Comparing Love In The Great Gatsby And The Dark Horse
In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Dark Horse directed by James Napier Robertson, and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin love brings out the worst in characters. Some characters are selfish in love, they use love as justification for their questionable actions, and they love power more than other people.
The main story line in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is that Amy is framing her husband Nick for her murder. She sets up an elaborate scheme to hurt him and to exact revenge for making her move away from her great life in New York for a small town life that she doesn’t fit into and because he is having an affair behind her back. . Amy believes she should not be treated in this way and deserves …show more content…
better but she won't leave Nick for someone better, she wants to make him pay for his choices. Later on in the novel, Nick and Amy are having an argument about their relationship and how they treat each other, Nick says to Amy “Fuck. You're delusional. I mean, you're insane, why would you even want this? Yes, I loved you and then all we did was resent each other, try to control each other. We caused each other pain.” to which Amy replies “That's marriage.”. A relationship filled with power imbalances and battles for control is not a healthy one yet Amy’s perception of marriage is exactly that. Both characters are selfish in their relationship for different reasons and show that they only care about themselves in other ways. Nick obviously doesn't love Amy enough if he cannot stay faithful to her and is cheating on her. Nick was thinking about no one other than himself and didn’t consider how his actions would affect Amy or anyone else. Amy is no longer in love with Nick, she is willing to set him up for murder in a state where the death penalty is still legal, she is concerned with only making him suffer for his actions. Both of these characters embody loving yourself over others and show exactly how that can impact a relationship in a negative way.
In the Great Gatsby by F.
Scott Fitzgerald, many characters are primarily thinking about themselves in relationships. Tom and Daisy, a seemingly lovely married couple are both having affairs behind each others back. Tom says “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out” in reference to Daisy’s affair with Jay Gatsby even though Tom has no problem with flaunting his affair in public “the fact that he had one [a mistress] was insisted upon wherever he was known. His acquaintances resented the fact that he turned up in popular restaurants with her and, leaving her at a table, sauntered about, chatting with whomever he knew.” Tom was rubbing the fact he had a mistress in and after expressing his distaste for the idea of his wife having an affair, it is very hypocritical. Tom is selfish if he thinks he is the only one who is entitled to be unfaithful and it's hypocritical of him to think he is allowed to be unfaithful to his wife while she is still only with him. It's understandable that because of the time period this book is set (1920’s) there were social standards to uphold and that it might not have been possible for Tom and Daisy to leave their marriage but it doesn’t change the fact that they were both making choices about their relationship that were
selfish.
In both The Great Gatsby and Gone Girl relationships that are selfish and should end for the benefit of both people in the relationship carry on at the end of each story and negative things come from the selfishness in the relationships. Amy is willing to have Nick put on trial for murder in a place where the death penalty is still legal. This is not a relationship that should continue but both partners have secrets they want to hide and stay in the relationship as the benefit for themselves is most important to them. At the end of The Great Gatsby Tom and Daisy move away from all the carnage they caused and remain together. Daisy was never in love with Tom and married him for his wealth. It is easy to see that by staying in their loveless relationship both Tom and Daisy are protecting their reputation both as a family and individually as there would not be much respect for either of them if they separated. In both of these books we see that negative things come from being selfish in love, Nick’s cheating causes Amy to try to frame him for murder. Amy says that she doesn’t want Nick to be happy because he hurt her, “And her husband? He ended up happier than ever. No. I couldn't allow that. No. Never. Never. He doesn't get to do this to me.” she is vengeful and motivated purely to benefit herself. Like Nick in Gone Girl, Tom was cheating on his wife Daisy in The Great Gatsby. Tom’s cheating inadvertently lead to the death of his mistress Myrtle as she ran out towards a car she thought Tom was driving and was killed Daisy who was driving.
