To have someone in your life either good or bad, meet their death by another human leaves scarring effects, and often has a concealed motive. These motives are what sink into the mind of the perpetrator and cause them to commit a murder. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Platoon directed by Oliver Stone, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee these elements are prevailing factors of importance. In The Great Gatsby, George Wilson exacts vengeance on the falsely accused killer, Jay Gatsby. Similarly, in Platoon Pvt. Chris Taylor slays Staff Sgt. Barnes for the murder of his friend Sgt. Elias. On the other hand, in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, George murders his “son” after enduring the humiliation, and her defiance when …show more content…
she spoke about their son. First, In The Great Gatsby the protagonist, Gatsby, gets shot in the back by the coward mechanic, Wilson.
The incentive behind Gatsby’s death was the desire for vengeance, which sprung from falsely directed anger. This rage made Wilson blind to the finding the absolute truth behind his wife’s death. After discussing the death with Michaelis George Wilson begins pondering about god as he’s reminded by the eckleburg sign outside his house. Once he sat and pondered more he began consumed with the idea of getting revenge. George reveals the dog collar to Michaelis who makes no connection to the murder, but George reveals she was most likely having an affair. George believes that the man who killed myrtle was having an affair with her and was the same man driving the yellow car. He decides to search for the man and claims to Michaelis, “I have a way of finding out”(Fitzgerald 87). The compounded belief that the man who murdered his wife, was the same man having an affair with her, led to George losing his grip on reality. As a result he based his search of this man on rumor rather than fact, and pinpointed the culprit as Gatsby. After misdirecting his anger at Gatsby, Wilson murdered him. The effect of his wife’s death and the murder of Gatsby psychologically destroyed Wilson causing him to die by suicide. The death of Gatsby then left a ripple leaving Daisy and Tom to go on with their lives and stripping Nick of his best friend. Nick then loses touch with reality after the …show more content…
death of Gatsby. Moreover, in the film Platoon the protagonist Pvt. Chris Taylor executes Staff Sgt. Barnes after discovering Barnes murdered his friend Elias. Prior to experiencing war in Vietnam, Chris Taylor lived in a wealthy family and joined the war based on the belief all men should fight, not just the poor. Over the period of time, he was in Vietnam he experienced atrocities that were permitted by the Platoon leader Barnes. After witnessing rapes and villages being destroyed Taylor loses faith and begins desping Barnes. Once threatened with a court martial Barnes kills Elias as a preemptive strike. Despite physical proof Taylor believes the real culprit is Barnes stating, “Proof’s in his eyes”(Stone). Although later Taylor made more connections when he peered down at Elias sprinting from the jungle. All this compiled together pushed Taylor closer to the edge. After a fierce battle with the Viet Cong, Taylor and Barnes woke together despite Barnes attempt to murder him. Taylor quickly scavenges a Viet Cong rifle after becoming conscious he executes Barnes for his sins. This can be portrayed as a deliberate act of vengeance and self preservation thus the motivations for killing Barnes. Although he exacts his revenge, Taylor psychologically alters from an innocent man with a moral compass to someone like barnes. Anyone put in a situation where they’re forced to kill someone they know would morph their psyche regardless of their will power. Another murder of a lesser degree occurs in Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf when George kills off their “son”.
Martha and George live a dull life which hasn’t been all Martha has dreamed of. She dreamed of having a kid and George succeeding her father as the university president. With neither of those things coming to reality she resorted to the unreality our minds have to offer. As a result, Martha and George conceive the idea of making a fake child twenty one years prior to the story a world in their world in which they could take refuge. After a night of humiliation and drinking, George exacts his revenge on Martha by killing their son. On the surface of the murder it seems simple George states, “You broke our rule, baby. You mentioned him...you mentioned him to someone else”(Albee 236). It may be easiest to believe George has spiteful, and merely trying to kick Martha down for the humiliation she provoked. However, the motivation behind George’s reasoning it much more deep. His attachment to Martha refuses to allow him to lose hope in her. After that long night George realizes that Martha is losing her sense of reality. In order to save her George dives over the edge and kills their imaginary son. This action psychologically reaches the other couple and causes sympathy from Nick and Honey who attempt to show their empathy, and cause great grief in Martha. After the other couple leaves Martha tries to convince George to resurrect their son, but George reassured the
necessity for his death stating,”It was time” and “It’ll be better now”(Albee 240). Clearly, his actions were stimulated from his desire to save Martha from herself. All in all, each murder shares its similarities and differences. Such as, the murders of Gatsby and Barnes which were committed as an act of revenge in the spur of the moment. These deaths psychologically altered the characters who assassinated their victims. In the case of George Wilson it pushed him to the brink as he went through with a murder-suicide. Whereas with Chris Taylor it made him stoop to the lowest levels of morality and be the entity he was killing almost hypocritically. However, with George Wilson it diverges from the need for revenge to being an act of mercy. This character choices to spare Martha from losing her senses and humiliation by killing of their imaginary son, which helped give them refuge. This act merely forced George and Martha to put their sanity and touch of reality to the test by psychologically freeing themselves from the imaginary world they crafted. Overall, the murder that left the deepest scars was Gatsby’s as it drove Nick to solitude and inspired plenty of despair.
