Comparing Gatsby and AOI

DREAMS/FREEDOM
1. DREAMS SHATTERED
  1. Gatsby's is more shattered because of the American Dream and to more of an extreme version, Newland's is self induced and he could change the outcome himself
    1. Was it worth it? No, he lost everything, the wilsons died, leads to an unravelling at the end of the novel and its all for nothing - no one at the funeral. BUT it could have been worth it - his unique characterisation as "son of God". He has a larger than like persona, even if it was a short life it was full of adventure, his dreams took him all over the world. He could only have sought happiness through striving for something greater than himself.
      1. Mostly optimistic illustratiokn of american dream - people of different races racing towards NYC, a city of unfathomable possibility. However, nicks condensation towards people in other cars undermines this, reinforces racial hierarchy and disrupts american dream - there is competition "haughty rivalry" with the "modish negroes". Nick's laughter at them - he laughs at equality
      2. Gatsby's dream was "already behind him" but still admires Gatsby's hope for a better life and reach towards a brighter future
    2. Deferred dreams - 5 years pass between initial infatuation and the attempt to win Daisy back - these dreams are doomed to fail
      1. Gatsby "stretched out his arms" - the green light - people are always reaching towards something greater but it is just out of reach - foreshadows his ending and marks him as a dreamer rather than Tom/Daisy who are born with money so don't need to strive
  2. In the final dinner party Ellen is not as vibrant, she has a "pale smile" - she's taken the toll of new york society, she is a shadow of her former self, the paleness of her emotions are a contrast to the opera when she has red cheeks, she has to lose in the end - result of new york treatment. May is victorious, she rises up her "blue eyes wet with victory"
  3. GEORGE AND MYRTLE: disempowered due to lack of money, Mrytle has access but has abuse, George has to serve Tom
    1. TOM AND DAISY do not need the american dream, they instigate a large amount of tragedy through their recklessness
      1. Income inequality and vastly different starts to life strongly affect the characters outcomes, the way they live their lives, their morality and how much they dream does not matter - this is antithetical to the american dream
        The destruction of 3 lives and the cynical portrayal of old money illustrates a dead or dying american dream, those whose dream end up dead, those born into privilege get to keep it without consequences
        american dream has its foundings in the declaration of independence and the first european settlers because of the basic ideas that every man and woman regardless of their birth should be treated and seen equally - the founding fathers put into law this revolutionary idea as the desire for happiness = ambition
        Fitzgerald as ….‘A writer who portrayed the beautiful and rich as essentially damned and implied that the american dream was little more than a thinly veiled nightmare’ - John W Bicknell
        “Fitzgerald’s novel showed that the American Dream ideal had already been tarnished” - Stephanie Forward
        MIKE HALDENBY - THE GREAT GASTBY IS ABOUT DREAMING
        RICHARD RULAND - GATSBY IS A DANDY OF DESIRE WHO SEEKS TO TRANSFORM MONEY INTO LOVE, TIME INTO AN ENDLESS INSTANT OF CONTEMPLATION, THE CLOCK INTO A DREAM. HE FLOATS IN IS 'INEFFABLE GAUDINESS' ON THE EVERLASTING AMERICAN DREAM
        ‘The journey from West Egg to New York City represents the journey to the American Dream and The valley of ashes is symbolic of the fact that this journey goes not without it’s challenges’ - Paul Staveley
      2. chapter 1 places us in 1922- time of hollow decadence among the wealthy
  4. dire state of VALLEY OF ASHES - insight into the negative effects of unrestrained capitalism and dismantles the idea that the american dream can be achievable for everyone the "grotesque gardens" "rising smoke" and "ash grey men" represent the dreams of the people which have been reduced to ashes with people themselves "crumbling" in the aftermath of their failure to achieve success - this dramatisation between rich and poor implies the unequal spread of money is not just an issue in the novel but for america as a whole
    1. “The valley of ashes contrasts markedly with other settings in the text. It has come about as a byproduct of capitalism because it is the result of industrial dumping. Behind the glamour of the eggs, less fortunate citizens pay a heavy price.” - Stephanie Forward.
