Compare and Contrast Society's Effect on Relationships in Othello, Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Great Gatsby,

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Throughout the majority of “Othello”, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and “The Great Gatsby”, Shakespeare, Lawrence and Fitzgerald seems to have this common focus on the changes in society in terms of relationships. It appears that each text has a major event in which the dynamics of the relationships change due to some aspect in society in which they are set.
Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” is pervaded by the idea that relationships between classes are highly influenced negatively by society. Connie is having this very sexual and passionate relationship with her gamekeeper Oliver Mellors who is of a lower status to her. To many reader’s surprise, Mellors is a man who, as one critic quotes, “remains impervious to the pettiness and conventional society” suggesting this to be a reason for Connie and Mellors relationship to be so strong compared to that of, for instance, Othello and Desdemona and Daisy, Tom and Gatsby’s relationships. In Shakespeare’s “Othello”, Desdemona and Othello’s relationships are highly influenced by others and the people around them. This influence eventually leads to death with society still intact. In “The Great Gatsby”, Fitzgerald uses the strong symbolic image of money and American society to show how people can get carried away and lose touch with the reality of relationships. Daisy is surrounded by a society she doesn’t like living with Tom and she is unable to get away from it, while Tom has another women that he is hiding. The idea of hiding is also suggesting that the society doesn’t see it as a correct thing to do, yet Fitzgerald appears to go against this. Another theme of “The Great Gatsby” is the idea of new and old money and how that affects who society thinks you should be with. Society in all...

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...y for love however in this novel it seems that the independence and lifestyles that are created from this society mean that love isn’t wanted, people don’t want to be in a secure and fixed relationship.
Fitzgerald has shown this with the differences between Gatsby and Tom. Tom is all about representing old money and inheriting his fortune alongside the old dynamics of American society while Gatsby is representing the new money and the new change in society. Tom is in a relationship with Daisy however he has a mistress and both daisy and him aren’t particularly happy whereas with the new changes in society Gatsby is not in a relationship, his feelings for daisy do not become physical, however he is happy with his partying lifestyle and the lifestyle where they may not particularly be a need a relationship with one person due to people being around you all the time.

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