George Wilson who is married to Myrtle, and Tom Buchanan, married to Daisy, are most responsible for Gatsby's death. Wilson went up to Tom asking who owned the yellow car that killed his wife. Tom revealed that it was Gatsby’s car knowing that Wilson had intentions of killing whoever owned the car, yet Tom didn’t add in the fact that Daisy was driving. Gatsby did have a relationship with Daisy, and Tom knew about it. Tom allowed Daisy to go in Gatsby’s car back to West Egg to prove that he did not care if Daisy and Gatsby were together, had Tom not let Daisy go in Gatsby’s car, both Myrtl...
Negative emotions stop us from thinking and behaving rationally and seeing situations in their true perspective. When the negative emotion overrules a person then he tends to listen only to his inner voice, on which he has no control. Negative emotions should not be prolonged for a longer time and when it happens, the problem becomes more entrenched. Negative emotions, if not handled with patience and appropriate measures, it can lead to big disasters of any kind, for example, expressing anger with violence.
Gatsby's death at the hands of George Wilson, who doesn't know Daisy killed his wife because
Even though at first when they finally got together after all those years and everything seem great and romantic but good things always come to an end. The affair effected Gatsby in his life by having him back the old love he first had for Daisy even hoping for a lifetime future together. His dream is very much vivid about his romantic hopes about Daisy in his mind, “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams, not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (95). He seems to be falling deeper in love with her even maybe more than the love she really had for him even though through the end of the chapters her love that she claims to have for him seemed not truly. In New York, the truth comes out more about she feels about Gatsby by being questioned and feeling guilty when Tom gets to the fact that she loves him and not Gatsby but Gatsby rejects his sayings and tells Daisy to say how she truly feel about him. Over all the excitement, Daisy tells how she truly feel about the whole love affair, “I did love him once but I loved you too” (132). It is possible that the leading of Gatsby’s death was caused from Tom’s jealousy of his wife’s confessed love for Gatsby. Tom would had told Wilson that Gatsby was the driver of the car that killed Myrtle and her secret
Cruelty plays a major part in developing an author’s portrayal of different characters, as well as the connection between these characters and what they represent. As a young writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald grew up in Minnesota, and in many ways his life is paralleled by the background of Nick Carraway, the narrator and a character in his book The Great Gatsby. In this novel, Fitzgerald uses many strategies to develop each character - among these is the cruelty of one character towards another. The most significant act of cruelty in the book is Daisy Buchanan’s role in Myrtle’s death, and her actions following this death. By connecting her to the high class, the author articulates his outlook and attitude towards the ideologies and values of the
Gatsby is portrayed as a good person once again when he taked the blame of Daisy running over Myrtle. Later on Gatsby tells Nick that he intended to take the blame for Daisy even though daisy was driving the car. SInce Gatsby took the blame of Myrtle's death he sacrificed his own death for
In the iconic novel published from the 1920's, the author displays many themes such as appearance vs reality, disillusion, love and relationship, corruption, and differences in social class. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald believes that belief in romantic destiny has dire consequences as demonstrated throughout the novel.
