Idealised love hope and mortality in The Great Gatsby...

Elizabeth Barret-Brownings Sonnets from the Portuguese and F. Scott. Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby both reflect, in abstract style and varying contexts and elements, the experience of idealised love, hope and mortality. The elements employed by Barret-Browning and Fitzgerald, differ in their depictions of these themes through various literary devices, two of which are points of view and motifs/symbols. Barret-Brownings sonnet sequence illustrates a complex evolution of emotions as the poet moves through sorrow, self doubt, passion, fear, and ultimately profound exhilaration and joy, even in spite of the restlessly lingering thoughts of her own death, whereas, The Great Gatsby follows the tale of young Nick Carraway, a seemingly†¦show more content†¦The death of Myrtle and the concept of mortality is represented through Nicks use of expressive language, he states where Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick dark blood with the d ust, this expression of lifes tragic end here is complemented by Nicks use of imagery, we are left with the raw image of Myrtle lying on the floor in displaced agony - stark message to readers that life is not perpetual and everlasting. Hope is depicted through Gatsbys chase of the American Dream, he does not rest until this is finally fulfilled, it never becomes truly realized and he ends up paying the ultimate price of his life for it. Gatsby is blinded by the illusions that stand between him and happiness. Gatsby perceives Daisy to be his happiness, but Daisy is not. Fitzgerald examines the American Dream by autopsy, through the reflective narrator. Though the principles of the idealistic dream still exist, highlighted by Gatsbys ambition and drive to improve himself, the morality behind the dream has been substituted by money, resulting in decadence, corruption and distinct class divisions between people. Fitzgerald represents the corruption and the demise of the original, ideal istic American Dream with the death of both Gatsby and Wilson- two men who make a living, and strive to better themselves with new money.