Similarities Between Macbeth And The Great Gatsby

Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald the theme of The American Dream and Illusion versus Reality are interlinked and are also evident within the novel. This is seen through the protagonist Jay Gatsby, recently changed from James Gatz, who once lived with a poor lifestyle, strived for greatness and luxury in order to achieve The American dream, and is now living in West Egg. This is where people of new wealth go to live their lives. Gatsby’s tale of rags-to-riches can be seen as living The American Dream, however Gatsby always wants one thing in order to complete this desire; Daisy Buchanan. She is first introduced as an innocent and generous woman who is genuine in all the things she says and does. Gatsby was once

The American Dream, a long standing ideal embodies the hope that one can achieve financial success, political power, and everlasting love through dedication and hard work. During the Roaring 20s, people in America put up facades to mask who they truly were. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald conveys that the American Dream is simply an illusion, that is idealist and unreal. In the novel, Gatsby, a wealthy socialite pursues his dream, Daisy. In the process of pursuing Daisy, Gatsby betrays his morals and destroys himself. Through the eyes of the narrator, Nick,

The first dream that does not get fulfilled is the one of Gatsby. He starts off as an underprivileged boy and struggles his way to the top. We make his acquaintance when he is on the top of his life. He is enjoying his big house and his vast wealth. The one thing he cannot have is his lovely Daisy. Gatsby’s story reflects the “classical” American dream: Anyone can make anything of himself/herself with just elbow grease, spirit and a whole lot of confidence. Jay loves Daisy and, sadly, she is the one thing which he cannot procure to his “perfect life”.

What is true happiness? I have chosen four texts which relate to my topic of how money can’t buy happiness. Macbeth and The Great Gatsby show how being the most powerful and wealthiest person can’t make you happy. Macbeth is set in in Scotland during the 11th century while The Great Gatsby is set in 1925 on Long Island. These two texts have many similarities and comparisons that i will cover throughout my piece. My other two texts; Money doesn’t buy happiness, neither does poverty and The Pursuit of Happyness are set in more current time and show how money can’t buy happiness and that to be happy you don’t need to be rich and famous.

Imagine living in a world where dreams that come to mind are highly reachable and come without a struggle, a place where fantasies come into play. Americans far and beyond believe the American Dream is something as simple as owning a home or starting a family, but for Jay Gatsby, that was simply not enough. As a man with implausible dreams, Gatsby thought differently when compared to others. His American Dream was not a job or a home, but rather a married woman who is known as Daisy Buchanan. As Gatsby placed the sole focus of his life on Daisy, he became obsessed. Through a passage in The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald employs personification and diction to convey the idea that Gatsby was lost in the unique distortion of his own reality with Daisy.

Since American literature’s emergence, the American dream has become a conceptual ideal for many people throughout history. Although the dream has its own distinct aspects throughout different time periods, it predominantly focuses on the foundations of wealth, success and a desire for something greater. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, is primarily known for the numerous lavish parties he throws each weekend at his ostentatious mansion in West Egg in an attempt to reunite with Daisy Buchanan, a woman he falls in love with prior to entering the war before the Roaring Twenties. However, he is seized with an impotent realization on the fact that his wealth cannot afford him the same privileges as others that are born into the upper echelon. Gatsby is completely blinded from his opulent possessions until he becomes oblivious of the fact that money cannot buy love or happiness. Throughout the story, the predilection for materialistic features causes many characters to lose sight of their aspirations, demonstrating how a dream can become easily corrupt by one’s focus on acquiring wealth and power.

The Great Gatsby, a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a story of misguided love between a man and a woman. Fitzgerald takes his reader through the turbulence and trials of Jay Gatsby’s life and of his pining for the girl he met five years prior. The main theme of the novel, however, is not solely about the love shared between Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. The main purpose is to show the decline and decay of the American Dream in the 1920’s. The American Dream is the goal or idea which suggests that all people can succeed through hard work, and that all have the potential to live happy, successful lives. While on the surface, Gatsby

“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position,”(Adams OL). The American Dream is a dream where a person lives a better, richer, and a fuller life, the American Dreams is not a dream where a person is after material prosperity, such as wealth, fancier cars, lavish homes. There is much more to the American Dream than property, wealth, and a perfect spouse and Jay Gatsby, a character in Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby learns about the American Dream the hard way. Jay Gatsby of West Egg, New York was notoriously known for being extremely wealthy. Mr. Gatsby was also recognized by his extravagant parties with more than hundreds of guests. Jay Gatsby was not always known as Jay Gatsby, he was previously known for being James Gatz. Mr. Gatz was not a wealthy person and Gatz left his parents because they were poor and unsuccessful farmers to pursue a dream. James Gatz changed his name

The American Dream, something we all dream to prosper, however differs from each one of us. Whether it be to obtain riches or love, or simply live happy, we all aspire to cross that finish line at the end of day. The universal theme of the American Dream is presented throughout The Great Gatsby, and is shown throughout many of the characters in which many are emptied, because of their lust for money. For instance, in the novel The Great Gatsby the main character Gatsby shows downfall for the American Dream, because of his ambition, and corruption. The character expresses his downfall through his traits of ambition, and resilience in obtaining his materialistic riches, and most important living happy ever after with his “nice” girl Daisy, the one who got away.