  5. tragic love story on the surface but is a pessimistic critique of the american dream, critiques the idea that america is a meritocracy where anyone can rise the top
  6. GG shows how in the 1920's the american dream started morphing into something less about equal opportunity and more about the acquisition of material things. Gatsby "believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us... tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther" - the american dream had become a pursuit of happiness as defined by materialistic things because it was driven by greed it was never attainable, someone else always had more
    1. the greed that had begun to define america dream led to the stock market crash of 1929 and the great depression. The decadent parties/ wild jazz music epitomised in GG resulted ultimately in the corruption of the american dream as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals. As Fitzgerald saw it (and nick describes in chapter 9), it was originally about discovery, individualism, pursuit of happiness. In 1920's however, easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dream, especially on the East coast
      1. in the midst of an economic boom - it fuelled the belief that anyone could make it, however the bubble popped in 1929, the novel foreshadows the crash
    2. 1920s was tumultuous due to increased immigration, changing women roles (right to vote in 1919) and extraordinary income inequality.
2. LOVE
  1. Neither hero finds love, Gatsby's is always out of reach and Newline never seises the opportunity
    1. Gatsby's dream is perhaps one of companionship
  2. Daisy and Gatsby's first meeting - "can't repeat the past? he cried indecorously, "why of course you can!". This is one of the few times Nick has power over Gatsby because Gatsby gets distracted by Daisy and lets his guard down, loses his performance. Gatsby has never danced with anyone at his parties before, he has waited for Daisy which suggests a kind of purity
3. They are both yearning for an unattainable ideal, Gatsby for the American Dream and Newline for freedom
  1. "He felt himself oppressed by this creation of factitious purity... because it was supposed to be what he wanted, what he had a right to do"
  2. Newland is too scared to break conventions at the end of the novel, this is what his whole life has been so to break it would be to mock his entire life
4. WOMEN
  1. May; "the freedom of judgement which she had been carefully trained not to possess"
  2. Newland is condescending to May for not being like Ellen, May is useless because she has succumbed to society and not individualism
5. Because the social code enforces such strict rules for society, personal freedom is sacrificed, Newline cannot follow his passion, he must do his duty. It is difficult to break out and be an individual from society, the society dislikes and feels threatened by any difference. We're focused on a articular strata of society where it's incredibly difficult to be an individual
  1. Cynthid Griffin - Newland and Ellen both perceive the other primarily in terms of some romanticised personal need
6. AOI is a study into the facade on the inner circle (the gilded age) and reaching the money attainable from the american dream
  1. once you are inside the world of power, privallege, prestige, the walls starts closing in. The top of the "slippery pyramid" is precarious and cut throat with many rules and regulations. AOI describes these rules of conduct as suffocating. It scribe the comfort of having a place in society even as it describes the claustrophobia that this society inspires
  2. About a period in America where the old money tradition is about to be marginalised by people who can actually get rich by doing something. The american dream had its antagonists and these established aristocrats are them, perched on high
7. GATSBY
  1. Comes from humble roots and rises to wealth but in traditional american dream people achieve their goals through good, honest work - he does this through crime so he cannot be the perfect example of the american dream
    1. Although he has the money to make himself elegant, he lacks the behaviour and decorum as shown by his bizarre idiolect using phrases such as "old sport" to sound like a british aristocrat - perhaps he is not a symbol for the american dream, it may not be true at all
      1. whilst shown to be a joyful and decadent era, fitzgerlad displays an overarching cynicism towards the american dream - gatsby himself is supposed to represent it but is a fraud. the 18th amendment in 1919 banned the sale of alcohol creating a thriving underworld designed to satisfy the massive demand for bootleg liquor. this is how gatsby obtained his wealth as "a lot of these newly rich people are just bootleggers"
        a marxist would view the american dream as hollow and corrupt here because a nobody like George who actually works hard gets nowhere - Gatsby shows the only way a poor man can be successful is through crime
