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Essay question on othello and gatsby
Essay question on othello and gatsby
Character analysis in the play othello
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The Dark Side of Love Love is one of the most powerful forces in the world. When one experiences it, feelings of happiness, joy, and pleasure are brought to life. These feelings are incredibly powerful and tempting to many which is why it is common to find individuals dedicating their entire lives in search for love. Conversely, due to its power, love can also have grave and destructive effects on the lives of many. In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, Othello suffers greatly when he is tricked into thinking that his love was betrayed. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby pursues love throughout the entire story only to lose it in the very end. The movie Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, written by …show more content…
In Othello by William Shakespeare, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, written by George Lucas, character flaws and light and dark imagery emphasize how the desire for love blinds the tragic hero, ultimately resulting in tragedy and alienation from the world. In each story, the tragic heroes’ aspiration for love exploits a unique flaw in their character that ultimately results in disconnect from others. For example, after Daisy leaves one of his Gatsby’s parties, Fitzgerald writes, “He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand” (Fitzgerald 110). Fitzgerald uses the simile of a hidden creature that is “just out of [Gatsby’s] reach” to emphasize the idea that the past cannot be recreated. The desire to repeat the past is Gatsby’s tragic flaw because his love is trapped in the past while Daisy’s love has progressed and moved on. This highlights the idea that a tragic hero’s flaw will eventually alienate them from their true ambition. Furthermore, towards the end of Act I of Othello, Iago states, “The Moor is of …show more content…
To demonstrate, in one of Nick’s first encounters with Gatsby, Fitzgerald writes, “Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 21). To Gatsby, the “green light” is a symbol of hope. He idolizes this light as it is his connection to Daisy in hope that their relationship will blossom. The symbol of light highlights the hopeful desire for love between star-crossed lovers. Yet, towards the end of the novel, Gatsby’s nature as a tragic hero is shown when he says, “I waited, and about four o’clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light” (Fitzgerald 147). The intentional loss of light in this scene places Gatsby in complete darkness, estranged by the source of his love and passion. The darkness is a symbol of absence and emptiness, contrasting light, which is a symbol of hope and love. The transition from light to dark demonstrates the turn of a heroic desire for love into the tragic reality of alienation in the life of a tragic hero. In addition, right before Othello murders Desdemona, he says, “Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men. / Put out the light, and then put out the light: / If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, / I can again thy former light restore”
Loving someone is a wondrous experience, giving life light and a sense of fulfillment. But frequently the love does not last, causing deep emotional pain and a new dullness to life. In F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald repeatedly uses the motif and imagery of the eyes to present how much the lack of love can affect the happiness and joy in a person’s life. When people are separated and possibly reunited, their eyes seem to show the emotional turmoil that was caused by the time apart.
All stories have the same blueprint structure with the same type of ending whether it be good triumphs over evil, rags to riches, the voyage and the return, tragedy, or rebirth. The thing that sets these stories apart is the message they intend to in our minds. “ The power of a story to shift and show itself to anew is part of what attracts people to it, at different ages, in different moods, with different concerns” (Auxier 7). These messages are given by the characters in the story that all have their own reasoning but in the end have one meaning behind it. Some messages give specified personal messages rather than a broad stated such as the stories The Wizard of Oz and The Great Gatsby. Blinded by the ignorance of desires, the characters
Symbolism is immensely spread through this novel, as well as an immerse amount of color. For example, the green light gatsby strives for. Gatsby states that the "single green light" on Daisy's dock that Gatsby gazes wistfully at from his own house across the water represents the "unattainable dream," the "dream [that] must
Imagine. You are sitting in complete silence, even the nearby crickets won't dare to let out even the slightest of croaks. You stare down at your cluttered, dimly lit desk. Your hand grasps your pen, and the other rubs back and forth across your temple in angst. Your eyes pass over each paper, containing each incomplete thought, and your mind floods with memories of your past. Trapped by writer’s block, you are all alone with only your experiences, surroundings, and philosophy aiding you in the fall that is the dark reality of alcoholism and depression. For renowned authors F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, these influences all played a crucial role in identifying their style techniques, as well as determining similarities and differences
that he always observed Daisy from his house but all that he could see was the green light. He could only hope and dream about having Daisy by his side. This is before Gatsby finally met Daisy. When, at last, he met Daisy in Nick’s house, it seems that “the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever” (Fitzgerald 90). He had Daisy next by his side therefore “his count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” (Fitzgerald 90). Not only does the green light represent Gatsby...
Overall, this is how a false sense of character leads Hamlet to his tragic downfall. To the same extent, Gatsby has a sense of false This is evident when Gatsby states, “Can 't repeat the past?... Why of course you can”(cite). Gatsby implies here that the past can be repeated, in this case with Daisy. Gatsby does not realize, however, that she is now married and has a child.
