The concept of dreams and desires are a constantly changing ideal experienced in human nature, and this concept is explored through Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s anthology of poems “Sonnets of the Portuguese” and Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s satirical novel “The Great Gatsby.” Correlative thematic concerns arise between the Victorian era and the Jazz Age in relation to dreams and desires and furthermore to the nature of love and perceptions are undertaken making these texts valued upon consideration of each other. Through deconstructing these texts it becomes apparent that these values are influenced by each text’s composer’s contextual influences. Similarly, the role and value of each composer within their context must be undertaken to comprehend the value and perspective of their reconstruction of their era.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Victorian context shapes her perception in the evaluation of love and the role of women. In the construction of her poems, ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ structured inspiration derives from Romantic prose, whilst pertaining to the strict form. Allowing for a focus on the thematic concerns of her poems rather, Barrett Browning’s poems emphatically explore the progression of the highly idealised love of herself and Robert Browning. Rejecting the social expectations of her context through her presentation to Browning of her deeply personal poems, her poems provide insight to the female perception of courtly love. Through this alone we can see that Barrett Browning is an example herself of changing values as she rejects social conventions of her era by using the sonnet form, which was dominated by males at the time, whilst women tended to be limited to the novel form. She uses this form to present and express to Robert Browning the extent of her love.
Love is explored in both texts as a major thematic concern representing changing values