        Popular history depicts the interwar period as a time of raucous frivolity, speakeasies, flappers and stock market millions but only an elite enjoyed this easy lifestyle. In America in the 1920s 1/10th of 1% of the wealthiest families made as much money each year as 42% of the poorest families
        Tredell; Gangsterism provided a means rapidly upward mobility for certain members of some ethnic groups at a time when restrictions on immigration were being tightened
  2. Gatsby is an optimist/idealist - he sees the beauty in life, romantic idealist, not just an optimist but completely unique, one of a kind because of his "gift for hope" - he is a beautiful dreamer
    1. Has a habit of disappearing suddenly - he is there as an enigma and then gone - this feeds his mysterious nature and give him a light presence in the narrative - he is not really a person but a dream or ideal
      1. Marius Bewley - gatsby is not merely a likeable, romantic hero; he is a creature of math is whom is incarnated the aspiration and the ordeal of his race"
  3. Novel ends with the past, Fitzgerald shows us we cannot repeat the past but it always follows us and is inescapable - left with a myth of gatsby, he is sacrificed for the sins of others foul dust
  4. “It is, of course, Gatsby who dreams the most vividly (and who comes closest to transforming his dream into reality. The closer he comes, however, the more painful is his failure).” - Rob Worrall
8. In ‘The Age of Innocence’ .. ‘perfect freedom, like that of perfect happiness is nothing but an alluring phantom that leads to inevitable destruction’ - Cynthia Griffin Wolff
MONEY
1. OLD MONEY
  1. APPEARENCES
    1. NEW MONEY/JAZZ AGE
      1. Wharton is against the hedonistic lifestyles of economic boom and jazz age
        Nicholas Tredell; if the war caused some social dislocation, it also stimulated the American economy and enhanced the global influence on the USA, confirming it as a world power and diminishing its sense of cultural inferiority to europe
      2. Nick makes no meaningful relationships in the east and instead must return home to the mid-west, this reveals a shallow, superficial party society lacking in any human connection - consumer consumption as an isolating philosophy. Similarly Newland returns to what he knows at the end
        Nick is indecisive - he feels morally repelled by the vulgarity but he is too fascinated to leave
      3. Fitzgerald portrays the nouveau riche as vulgar, gaudy and lacking i social graces
      4. GATSBY
        Everyone is able to achieve money in Gatsby but the new money of the American dream is not realistic, it cannot get you anywhere - gatsby has the greatest fall, it is very pessimistic
        people go to his parties, not his funeral because they liked his wealth, not the man himself
        Culture of worshipping money is a society wide trend.
        "people were not invited - they went there" - no one visits out of friendship, just for the spectacle alone.
        From a Fredian perspective - would note it allows people in 1920s to satisfy id's over ego's, it is a culture driven by desires and lacking in moral codes. a culture with a strong id but with a weak superego
        His notriety comes from his wealth.
        Daisy's "voice is full of money" - explicitly connects her with money - gatsby's desire for wealth, money and status are more desirable than daisy herself
        the pursuit of daisy and the pursuit of money are actually the same thing - Fitzgerald shows that desire and pursuit of wealth is a hollow goal and one fixed with no emotional connections
    2. Both the 1920s and the 1870s are times when people were not their true selves, both novels show that men need power, money and a reputation and people desire wealth, power and acceptance
      1. Lots of close detail in AOI about clothes, houses, Mrs manson mignotts house; "by building a cream coloured stone (when brown sand stone seemed as much the only wear as a frock coat in the afternoon"
        Its the guided age - hides the downfalls of whats actually going on
        All of New york turns out for the beaufort ball but under the surface they know he is scandalous, his adultery is acceptable as long as they are discreet
        Anne Macmaster - wharton's novel maps a paradox located at the intersection of several ironies; the history of slavery in the land of the free, the fear of the foreign in a nation of immigrants, the drive towards conformity behind the creed of individualsm
        1870-1900 = gilded age - period of growth of industry + increased wealth that hid corruption. As wealth rose in the east, appearance became everything. they thought you could buy class, based on European fashions. Dark period of the treatment of minorities. it was the title of Twain and Warner's novel which gave the era its identity - a fascination with superficial display
