Lust is a desire that can drive an individual to go to all extents, just to get what they wish for. Literature is very broad in the way that it is available to everyone and can help us gain knowledge in many different aspects. In my opinion, I believe that literature is about gaining knowledge about a certain event and being able to connect with the story and relate the situations to what is actually happening in reality. I also think that literature can cause people to form different opinions that can end up being very eye opening when things are looked at from a different perspective. As a class, we read a variety of stories, all with different types of knowledge and opinions associated with them. The two stories that stood out to me were The Great Gatsby and “The Cask of Amontillado.” In these two stories the general message is lust and how lust can take over one’s body and the way they live their life. In the well-known novel, The Great Gatsby, it is about a wealthy man that has so much love for Daisy that he lets it take over his entire life. Gatsby continually refers back in time to when he was with Daisy before he went to the war. Daisy had moved on with her life after Gatsby had left for the war and married Tom Buchanan because he was wealthy and would stay with her forever. In reality, Daisy and Tom’s relationship is not that wonderful because he is having an affair with another girl. Gatsby tries to rekindle his relationship with Daisy through Nick but realizes that it will not ever be how it used to be. Likewise, in the short story, “The Cask of Amondillado,” Fortunato allows his strong desire for wine to take his life. Fortunado’s “friend” Montresor, was looking at having a glass of wine from a totally different persp... ... middle of paper ... ...onnecting it to reality. In The Great Gatsby, lust was confused with love and caused negative outcomes as a result. Similarly, in “The Cask of Amontillado,” lust was present but it was in a different way because it was showing how lust could be blinding and that will also result in a not so favorable outcome. Lust is something that will always be present in literature as well as in society because it always finds a way to control us as people when we find something that we really want. Although lust is not necessarily known to be a good thing, it is something that all of us can grow and learn from. Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York; Scribner. 2004. Print. Poe, Allan Edgar. “The Cask of Amontillado.” The Norton Introduction to Literature: The Shorter Eleventh Edition. Ed. Spencer Richardson-Jones. New York: Norton, 2013. 164-170. Print.
Poe, Edgar A. "Short Stories: The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe." Short Stories: The
In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Daisy Miller by Henry James, most of the characters are under illusions during the majority of the plot. The plots are carried out with the characters living under these illusions, which are mainly overcome by the ends of the stories. The disillusionment of most of the characters completely diminishes the foundation in which the plots were built upon, leading to the downfall of some of the main characters and the altering of the other characters.
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 Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald focuses on the lifestyle of a group of people who will do anything to accomplish their goals. The characters go through different changes that come to affect their life decisions and will cause them to lie, sacrifice and feel lonely in their lives. They live the American dream and have power but chase a dream that would affect and change their lifestyles. They judge and discriminate against one another not knowing they have a certain symbol in common in their lives. Their desire to accomplish their goals became a type of new life to the characters.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado. Mankato, MN : The Creative Company, 2008. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “ The Cask Of Amontillado.” Heritage Of American Literature .Ed. james E. Miller.Vol.2.Austin:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1991.20.Print.
During Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, it is apparent to be an absurd time for the wealthy. The shallowness of money, riches, and a place in a higher social class were probably the most important components in most lives at that period of time. This is expressed clearly by Fitzgerald, especially through his characters, which include Myrtle Wilson, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and of course, Jay Gatsby. This novel was obviously written to criticize and condemn the ethics of the rich.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Cask of Amontillado." Reading and Writing about Literature. Phillip Sipiora. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2008.
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many of the characters live in an illusory world and only some can see past this. In the novel, West Egg and its residents represent the newly rich, while East Egg represents the old aristocracy. Gatsby seeking the past, Daisy is obsessed with material things, Myrtle wanting Tom to escape her poverty, George believing that T.J. Eckleburg is God, and Tom believing he is untouchable because of his power and wealth are all examples of the illusion v. reality struggle in the novel and Nick, the only character aware of reality, witnesses the fall of all the characters around him to their delusions.
According to the dictionary, the definition of dissatisfaction is the quality or state of being unhappy or discontent. Dissatisfaction is a disease that theoretically knows no prejudices, has no cure, and almost everyone has it. This is a global epidemic, that can destroy a man in the time it takes to snap your fingers. Physically most people will be alright but discontent will rot you to the core on the inside. Unfortunately, not being content seems to be a very common part of society today and in the past. The theme of not be satiated by life is especially seen in the famous novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. All the characters in this novel seemingly have achieved the american dream but they are all unhappy and never get what they really want in the end. Also, no character is satisfied with their marriage, with love, and with life in general. They are all unhappy with their lives and they destroy the lives of others in order to satisfy themselves. The Great Gatsby teaches us that even being wealthy and powerful, people can still be dissatisfied and will do anything in order to be happy. Therefore, despite believing that we have it all, dissatisfaction still plagues the human spirit.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "A Cask of Amontillado." Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Orlando: Harcourt, 1997. 209-14.
Love and desire are presented by the writers as motivation for the main protagonists of all three texts. However, again in all three the destructive forces of obsession and jealousy damage and ultimately destroy the protagonists in some way, either through their own pursuits of love and desire, or through the manipulative and destructive actions of antagonists.
Gatsby’s obsession has been the powerful driving force causing him to become incredibly wealthy, albeit through shady means. He has yearned for Daisy so much that he has developed this colossal illusion of her, however, this illusion is only Gatsby’s desire for the perfect Daisy that he knew in the past. Gatsby himself tells Nick that, “... when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his inutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God.” (pg. 110) Gatsby, a man of immense ambition and imagination, fell in true love with a woman, so, naturally, his ambition and imagination became targeted solely at that woman. Gatsby longs for the Daisy he knew and just cannot accept any other form of Daisy, which is clearly demonstrated when he says, “‘Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!’ … ‘I’m going to fix everything the way it was before,’ ... ‘She’ll see.’”(pg. 110) Gatsby adamantly believes that the past Daisy is the only true Daisy and as such, wants to repeat the past and marry the Daisy that he knew. To that end, he obtained the one thing keeping them apart---money. Unfortunately, Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy caused him to only focus on the past with Daisy, not caring about whatever he had to do to get her back, which is what ultimately brought him down in the end. Gatsby did not even consider that the way he obtained his money would be a major factor in his relationship with Daisy. He just wanted Daisy, and while he did win the battle, he ultimately lost the war. Gatsby’s obsession, while giving him the power he needed to achieve his goal, ultimately caused the destruction of his aspiration by causing his mind to focus solely on the
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature. Ed. Wayne Franklin, Philip F. Gurpa, Arnold Krupat. New York: Norton, 2007. 1612-1613, 1616. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “That Cask of Amontillado.” Ibiblio. U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.d.