Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
how has literature changed over time
literature through time
how literature has changed over time
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: how has literature changed over time
Time seems to be the only constant force in the ever-changing society of human. In today’s society, people have made huge progress in both technology and equality for all, no matter the gender and race. However, at the end of the 19th century in The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, the Victorian society is ruled by strict expectations and standards. On the other hand, taking place in the beginning of the 20th century, This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays a society that is fed up with the standards and rules of the Victorian society. Despite of the time differences, both novels share many similarities and differences that shape the development of the characters in the novel. Wharton and Fitzgerald both use the time period to explore the close relationship between marriage and money. While The House of Mirth was published in 1905, Wharton sets the story at the end of the 19th century, during America’s Gilded Age. In this time period, American’s industrialized economy expanded, and the gap between rich and poor grew. In The House of Mirth, Wharton portrays both side of the spectrum through Lily Bart. At the beginning of the novel, Lily Bart is a part of the upper-crust New York society; however, at the end of the novel, Wharton symbolizes Lily’s complete fall from grace through the boarding house in which Lily lives in, the very definition of dinginess that Lily hate: “She knew that she hated dinginess as much as her mother had hated it and to her last breath she meant to fight against it” (Wharton 42). While Lily do tries to fight against the dinginess, her decisions repeatedly ruined her chance for marriage. The setting is especially important in Lily’s struggle due to the time period; it is not common for a wo... ... middle of paper ... ...e. Despite their many shared interests, Fitzgerald portrays Amory as a man who can no longer love even though his name suggests otherwise. Due to the setting of This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald is able to develop Amory through his relationships with women. Both Wharton and Fitzgerald use the setting and the time period as the force to push the characters into despair and failure. While The House of Mirth and This Side of Paradise take place in different time period, both shares many similarities in term of social norms and expectations. Through the strict Victorian society, Edith Wharton uses the importance of reputation to cause Lily’s descent in society. Other the hand, the more promiscuous society of early 20th century allows Fitzgerald to portray Amory Blaine’s egotism and makes Amory into a dynamic character through his interactions with women in the novel.
Hawthorne and Fitzgerald, two great American romantics, display new attitudes towards nature, humanity, and society within their novels. The novels The Scarlet Letter and The Great Gatsby are very similar with their adjacent themes, motifs, and symbols. The comparison between these two literary pieces show the transition from adultery to ability, societal standards during the chosen time periods, and good vs. evil.
Hawthorne and Fitzgerald, two great American romantics, display new attitudes towards nature, humanity, and society within their novels. The novels The Scarlet Letter and The Great Gatsby are very similar with their adjacent themes, motifs, and symbols. The comparison between these two literary pieces show the transition from adultery to ability, societal standards during the chosen time periods, and good vs. evil.
... lavishness now seemed to beckon her with open arms to a life a where she could live expensively. Despite she sadness she was facing Lily knew she could not return to the realm of elites, “it was happiness she still wanted and the glimpse she had caught of it made everything else of no account” (449). At this stage of the novel, the demise of the Lily whose most ardent desire was money, power and prestige was complete. Lily’s loneliness and lack in what Lawrence show Lily that there is a fate that will cause greater pain than lack of wealth. Near her tragic end, Lily finds herself without both of her competing desires. It is then she finally understand that a life without love, happiness and freedom causes greater misfortune that a life without wealth.
The title of Edith Wharton's novel The House of Mirth waxes poetic irony in the case of the old money society of turn-of-the-century New York. The individual as part of the collective of society which seeks to oppress individuality is representative of the "house" in the novel's title. To remain ignorant and play by the "rules," therein lies the "mirth." Clearly, the victimization of the story's heroine, Lily Bart, by the elite social "set" she associates herself with illustrates Wharton's disdain for the rigidity of this society against the individual. Lily is, at first, an example of the collective society she is a product of; however, as she finds herself being victimized for embracing individuality, a metamorphosis of her character takes place through an internal struggle over the faults of her external world, leading to her discovery of the truth and the loss of her innocence.
This is a very unique example because this example includes two similes; these similes help the reader obtain a metaphorical image of Amory and the fact that he has had way too much to drink at the party. Amory has two main loves in his life. Again Fitzgerald uses the unique way of having two similes in The Love of the Last Tycoon. “Under the moon the back lot was…like the torn picture books of childhood, like fragments of stories dancing in an open fire” (Hendrickson’s, Styles Par 3). These similes are important because it portrays that Hollywood to Stahr was no different than childhood because during her childhood she had the ability to create magic in her films and now the only difference is that she creating that magic in Hollywood (Hendrickson’s, Styles
The ethics of society in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby are clearly noted through the endless partying, fancy houses, and the lavishness of their lives. Time and time again Fitzgerald displays his skills of developing his characters through plots and scenes of enchanting parties and mansions. Through these scenarios, the reader develops a sense of the purposelessness of the rich, the values of West and East Egg society, and Gatsby. Each individual scene reveals the subtle nuances of each and every character. Is shown to the reader in such a way that the reader picks up an idea of who each character is. By a landslide, the Great Gatsby owes a lot of its character development to its settings. The settings of The Great Gatsby provides for its substantial character development.