      2. Ellen's house is in bohemian sector "it was certainly a strange quarter to have settled in"- associated with foreigners , these artists are free. - stands alone as a beacon of indiculaity in a structured society
    3. There are many unwritten rules, everything is controlled by a rigid set of rules that promote appearance and hide reality. Everyone goes through the motions and present they do not know what is happening, gatbsy himself is a big lie - his books appear to be real but they are not, its a facade
      1. Newland forces a loveless marriage even though it almost kills him, daisy and tom live a dull life together, they are both incurably dishonest and rather unlikable so it is no surprise that being lonely in marriage is a better alternative for them. Daisy does allude to being upset "I woke up... with an unalterable sense of loneliness" but is not strong enough to ever go against society's expectations. Both authors show for weak characters, isolation may be apparent but it is better to hide it
      2. May is "that terrifying product of the social system he belonged to and believed in, the young girl who knew nothing and expected everything"
        but newline discovers that May will not be tabula rasa on which he can write his ideal
        Diane Roberts - "he underestimates May's knowledge"
        film - May smiles constantly though first scene - she upholds an appearance of being innocent/ non threatening but really she is quite vicious, just like the society that she is in
    4. LOW CLASS
      1. GG - these suffer most. George and Myrtle and disempowered by their lack of money - Mrytle has a desperate attempt to gain the "finer things" but has to endure tom's abuse as a result. She is obsessed with conspicuous displays like Gatsby but she can never fully pull this off - "the living room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large" the small room is a metaphor for the confinement of her social class - she is trapped. George is unable to leave his current life so has to make himself inferior to tom - he is sick and ghostly at the end of the novel
        Their story ends in tragedy - it is dangerous to strive for more than you are given (bleak view of a world that promotes the upward trajectory of the American dream) - social climbing is precarious
        Myrtle tries to pass as rich but it gets her killed. George wilson is contained by his lack of wealth, if he could, he would have moved and saved their lives
        Killed for reaching too far
  2. Explored in the AOI through characters and families that are determined to keep their status of old money and tradition, this is linked to society and rules. Old money is associated with trappings and restrictions - means that newline and ellen cannot live the life they want. Wharton uses episodes such as operas/balls/dinners - rigid of chain of events that always happen.
    1. In the GG tom shows hostility towards Gatsby because he possesses new money.
  3. In the GG they possess grace, taste and subtlety but this is undermined by their carelessness and inconsiderate nature
  4. Tom and Daisy move to East egg after moving around "wherever people played polo and were rich together" - money provided protection, they can move easily
    1. Claire Stocks- as tom is a member of the elite old money he finds Gatsby's new money a threat
  5. Even Gatsby is not allowed access to the upper echelon of society, he loses everything trying to get there - shows the american dream to be a hollow goal.
    1. professor Prigozy wrote that he felt like an outsider throughout his childhood, for although he lived among them and socialised with them, the rich inhabited a different world.
2. MATERIALISM
  1. Excess represented in red carpet balls vs. shirts/alcohol/food
    1. Epigraph of the novel foreshadows; "then wear the gold hat, if that will move her" - immediately marks this theme as central, wealth is the key to love
      1. The novel optimises 1920s america and the concerns associated with the era - most central being money in a culture that was propelled by unprecedented prosperity and material excess. 1920s america is no longer concerned with idealised hope but with money and possessions
        The sudden rise in the stock market after WW1 led to a sudden, sustained increase in national wealth and an obsession with materialism. This coupled with young americas who had fought in the war becoming increasingly disillusioned led to the jazz age (as coined by Fitzgerald himself). to describe a decade of decadence and prosperity which are right at the heart of Gatsby's parties.
    2. American consumer capitalism exploded and the age of advertising and mass consumption reshaped the day to day lives of many americans
    3. Conspicuous consumption seen in Gatsby - everything about his wealth is for show and for the eyes of Daisy - from the "five crates of oranges and lemons", the "corps" of caterers to the full orchestra.