Gatsby is obsessed with attaining the idea of a girl. His infatuation with Daisy causes him to accept her consequences as his own. As a result, he is wrongfully blamed for the death of a woman and assassinated by an ailing widower. Victor Frankenstein is less admirably obsessed with himself. His ego makes him believe that he can defy the laws of the universe. Because of his egotism, he is given extremely severe consequences by fate. Both Gatsby and Frankenstein suffer greatly because of their obsessions. The two stories teach that an obsession is unhealthy under the wrong conditions. They also illustrate that one needs some perspective when looking at a situation. Without perspective, one can go down a dark and daunting path without even knowing
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, both Lady Macbeth and Daisy experience similar conflicts that they have to cope with. Throughout both the novel and the play both women play a part in the role of murder as well as the theme of alienation. Both characters use different ways to cope with the event that occurred.
...ces throughout the novel demonstrate how he is not as innocent or quiet as readers think. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as not being a Romantic hero due to Gatsby`s attempts in faking his identity, his selfish acts and desperation for Daisy`s love and his fixation with wealth, proving that love is nothing like obsession. Gatsby does not understand love; instead he views Daisy as another goal in his life because he is obsessed with her and is willing to do anything to buy her love. Obsession and love are two different things: love is something that sticks with a person till his or her death, while obsession can cause a person to change his or her mind after reaching their goals. Thus Gatsby`s story teaches people that a true relationship can only be attained when there is pure love between both people, untainted by materialism and superficiality.
Jay Gatsby and The Wizard of Oz both are not who they claim to be. They both wanted to look more interesting than they appeared. This is evident in both The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the film The Wizard of Oz. The difference between them is Gatsby didn’t tell the truth about his past, and Oz wanted to be seen as an almighty ruler. Gatsby’s goal was to be united with Daisy once again, and Oz didn’t want anyone to know his true identity.
I compared the Robert Fitzgerald translation with the Stanley Lombardo translation of the invocation of the muse from Homer's Odyssey. Fitzgerald describes Odysseus by saying “he saw townlands and learned the minds of many distant men”. Lombardo's also describes Odysseus saying “of the cities he saw the minds the grasped”. They both explicitly say that someone is visiting many cities and learned minds of different men. The word learned implies that it took time to understand the minds, but the word grasp means that the understanding of the minds was taken quickly. The Fitzgerald text makes Odysseus seem like a patient person willing to take time and learn his surroundings. The Lombardo text makes Odysseus seem like a strong-willed person who does not give much thought into his
Tragedy is an event or conflict that results in pain or suffering. Love plays a big role in how tragedy affects people and makes them connect to the distress. Tragic heroes are present in both Shakespeare's play Hamlet and F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. Hamlet tells the story of the price of Denmark named Hamlet who seeks revenge on his uncle, King Claudius, for killing his father and marrying his wife, Gertrude. Hamlet's best friend Horatio helps him discover the truth behinds him father's murder, and uses his girlfriend Ophelia to show he is crazy. Hamlet does avenge his father but also dies, along with many other of his companions. Likewise, The Great Gatsby is a novel about the life of a rich man named Jay Gatsby through
Throughout history, women’s place and role in society has changed. Women are often seen as a lower status and have a need to be taken care of by men. There are conflicts with the idealization of women as they are often overlooked and viewed as secondary characters. This idealization is well established in the characters of Desdemona in Othello and Daisy in The Great Gatsby. In F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and Shakespeare‘s play Othello, Desdemona and Daisy are both responsible for their tragedies due to the manipulation and impact of the outsiders, their loss of innocence, and their vulnerability as women.
Gatsby’s dream of winning Daisy has been deferred for long enough, that it seems impossible to everyone else around him. He pursues the past while he is in the future. He pines for Daisy after losing her to another man. Gatsby’s elaborate parties were all thrown in hopes that someday Daisy would wander inside. Nick finds out Gatsby’s intentions when he says, “Then it had not been merely the stars to which he has aspired on that June night. He became alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor” (Fitzgerald 83). All the extravagant spending, the house, the new identity, the illegal activities, were all for Daisy. He throws everything he has into this charade as he tries to adapt to Daisy’s world of high society. The problem is that Gatsby is so close, but yet so far away, “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way... I glanced seaward- and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 25). Gatsby tries to embrace the light that emits from the end of Daisy’s dock. The light is something that he cannot hold, just like he cannot hold Daisy Buchanan in his arms. He attempts to pursue his dream that is nothing more than an illusion. Despite being blinded with his infatuation with her, “He hadn’t once ceased looking at
Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, first sees Gatsby standing outside of his mansion, “standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars” (20). He is standing with his arms outstretched towards a green light. Nick says “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling” (20). Gatsby is staring at the light on the end of Daisy’s dock as it is later revealed. Gatsby is standing there, with his arms stretched out, to welcome the love of Daisy and to give his love to her. He is reaching toward her, trembling because of the power of his love and the pain from their years of separation. The light represents how close Daisy is to him, but still so far away, in separate worlds. It could also be thought of in the sense that his love is still burning bright for Daisy. “Green is the color of hope” (Einem), and can represent “Gatsby’s hope to meet Daisy again and a chance to win her back” (Einem). Gatsby has been separated from Daisy for many years, but he still loves her deeply. When Daisy and Gatsby later reunite, they are standing in Gatsby’s bedroom, looking out across the bay. Gatsby points out the green light and says “If it wasn’t for the mist w...