Amory spends the entire story seeming like he is always wanting something more but unlike Gatsby; he never has motivation to pursue things in life. During his time in college he decides to leave and enlist in the war. On his return he falls in love with a woman who leaves him and he spends his time in the next weeks drinking up until the prohibition. The prohibition ends his drinking binge and allows him to accept his lost but since he can no longer drink to releave his pain, he remains depressed and pinning for Rosalind. While Gatsby used to the prohibition era to help him in his quest for the one he loves, Amorys experience with it makes his situation worse because up until the time he used alcohol to take away the pain for his lost love. The idea of wanting something you cannot have with this time relates to Amory just like Gatsby in the way that neither of them are able to get their lost love back and no matter how hard they try their efforts are never enough for the women they love so their thirst for love and acceptance is never
In most literature assigned to young adults for academic reading, there exists major ideas students are taught to dissect and take away from their reading. In reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the major moral interpretations of the tale are widely known and accepted by teens due to the variety of shared interests between the characters and their young readers. Fitzgerald encompasses several concepts from infidelity, to gender roles, to economic class, to the importance of hope; all of which he covers with exuberance. In the case of economic class, Fitzgerald creates a social structure that parallels reality whilst placing emphasis on the more desirable attributes of high class life, allowing the text to remain prevalent and relatable throughout time and cultural shifts. The similarities between reality and the world of Gatsby preserve its story and the principles that follow and the romanticism keeps young readers engaged, lending the text the timelessness necessary to grant academic attention.
Fitzgerald suggests that fantasy never matches reality by looking at the consequences of Gatsby’s confusing dreams and reality. Gatsby creates a high illusionary Daisy, therefore, these expectations of Daisy cannot be met. This can also be seen by noticing how as Gatsby approaches the end of this journey of acquiring Daisy, the journey becomes pointless, and the outcomes in his fantasy differ from those in reality. Countless individuals today make this same mistake of confusing dreams and reality, and looking to Jay Gatsby as an example, this mistake may harm them in the future.
The novels This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby are both F.Scott Fitzgerald narratives that are fueled by romance and loss. Two supporting characters within these books are the center of both of these themes as they are the women whom the male protagonist falls deeply in love with but for many reasons they are never to be together in the end. Daisy Fay Buchanan (The Great Gatsby) and Rosalind Connage (This Side of Paradise) are these women that were created as a symbol of delusions of grandeur within the male protagonists of each novel. These women are essential characters as they exude all that each man can want
In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald contrasts the loving conditions and lifestyles of the wealthy and poor through the Buchanan’s and the Wilson’s. In the heart of the first chapter, Fitzgerald describes the home of the Buchanan’s, and in the beginning of the second chapter, he describes the home of the Wilson’s. The contrasting lifestyles are apparent in Fitzgerald’s descriptions due to his use of diction, details, and imagery. This dichotomy in social status holds major importance throughout the plot structure of the novel.
William Faulkner and Charlotte Gilman are two well known writers for intriguing novels of the 1800’s. Their two eccentric pieces, "A Rose for Emily" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" are equally alluring. These authors and their works have been well recognized, but also critized. The criticism focuses on the society that is portrayed in these novels. The modern readers of today’s society are resentful to this dramatic society. These two novels are full of tradition, rebellion and the oppression over women’s rights. Both of these novels share the misery of the culture, but there is some distinction between the two. "A Rose for Emily" is a social commentary while "The Yellow Wallpaper" is an informative novel about the writer herself. The authors outlook focus on the gloomy structure in society during that time frame and therefore, create down hearted, reckless characters that offer stimulation for women of all generations.
Characters in books can reveal the author feeling toward the world. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald suggested the moral decline of the period in America history through the interpersonal relationships among his characters. The book indicates the worthlessness of materialism, the futile quest of Myrtle and Gatsby, and how America's moral values had diminished. Despite his newly acquired fortune, Gatsby's monitory means could not afford his only true wish, therefore he cannot buy everything which is important to Daisy. (Fitzgerald, -page 42) What you wish for is not always what you want or not all that glitters is gold.
As Mark Twain once declared, “What would men be without women…” This quote is clearly illustrated in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless masterpiece The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is the tragic love story of a poor man who falls in love with a rich girl and spends the rest of his life getting rich to impress her; however, in the end he dies alone without his love fulfilled. Although Fitzgerald’s novel is mainly androcentric, he uses several females each unique in their personalities to highlight the male characters, and to show that although people may have different desires, motivations, and needs they are not that different from each other.
Mirroring his own unsuccessful love story, Fitzgerald incorporates the idea of failing marriages into his novel. ““Neither of them can stand the person they’re married to” (Fitzgerald 33).” Fitzgerald implies that marriage in the 1920’s was so corrupted by wealth that though the couples nearly hated each other, they still remained together for monetary and convenience purposes. Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda Sayre much like Daisy, married Fitzgerald for money. Until Fitzgerald started to become rich off his first novel, she had refused to marry him, much like how Daisy broke her promise to Gatsby and married Tom Buchanan. Zelda also cheated on Fitzgerald with a French naval aviator, mimicking Myrtle Wilson who pursued her own American Dream through having an affair with Tom (Willett).