Comparing Themes In The Great Gatsby And F. Scott Fitzgerald

The treatment of themes by composers is influenced by their personal, social and historical background. By comparing the differing attitudes of composers toward the same issues one can see how their view is affected by their context. This is evident in exploring the perspectives on love and hope presented in selected sonnets from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s (BB) nineteenth century collection Aurora Leigh and Other Poems, with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1926 American novel, The Great Gatsby. Victorian England emphasised the importance of marriage, with or without love. Women were also portrayed as the objects of affection as opposed to being passionate beings themselves. BB subverted these expectations, refusing to marry not only until she was deeply loved, but until she also shared this profound love. In post-war America, also
Fitzgerald presents the character of Jay Gatsby who seeks a similar experience to that of BB, however in his quest to obtain Daisy he becomes tainted by the immorality of his world. Love can only be fully consummated when it remains uncorrupted; The Great Gatsby depicts this as hopeless aspiration in the modern world. Thus through comparing BB and Fitzgerald’s treatment of love and hope, one can see how their contexts and personal values affect their perspectives.
The interconnectedness of love and spirituality and the level of importance placed upon them is an integral theme in both texts. This is introduced in BB’s first sonnet, with the words “Not Death, but Love” indicating the strong relationship between the two. For her, death means transcending to Heaven, the ultimate fulfilment, thus her confusion of this with love demonstrates the intensity of her feelings toward Robert. In contrast, The Great Gatsby can be seen to show the reverse, “not Love, but Death”. Fitzgerald’s