Ariki wants his son Mana to join his gang, the Vagrants. Ariki knows this is not going to be pleasant for Mana, the initiation will be painful and degrading to make sure the gang members are strong and as loyal as possible. We find out the details of the horrible initiation in a subtle way when Mana asks Genesis “have you ever been pissed on?” this gives insight as to some of the things that the initiation might entail, but the audience understands more when they see Mana’s black eye. Later in the movie we see Ariki talking to Genesis who opposes Ariki’s choice to get Mana into the gang life and we find out that Ariki is sick and dying. The reason behind him trying to get Mana into the gang is so he has a family and protection once Ariki is gone. The actions taken by Ariki may not be that great but he did it because of his love for Mana and his want to keep Mana safe and protect him even when he is gone, this shows us that even if our intentions are to show love and help another our way of going about that may not be correct.
Jaime pushes Bran out of a window in Game of Thrones to protect the secret that he and his sister are in a relationship. As he pushes the kid out the window he says “The things I do for love” showing that he did the dumb thing because he loves Cersei and wants to keep their relationship hidden because both of them would be shunned if Bran told anyone what he saw. This shows us that even though the love Jaime has was for someone else and his intentions were to protect another person the actions taken were causing more problems than good.
Both Jaime and Ariki have good intentions of protecting loved ones but do not go about it in the right way. Getting your kid into a gang may provide them protection but it also will mean he has to go through a very painful initiation, Mana says that he was pissed on and in other scenes violence towards Mana is referenced (Mana has a black eye and is seen holding his ribs as if they were broken at one point). This is similar to Jamie’s decision to push Bran out of the window. It may seem to protect someone but it also hurts another person and causes more pain that good. The point here is that love makes you do things that aren’t necessarily right and both of the characters had good intentions but ultimately hurt people in the name of love.
Game of Thrones is all about wielding the most power, being the richest and being superior. The love for power most characters possess in this book is their downfall, it makes them forget their connections with other people, houses that used to work together are now feuding and many die in their battle for power. Everyone wants power in this novel even if it is in a small way, Tyrion says to Jon Snow “Let them see that their words can cut you, and you’ll never be free of the mockery. If they want to give you a name, take it, make it your own. Then they can’t hurt you with it anymore” and by saying this Tyrion is encouraging Jon to gain all the power he can by taking away everyone else's ability to belittle him. Pretty much just own what they give you and they do not hold power over you but that also shows the extent people are going to to get power, they will do even the smallest things to gain the smallest amount of power. As well as being prominent in these this book, it is common in our history for the love of power to lead to nasty outcomes. Leaders who start wars so they have more land, more money, or their beliefs become more widespread, more power, ignore the fact innocent people die in masses, just like the leaders of houses in Game of Thrones do.
The Great Gatsby is all about money. No one wants anything other than money. Daisy turns Jay Gatsby down early on because he isn’t rich enough for her liking, whether she likes him as a person or not financials are more important to her which is why she married Tom “She (Daisy) only married you because I was poor, and she was tired of waiting for me.” Everyone is motivated by money and associates money and wealth with a person's appeal “"Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly. That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money – that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it… high in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl.” Money makes a person seem more beautiful and appealing, Gatsby describes Daisy voice as full of money and then Nick immediately connects money to charm and delightful (positive connotations behind words such as jingle and song) which shows the influence that money has on people's perspectives in the Great Gatsby and that power is more important than other things to many characters.
Both of these novels have characters that value possessions over people. When Daisy decided to marry Tom instead of Gatsby she was doing so to improve her financial standing. It didn’t matter how she truly felt, her emotions were shoved aside for her wealth. In Game of Thrones when Joffrey beheaded Ned Stark we see that emotions were completely forgotten and pushed aside for power, for the love of being in charge. It is disregarded that Ned was the hand of the king and Joffrey's fathers best friend, he was a threat to Joffrey's reign of power over Westeros so he must be punished. In the great gatsby money and power are practically synonymous - a rich person has influence and a person with influence is rich. We see this when Gatsby throws his extravagant parties, where some people in attendance don’t even see him “As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host, but the two or three people of whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way, and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements” Gatsby is throwing these parties to show off, to show that he is better and he is powerful than others, he is inviting all of these people that he likely doesn’t know and will not even meet to prove to them he is better than they are. Like Joffery, Gatsby is making a display of his power, both characters enjoy rubbing their status in the face of those beneath them. Gatsby’s parties are showing the same thing as Joffrey beheading Ned shows, they are care more about showing off their power than looking after others.
