Similarities Between Romeo And Juliet And The Great Gatsby

A myriad of novels claim they are the greatest love story of all time. It is only in the case of this novel that that statement can be applied and be true.
The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway in the roaring 1920's in America. Nick moves to East egg, the smaller area in comparison to west egg but also where the mega-rich live. He moved into a little house and was the neighbor of Jay Gatsby's huge mansion. Unlike Nick, Gatsby is a very famous and mega-rich person that likes to throw magnificent parties every weekend which the whole town is invited and attend to. The most interesting thing about this so-called "famous" person is that nobody actually knows Gatsby in person nor has he been seen in one of his parties. In fact this is one of the aspects that I love about Jay Gatsby himself. The fact that he is so famous yet barely anybody has even seen his face including people that work at his own mansion.
The Great Gatsby holds many similarities with Romeo and Juliet but in my opinion what really makes this story better is that it goes so much further than just a love story.
It is a reflection on the hollowness of a life of leisure. Many consider Fitzgerald's writing poetic, with its waves of brilliance creating a rich and lush rhythm we can easily follow. The decadent opulence of these scenes, described by Fitzgerald's prose really interested my teenage imagination and showed me the sheer romantic character in Gatsby that was desperately hoping that his long-lost love would wander into his mansion during one of his
parties.
Similarly, both stories seem to be obsessed with controlling time. Juliet wants to extend her present so that she can spend the most with Romeo since their hopes for the future are bleak while Gatsby intends to create a beautiful future by restoring his past with Daisy. This is what leads Gatsby to say his most famous line "Can't change the past? Why, of course you can."
In my opinion TGG is so realistic because unlike the perfect characters of Romeo and Juliet, the characters in The Great Gatsby are very flawed and sometimes very hard to understand and sympathize with. At certain points of the story, you tend to hate most characters including Gatsby himself. For Gatsby, Daisy telling him that she loved him wasn't enough, he wanted her to say that she never loved her husband Tom in their whole 5-year relationship.
It is ironic that only the idle rich survive this novel, and Fitzgerald through this further enrages the reader about the cruelty and the injustice of the world. The Great Gatsby has many similarities to Romeo and Juliet but there are also many factors that make it the exact opposite. The characters inability to care is the biggest factor. In Romeo and Juliet, the lovers are sacrificed and Verona is healed from all the evils within it while in Fitzgerald's masterpiece nothing is made of the tragedy.
One of the things I don’t like about the story is how mysterious it is and the fact that you really don’t know much about the past. Gatsby sees Daisy as embodying the past that can be again in the future. Gatsby’s view of the past is an unusual one because he felt that the past could be repeated.
Many consider The Great Gatsby to be a depressing novel because those who dream don't really get to a point where they achieve their aspirations. However, the main message that Fitzgerald sends to the readers isn't that dreaming will lead to despair, but that chasing an unworthy dream will lead to tragedy.