F. Scott Fitzgerald and Love
LOVE
Attitudes towards love in The Great Gatsby and Elizabeth Barrett-Browning’s poems are greatly at odds in general terms (Fitzgerald presents love as a destructive power born of the past, whereas EBB regards it as a redeeming hope for the future), but within these differences parallels can be found. These include:
Love is personal and creates especial bonds between two people which cannot be share or reproduced outside of that relationship.
“Why – there’re things between Daisy and me that you’ll never know, things that neither of us can ever forget.”
Sonnet XXVIII – her letters, despite being “all dead paper, mute and white!” hold a special meaning for her due to the personal memories they contain. “A simple thing – yet I wept for it!”
Love can be dangerous, and it can be safer to be alone.
“You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I?”
“I stand unwon, however wooed… lest one touch of this heart, convey its grief.”
Love is an external force which seeks to overwhelm humans – something against which we have to fight.
“But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires…”
“A mystic Shape did move behind me and drew me backward by the hair… in mastery while I strove… ‘Not Death, but Love.’”
True love should be constant and run deeper than dalliances or lust.
“Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time.”
“Evermore thou may’st love on through love’s eternity.”
Expressing love is of crucial importance in verifying it, and something which is greatly desired in a relationship.
Gatsby urges Daisy to tell Tom that she loves the former, not her husband.
“Beloved, say again and yet again that thou dost love me”
Attaining a woman’s love should be enough; asking for her to express it is too much.
“Oh, you want too much!” she cried to Gatsby.
“And wilt thou have me
Attitudes towards love in The Great Gatsby and Elizabeth Barrett-Browning’s poems are greatly at odds in general terms (Fitzgerald presents love as a destructive power born of the past, whereas EBB regards it as a redeeming hope for the future), but within these differences parallels can be found. These include:
Love is personal and creates especial bonds between two people which cannot be share or reproduced outside of that relationship.
“Why – there’re things between Daisy and me that you’ll never know, things that neither of us can ever forget.”
Sonnet XXVIII – her letters, despite being “all dead paper, mute and white!” hold a special meaning for her due to the personal memories they contain. “A simple thing – yet I wept for it!”
Love can be dangerous, and it can be safer to be alone.
“You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I?”
“I stand unwon, however wooed… lest one touch of this heart, convey its grief.”
Love is an external force which seeks to overwhelm humans – something against which we have to fight.
“But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires…”
“A mystic Shape did move behind me and drew me backward by the hair… in mastery while I strove… ‘Not Death, but Love.’”
True love should be constant and run deeper than dalliances or lust.
“Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time.”
“Evermore thou may’st love on through love’s eternity.”
Expressing love is of crucial importance in verifying it, and something which is greatly desired in a relationship.
Gatsby urges Daisy to tell Tom that she loves the former, not her husband.
“Beloved, say again and yet again that thou dost love me”
Attaining a woman’s love should be enough; asking for her to express it is too much.
“Oh, you want too much!” she cried to Gatsby.
“And wilt thou have me