All four of these texts, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Dark Horse directed by James Napier Robertson, and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, show how different forms of love can have a negative impact and bring out the worst in people.
The main story line in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is that Amy is framing her husband Nick for her murder. She sets up an elaborate scheme to hurt him and to exact revenge for making her move away from her great life in New York for a small town life that she doesn’t fit into and because he is having an affair behind her back. . Amy believes she should not be treated in this way and deserves …show more content…
better but she won't leave Nick for someone better, she wants to make him pay for his choices. Later on in the novel, Nick and Amy are having an argument about their relationship and how they treat each other, Nick says to Amy “Fuck. You're delusional. I mean, you're insane, why would you even want this? Yes, I loved you and then all we did was resent each other, try to control each other. We caused each other pain.” to which Amy replies “That's marriage.”. A relationship filled with power imbalances and battles for control is not a healthy one yet Amy’s perception of marriage is exactly that. Both characters are selfish in their relationship for different reasons and show that they only care about themselves in other ways. Nick obviously doesn't love Amy enough if he cannot stay faithful to her and is cheating on her. Nick was thinking about no one other than himself and didn’t consider how his actions would affect Amy or anyone else. Amy is no longer in love with Nick, she is willing to set him up for murder in a state where the death penalty is still legal, she is concerned with only making him suffer for his actions. Both of these characters embody loving yourself over others and show exactly how that can impact a relationship in a negative way.
In the Great Gatsby by F.
Scott Fitzgerald, many characters are primarily thinking about themselves in relationships. Tom and Daisy, a seemingly lovely married couple are both having affairs behind each others back. Tom says “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out” in reference to Daisy’s affair with Jay Gatsby even though Tom has no problem with flaunting his affair in public “the fact that he had one [a mistress] was insisted upon wherever he was known. His acquaintances resented the fact that he turned up in popular restaurants with her and, leaving her at a table, sauntered about, chatting with whomever he knew.” Tom was rubbing the fact he had a mistress in and after expressing his distaste for the idea of his wife having an affair, it is very hypocritical. Tom is selfish if he thinks he is the only one who is entitled to be unfaithful and it's hypocritical of him to think he is allowed to be unfaithful to his wife while she is still only with him. It's understandable that because of the time period this book is set (1920’s) there were social standards to uphold and that it might not have been possible for Tom and Daisy to leave their marriage but it doesn’t change the fact that they were both making choices about their relationship that were
selfish.
In both The Great Gatsby and Gone Girl relationships that are selfish and should end for the benefit of both people in the relationship carry on at the end of each story and negative things come from the selfishness in the relationships. Amy is willing to have Nick put on trial for murder in a place where the death penalty is still legal. This is not a relationship that should continue but both partners have secrets they want to hide and stay in the relationship as the benefit for themselves is most important to them. At the end of The Great Gatsby Tom and Daisy move away from all the carnage they caused and remain together. Daisy was never in love with Tom and married him for his wealth. It is easy to see that by staying in their loveless relationship both Tom and Daisy are protecting their reputation both as a family and individually as there would not be much respect for either of them if they separated. In both of these books we see that negative things come from being selfish in love, Nick’s cheating causes Amy to try to frame him for murder. Amy says that she doesn’t want Nick to be happy because he hurt her, “And her husband? He ended up happier than ever. No. I couldn't allow that. No. Never. Never. He doesn't get to do this to me.” she is vengeful and motivated purely to benefit herself. Like Nick in Gone Girl, Tom was cheating on his wife Daisy in The Great Gatsby. Tom’s cheating inadvertently lead to the death of his mistress Myrtle as she ran out towards a car she thought Tom was driving and was killed Daisy who was driving.
Ariki wants his son Mana to join his gang, the Vagrants. Ariki knows this is not going to be pleasant for Mana, the initiation will be painful and degrading to make sure the gang members are strong and as loyal as possible. We find out the details of the horrible initiation in a subtle way when Mana asks Genesis “have you ever been pissed on?” this gives insight as to some of the things that the initiation might entail, but the audience understands more when they see Mana’s black eye. Later in the movie we see Ariki talking to Genesis who opposes Ariki’s choice to get Mana into the gang life and we find out that Ariki is sick and dying. The reason behind him trying to get Mana into the gang is so he has a family and protection once Ariki is gone. The actions taken by Ariki may not be that great but he did it because of his love for Mana and his want to keep Mana safe and protect him even when he is gone, this shows us that even if our intentions are to show love and help another our way of going about that may not be correct.