Their choices led to the death of Myrtle, Gatsby and Wilson. Myrtle wouldn 't have died if Tom didn 't cheat on Daisy. Tom 's choice to stray from his wife caused Myrtle to run out into the road because she thought Jordan was Tom 's wife so she ran to stop the car. The car was actually being driven by Daisy who was accompanied by Gatsby. This accident also put Daisy at fault because if she hadn’t of cheated as well, her and Tom never would have had the argument about her love for Gatsby. This would have prevented the accident altogether. Tom was also at fault for telling Wilson who the owner of the car was which was Gatsby. Although Gatsby wasn 't the one driving, he ended up with the blame for it. Wilson wasn 't in the right mindset and went to Gatsby 's house and shot him. Gatsby was found floating in the pool on an air mattress looking up at the sky. Wilson was found not too far away on the grass. All of these deaths were a result of Tom and Daisy not thinking through the choices they made, knowing that they had their money to fall back on if anything were to ever go
The car pulled up to Wilson’s garage. Instantly, anger filled my body. Myrtle should be alive. Myrtle should be here. But instead, that man- this man- let her go and get herself killed. I knew who it was. Gatsby. He was one with the yellow car. He was the one driving. God knows, he wouldn’t let Daisy drive.
“I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made… I shook hands with him; it seemed silly not to, for I felt suddenly as though I were talking to a child” (187-188).
At the hotel gathering, Gatsby struggles to persuade Daisy to confront her husband and she responds with “Oh, you want too much! . . . I did love him once--but I loved you too” (Fitzgerald 132). Daisy desperately tries to satisfy Gatsby but his imagination blocks his mind to such a degree that it eliminates his chances of learning how to comprehend reality. After Myrtle’s murder, Nick advises Gatsby to leave town but instead he realizes that “[Gatsby] wouldn’t consider it. He couldn’t possibly leave Daisy until he knew what she was going to do. He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to shake him free” (Fitzgerald 148). No matter how hard Nick attempts to help him make the better choice, Gatsby continues to skew his priorities like a juvenile. Unfortunately for Gatsby, Daisy stays with Tom, a more secure and experienced adult, leaving Gatsby alone. As Gatsby’s life loses his vitality, he obviously needs learn how to act like an adult and survive in the world; but unable to accomplish this, Wilson kills him soon
He stated that, "She's going to move, stay there until the day after tomorrow, and then we're going to move away." George thought that by moving out West, where Myrtle wanted to go in the beginning, would solve everything. Before the move could be made, Myrtle was killed; it is here where George's love is shown most. George becomes extremely upset after Myrtle's death. Wilson was reduced to a man "deranged by grief." Because of the death of his wife, George decides to murder who he believes her killer to be and then commits suicide by shooting himself. Thoughout the novel there are many incidents involving love and greed.
Who really murdered Jay Gatsby? In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, Jay Gatsby is murdered by George Wilson, husband of Myrtle Wilson who was killed when she wasn’t hit by Gatsby’s car. But, Wilson didn’t know that it was Gatsby who was driving, until Tom Buchannan told him. What Tom didn’t know was that it was Daisy, not Gatsby, who killed Myrtle. Gatsby revealed to Nick that daisy was driving when he says, “ you see, when we left New York, she was very nervous and she thought it would steady her to drive- and this woman rushed out at us just as we were passing a car coming the other way. It all happened in a minute, but it seemed to me she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew.”(Fitzgerald 143). Gatsby then says, “But of Course I’ll say I was driving” (Fitzgerald 143), and he takes the blame. Gatsby virtually set himself up for disaster by claiming it was he who killed Myrtle.
...are shown that Gatsby is prepared to do everything in his power to acquire Daisy’s adoration again, even let her get away with murder and will blindly go to jail for her. This however only leads him to his ultimate doom, as he is killed by Myrtle’s husband, Wilson. He may be a liar, but readers empathize with him as his only fault for being dishonest is his love for Daisy and being so blind to see that she is not worthy of that adoration.
While in a New York City hotel room one evening late in the summer with Nick, Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby, there is a massive confrontation during which Tom exposes Gatsby's corrupt business dealings. Jay and Daisy leave to drive back to Long Island together with her driving Gatsby's car "to calm her down" when she accidentally hits and kills Tom's mistress. The car doesn't stop after the accident and speeds on towards Long Island. Gatsby's charm has faded with his exposed corruption. While Nick goes off to work in New York City the next day, the dead woman's vengeful husband, told that it had been Gatsby's car that killed his wife by a vengeful Tom Buchanan, shoots Gatsby to death in his own swimming pool and then kills himself.