Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And The Glass Menagerie

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams share and explore themes and techniques of imprisonment, by both mental and physical means. To explore imprisonment, both writers use characters and narration techniques to express themes of illusion and reality by characterisation, the American Dream in symbolism, and entrapment by responsibility through narration structure. While both authors express a story, Tennessee Williams uses play direction, while F. Scott Fitzgerald uses novel structure to convey the ideas of imprisonment.

Throughout the texts, ideas of imprisonment are conveyed by themes of illusion and reality, that the authors of the texts express through characterisation. Together the texts establish

Similarly, Amanda Wingfield is also living an illusion of the past, and never chooses to come to terms with reality. However, Gatsby is portrayed as a character who has come from humble beginnings, and has since built himself up into a prosperous businessman of the 1920’s. His motives may seem humble, but he cannot bear the thought of disregarding his illusions, "I wouldn 't ask too much of her," I ventured. "You can 't repeat the past."-- "Can 't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. -- "Why of course you can!". Gatsby is deeply lost in illusions, so much so that he cannot be told otherwise and come to terms with the fact that he cannot repeat the past. Amanda Wingfield is

Nick Carraway, the narrator for The Great Gatsby, is the perspective from which the novel is told from. However, Nick’s narration is reflective of how he has become trapped by his responsibility for Gatsby in his perusal for Daisy. For Nick feels there is no need for him to express his own opinions and interfere with Gatsby’s, since Nick believes that he must support Gatsby. Thus Nick continues an internal narration for the novel, where the novel is structured from though processes, using the first person, like a diary. Nick expresses his narration as evaluations of others and the events he lives through, he acts as a witness, “I 'm inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores”. Such narration is reflected through the overall structure of the novel, as it is paced out in a fashion of recollections, and unannounced snippets of information about characters and the events in the novel. Withal, Tom in the Glass Menagerie exhibits similar ideas, as Tom provides narrations through his perspective of the play. Although Tom’s narration is shown infrequently in the play, Tom, like Nick, is reserved in his opinions which he shares in his internalised narration, due to his entrapment under his mother. For Tom would feel guilty