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The Great Gatsby And A Street Car Named Desire

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Arguably, the themes of illusion and fantasy are prominent in both The Great Gatsby and A Street Car Named Desire. F.Scott Fitzgerald and Tennessee Williams use these themes to shape characters as well as drive the plot. These themes are also present in the setting, narration and characterisation.
Illusion and fantasy dominate The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. They are essential to narration, setting and characterisation in the novel. Nick Caraway’s narration is conflicted between a realistic point of view and a fantastical point of view throughout the novel. In the first chapter, Nick states his family are descended from ‘the Dukes of Bccleuch’ but later confirms his family actually own ‘a wholesale hardware business’. This suggests Nick changes fact to create the illusion that he is from a more privileged background. This implies his character is insecure and feels he has to fabricate the truth in order to come across a certain way to the reader. Many characters in the novel such as Gatsby and Myrtle prove to have similar attributes. These characters feel a sense of entitlement and fabricate the truth in order to seem from a higher class. The theme of illusion is used by the characters to hide aspects of their lives and lead other characters astray. Similarly Nick’s interpretation of ‘The Valley of Ashes’ further suggests he creates a fantastical image instead of facing reality - ‘It had occurred to me that this shadow of a garage must be a blind, and that

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