surreality of the Jazz Age, reflecting the hollowness of the people, as they are likened to “moths”. This surreality adds to the lack of tenderness in the novel, as Gatsby’s ‘incorruptible dream’ is up for inevitable failure. This is seen through the cynical structure of “no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . And then one fine morning” which represents the false hope due to the corrupted values of the time (EXPAND). However, through the caesura combined with the ellipses, Fitzgerald establishes as sense of ambiguity, suggesting that the hope in itself … by the means in which the dream is personal. Continually, EBB’S poetry shows hopes ability to triumph due to the author’s rebellion against society expectations. EBB takes the traditional Petrarchan sonnet sequence and reassures it, abolishing the blazon at repressing women as passive figures of sensuality through her literal