Jaime pushes Bran out of a window in Game of Thrones to protect the secret that he and his sister are in a relationship. As he pushes the kid out the window he says “The things I do for love” showing that he did the dumb thing because he loves Cersei and wants to keep their relationship hidden because both of them would be shunned if Bran told anyone what he saw. This shows us that even though the love Jaime has was for someone else and his intentions were to protect another person the actions taken were causing more problems than good.
Both Jaime and Ariki have good intentions of protecting loved ones but do not go about it in the right way. Getting your kid into a gang may provide them protection but it also will mean he has to go through a very painful initiation, Mana says that he was pissed on and in other scenes violence towards Mana is referenced (Mana has a black eye and is seen holding his ribs as if they were broken at one point). This is similar to Jamie’s decision to push Bran out of the window. It may seem to protect someone but it also hurts another person and causes more pain that good. The point here is that love makes you do things that aren’t necessarily right and both of the characters had good intentions but ultimately hurt people in the name of love.
Game of Thrones is all about wielding the most power, being the richest and being superior. The love for power most characters possess in this book is their downfall, it makes them forget their connections with other people, houses that used to work together are now feuding and many die in their battle for power. Everyone wants power in this novel even if it is in a small way, Tyrion says to Jon Snow “Let them see that their words can cut you, and you’ll never be free of the mockery. If they want to give you a name, take it, make it your own. Then they can’t hurt you with it anymore” and by saying this Tyrion is encouraging Jon to gain all the power he can by taking away everyone else's ability to belittle him. Pretty much just own what they give you and they do not hold power over you but that also shows the extent people are going to to get power, they will do even the smallest things to gain the smallest amount of power. As well as being prominent in these this book, it is common in our history for the love of power to lead to nasty outcomes. Leaders who start wars so they have more land, more money, or their beliefs become more widespread, more power, ignore the fact innocent people die in masses, just like the leaders of houses in Game of Thrones do.
The Great Gatsby is all about money. No one wants anything other than money. Daisy turns Jay Gatsby down early on because he isn’t rich enough for her liking, whether she likes him as a person or not financials are more important to her which is why she married Tom “She (Daisy) only married you because I was poor, and she was tired of waiting for me.” Everyone is motivated by money and associates money and wealth with a person's appeal “"Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly. That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money – that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it… high in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl.” Money makes a person seem more beautiful and appealing, Gatsby describes Daisy voice as full of money and then Nick immediately connects money to charm and delightful (positive connotations behind words such as jingle and song) which shows the influence that money has on people's perspectives in the Great Gatsby and that power is more important than other things to many characters.
Both of these novels have characters that value possessions over people. When Daisy decided to marry Tom instead of Gatsby she was doing so to improve her financial standing. It didn’t matter how she truly felt, her emotions were shoved aside for her wealth. In Game of Thrones when Joffrey beheaded Ned Stark we see that emotions were completely forgotten and pushed aside for power, for the love of being in charge. It is disregarded that Ned was the hand of the king and Joffrey's fathers best friend, he was a threat to Joffrey's reign of power over Westeros so he must be punished. In the great gatsby money and power are practically synonymous - a rich person has influence and a person with influence is rich. We see this when Gatsby throws his extravagant parties, where some people in attendance don’t even see him “As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host, but the two or three people of whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way, and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements” Gatsby is throwing these parties to show off, to show that he is better and he is powerful than others, he is inviting all of these people that he likely doesn’t know and will not even meet to prove to them he is better than they are. Like Joffery, Gatsby is making a display of his power, both characters enjoy rubbing their status in the face of those beneath them. Gatsby’s parties are showing the same thing as Joffrey beheading Ned shows, they are care more about showing off their power than looking after others.
All four of these texts, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Dark Horse directed by James Napier Robertson, and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, show how different forms of love can have a negative impact and bring out the worst in people.