Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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In spite of the distinctions in setting, both texts share a challenging vision of humankind.
Both Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and F. Scott Fitzgerald explore the transformative nature of love or connection and the idealistic transcendental love, through their works illustrating different perspectives on humanity. The novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ (TGG), 1925, by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sequence of poems ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ (SFTP), 1845, explore alike themes and ongoing human nature such as love, mortality, and hope. Yet only to a certain extent, due to both contexts are written in different periods and texts. The Great Gatsby scrutinizes the decadent mentalities of the Jazz Age through the struggles, the protagonist, …show more content…

Barrett-Browning's poems face Petrarchan form to encounter the courteous love and the idea of pure love, while Gatsby's limitless hunger for spiritual love which is impossible in a materialistic world; a world that requires strong ethical grounding stains for the purity of love. Barrett-Browning's first response to love, "Lest one touch of his heart convey its grief" is truthful, unsure and being cautious in her approach. Throughout this sonnet, "But love me for love’s sake, that evermore Thou may’st love on through love’s eternity.” (Excerpt 2-Sonnet XIV) It is evident that she prefers pure love more than any other. However, Fitzgerald's context of prohibition and post-war disenchantment heavily differs from Barrett-Browning's context. In 1920's, gender relations changes and the noticeable pursuit of pleasure, make idealistic love difficult; its modification restricted love to an object, resulting in unnatural transitory attraction rather than eternal devotion found in Barrett-Browning's sonnets. The corruption of Gatsby with greedy materialism trigger the failure to bring his idea of spiritual love to a reality. With the quote, "You want too much", it shows that the text emphasizes the hopelessness of achieving ideal love in a demoralized world and the corruption of love in …show more content…

Portraying the “Roaring Twenties”, social values reflect a shocked period after war carnages, showing a challenging vision of humanity, highlighting the decline in religious faith when contrasting to highly religious Victorian Age. Fitzgerald analyses this humanity within the unreliable narration of Nick where he utilizes a vehicle so that Fitzgerald can explore the wrongdoings of the infamous “Jazz Age”. The repetitive motif of photography in the novel provides a constant reminder that Gatsby life was dedicated in pursuit of a moment in the past. His love for Daisy is based on a five years ago relationship, partially wished-for on his own fantasizes and her commitment to him is not the same as his love for her. His ambitions for pure love are markedly contrasted with Barrett-Browning’s, as in this boisterous society disquiet is exposed throughout if this love can exist. Regardless, living a repressed life as encouraged of females, love brings hope and forces the rebirth of new women. Her voice is empowered and assertive as she subverts literacy expectations by feminizing the Petrarchan form, contrasting her meek tone in Sonnet I with declarations of love in Sonnet XXI “Beloved, say over… and yet again”, exclaiming “beloved!” symbolizes new beginnings of passionate love and hope. In Sonnet XXXII, the poet uses an extended metaphor

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