Even though Gatsby was born James Gatz on a small farm in North Dakota, he was motivated by Dan Cody and Daisy to dedicate his life to the achievement of wealth and love. Some people might claim that Gatsby was able to achieve his dream because he succeeded in becoming a fabulously wealthy man in West Egg. However, this is only partially true, for Gatsby’s genuine American Dream was to attain Daisy Buchanan. Therefore, this novel portrays both the power and deleterious result of the American Dream (C. J. Dawson).

The notion of the ‘American Dream’ is one of the repeated aspects portrayed in this book, since Gatsby’s entire life is dedicated to achieving this. The ‘American Dream’ comprises of grand opulence, social equality, wealth; more specifically, a big house with a big garden, the newest model cars, the most fashionable attire, and a traditional four-peopled ‘happy’ family. To Fitzgerald, the ‘American Dream’ itself is a positive, admirable pursuit. We can see this when Fitzgerald uses personification, “flowers”, to background positive connotations behind the idea of the ‘American Dream’. In regard to Gatsby, he achieves the wealth aspect of this ‘dream’, “he had come a long way to this blue lawn”; however, he was yet to be satisfied because he did not have Daisy. Ever since the very beginning of the story, Gatsby always associated Daisy with magnificent affluence, the white house, and the grand quality of being rich. Gatsby wanted everything ever since he was first introduced to the higher status. But Gatsby felt incomplete and unfulfilled even after getting everything he dreamt of, so he sourced this emptiness as not having Daisy, where in reality, “he neither understood or desired” the motives he thought he once had.

Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, "Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others." In F.Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald follows the Aristotelian characteristics of a tragic hero in the development of Jay Gatsby similar to Shakespeare's play Macbeth with Macbeth. The decline of both character's fortunes is led by their hamartia's. Gatsby and Macbeth are tragic heroes because of their greed, relationships with woman, and ego.

In the walk of life, ambition is the path to success; and persistence, the substance of ignition required to propel it. When harnessed with unmitigated precision, ambition is a force which can alone endow one with the jewels of life. However, if overmastered by ambition, it is not but a sign of doom and destruction, resulting ultimately in one's premature demise. In Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and William Shakespeare's Macbeth, many similarities and differences may be exhibited in the characters of the respective protagonists - Gatsby and Macbeth - through the recurring theme of ambition. Three pivotal facets found in both works of

Within Shakespeare’s King Lear and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the following human flaws are explored: obsession, greed, yearning, and loss. These flaws are a commonality between these two characters. Although these flaws are standard for many characters among many genres, they are unique only to Lear and Gatsby because they lead to their death. Lear and Gatsby share a dream of power and love, but this dream slowly becomes an unhealthy obsession. King Lear is so blinded by his love for his daughters that he does not see that they are only using him for his wealth. Jay Gatsby shares a mutual experience; he is oblivious to Daisy Buchanan’s materialistic and selfish ways and is helpless to her charms. In Act Two of King Lear, the Fool tells the King “...fathers that bear bags shall see their children kind.” (2.4 49-50), a premonition that clearly illustrates how Lear’s daughters love him only for his riches. Both men are bound by their mutual suffering caused by the women that dominate their lives. It is obvious in The Great Gatsby that Daisy Buchanan is a woman who only has eyes for powerful men and when she realizes that Gatsby is a self-made millionaire, she casts him aside. The same occurs in King Lear; Goneril and Regan only proclaim to love their

In the early 1920’s a new opportunity for many started arising and it was called the American dream, this idea was the idea that with a little hard work and determination you can start from the bottom and make your way to the top of any business you were in, but a few of these chasers get lost in the prosperity and achievements of what their chasing. This idea was portrayed in a the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, As a character named Jay Gatsby was climbing the ladder of wealth faster than anyone else to have it all be ripped away from him by Daisy Buchanan with her golden girl appearance which made Gatsby question at first then change his American dream to satisfy her, in turn leading to his final fall, his death. Unaware