Comparing King Lear And The Great Gatsby

Sam Kang

Ms. Young

ENG3U - 4

April 11, 2016

The Portrayal of Love in King Lear and The Great Gatsby

An analysis on the interpretations of love in The Great Gatsby and King Lear

Love is profound and the magnitude of its influence is immense; consequently, it has the ability to sway an individal’s actions and thoughts. Both William Shakespeare and Scott Fitzgerald portray similar aspects of love through their respected works. In King Lear, the readers are introduced to the ideals of love during the early stages of the play. King Lear explores the theme of struggling to find what true love is. It is the story of a man who inadvertently eludes from love, but finds himself redeemed from the very love he ran away from. King Lear’s lack of perception

In contrast, love is the fundamental force that motivates Gatsby's action. Hence, Gatsby's love for Daisy is fueled by his materialistic belief and ambitious desires; as a result, his love is tragically misguided and unauthentic. Fitzgerald explores the theme of love by displaying a parallelism between the theme of love and the facade of the false American dream. Both Shakespeare and Fitzgerald illustrate the synonymous relationship between blindness and the theme of love and convey that a relationship founded upon materialistic desires will ultimately fail. Love is the common fundamental aspect within both novels that profoundly impacts the characters in the novel.

Love serves an ambiguous role in which Shakespeare portrays through various characters in King Lear. Lear is the prime example of an individual who struggles to attain and exhibit love. Lear attempts to equate his wealth with love, which indicates the evident lack of insight as Kent tells Lear to "see better, and let [him] still remain” by Lear’s side. Similarly, in The Great Gatsby, love is presented as a facade in which Gatsby blindly pursues. In comparison, King Lear is deceived by the false love of Goneril and Regan. As a result of Lear’s lack of perception, his false love creates competition between Goneril

Love is the central and fundamental aspect in the play in which King Lear struggles to perceive due to his lack of awareness. Similarly in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as an ambitious individual who is blinded by the deceptive appearance of love, where he attempts to obtain what he desires. Furthermore, the era of this novel ideally reflects the theme Fitzgerald conveys in The Great Gatsby, as Gatsby's misguided pursuit of false love mirrors the deceptive, yet intriguingly hedonistic belief of the American Dream. Fitzgerald evidently illustrates the moral decay of the human condition during the time period of this novel as many Americans strive to achieve the American Dream. Consequently, failed relationships between characters are inevitable since they are founded upon materialism rather than love. Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship is a prime example where a relationship based on materialism will ultimately fail as this is indicated when Gatsby describes Daisy’s “voice is full of money”. Gatsby’s description of Daisy’s features are based on materialistic thoughts as opposed to her personal qualities and characteristics as an individual. In addition, Daisy, a pragmatic and materialistic individual does not truly love