preview

A Summary Of Gatby And The Great Gatsby

Good Essays

A comparative study of texts is imperative, as it permits responders to comprehend the discrepancies and similarities between texts as well as the values of composers within their contexts. Elizabeth Barret Browning’s (EBB’S), Sonnets from the Portuguese (SFP) and The Great Gatsby (TGG) composed by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (FSF) explore the way views of love and spirituality have been altered by the composers over the seventy years between the texts. In EBB’S SFP published in 1850, hope, purpose and passion are accentuated. However, by the 1920’s, FSF believes that these concepts have been corrupted and are no longer possible in a materialistic and loveless contemporary America.
In EBB’S sonnets, love is depicted as a powerful force that has the capability to change one’s life for the better, a value that was shared by many in the stable and prosperous Victorian era a time when Christianity’s God was believed to be love. This is transmitted to the responder through the progression of her sonnets which emphasise how love has transformed her and given her a new life that is now brimming with hope and confidence. In Sonnet 1, EBB describes her life as the “sweet, sad years, the melancholy years, …. who by turns had flung /A shadow across me.” The assonance of the “sweet, sad years” amplifies the sorrow and grief that have been prevalent throughout her life. Moreover, the oxymoron of “sweet, sad” implies how she had yearned for the joy that has so far escaped her. These

Get Access