      1. From a marxist perspective it is a place of excess and indulgence
        Julian Cowley; Products were given brand names, often promoted as a sign of reliability. Advertising had for a long time been intended to inform potential buyers what was available for purchase but new advertising techniques sought to create the desire for commodities, to shape the taste of the nation rather than merely reflect it - people measure themselves against materialistic standards - myrtle buys into this because she thinks it will make her happy
    4. 1993 Martin Scorsese's film of AOI - close ups of different jewels and elaborate displays of food, flower displays - foregrounds excess, excessive preoccupation with appearance, objects are a sign of your importance
      1. Michael Duffy - Gatbsy is a consumer, and his consumption of luxury goods is one of the most potent displays of his attempt to complete the assimilation of the american dream
  2. Capitalism as a cult of individual desires - always isolating and bound to end in personal isolation. Isolation as a result of increasing urbanisation of america itself + political - america looked to europe in 1870s but in the 1920s turned away from it
  3. Daisy only begins her affair with gatsby after a display of his wealth - even cries at the expensive shirts because she's "never seen such beautiful shirts" before - this is the first time that daisy actually breaks down, not when she sees gatsby for the first time
  4. Stephanie Forward - fitzgerald depicts a society "dominated by material excess and hollow relationships"
3. Both are interested in money and what it does to people. - The world of wealth triumphs over the main love plots
4. Nick is someone who has had many advantages - a wealthy family, ivy league college. he is equal enough to be invited to dinner, his connection to daisy makes him attractive to gatsby
5. Money is the root cause of problems in the novel
6. European tradition is evident in the society novels of Edith Wharton and henry James whose subject matter is relationships with america's wealthy, globe trotting upper middle class elite; an elite whose status often depends upon connections to European nobility. The plight of women become a particular focus in the narratives who indirect style, lack of sentimentality and almost cynical analysis of the decline of an american nobility, particularly exposes the vulnerability of unconnected female members who are shown to be ultimately expendable
SOCIETY AND CLASS
1. WOMEN
  1. Gatsby's parties are full of youthful, beautiful, confident girls, AOI is policed by etiquette, here inhibitions are dissolved
  2. The women are trapped in AOI because they are in a tribal world and trapped by the superstitions that encapsulate the guided age. In Gatsby, gender roles have broken down because of modernism so they won't be as afraid of strong women
    1. in wharton's world, women are sexually innocent and not expected to have affairs, acknowledge those of their husbands and not divorce. The only power they have is that may uses; duty, loyalty and pregnancy
      1. Ellen's sin is that she refuses to accept these restrictions and will not lie about loving Newland
        Unhappily married at an early age to a man 13 years older. wharton faced like ellen the temptations of adultery and the censure of divorce
        her "josepine look" marks a sharp contrast to the plunging necklines covered by lace that american women wore
      2. Women are expected to act in society "as innocent wives, mothers and daughters"
      3. Diane Roberts - "women of the upper classes are forced into a kind of sexlessness, an 'innocence' which restricts and regulates not only their bodies but their minds
        a topic about which Wharton felt deeply after she rebelled against her own old-line family by getting a divorce and going to live in france
  3. Gender roles have changed in GG so there are different appearances to uphold. Women have power and freedom to do what they want, Jordan has found a new freedom but on the whole they do not take advantage of this
  4. "women run around too much these days" - the new woman
2. MARRIAGE
  1. " it was less trouble to conform with the tradition and treat may exactly as all his friends treated their wives"
  2. "there was no use trying to emancipate a wife who had not the slimmest notion that she was not free" - women have a certain role in marriage
    1. "the word (divorce) had fallen like a bombshell" - the mention of bomb so close to the war is significant. Shows how dangerous the society is - military position of New york society
      1. "our ideas about marriage and divorce are particularly old fashioned" - "our legislation favours divorce - out social customs don't"
3. SOCIETY
  1. Society wins in the end in AOI and the bad wins out in GG
  2. ISOLATION
    1. - Gatsby and Ellen are the most isolated, Gatsby is because of his love for Daisy and his self absorption, although Nick tries to hide this. It means that Ellen can observe because of her isolation
      1. Newland and Daisy/Tom show how there is a difference between being lonely and alone. Both represent loveless marriages, Newland says "I am Dead - I've been dead for months and months" like Daisy and Tom who "drifted here and there... and were rich together"
      2. Isolation is a result of American class - the society of AOI reject bohemians/immigrants whereas Gatsby's isolation is a result of the American Dream which forces people into loneliness, its the loneliness of the people of New York against the dreams of the city and the rejects like Wilson and the Valley of ashes
      3. Gatsby is self-induced because he is so self absorbed with with reaching his dream of being daisy that he forgets about reality around him. For him it is a good thing, he is the embodiment of individualism of the american dream. BUT its a warning, he becomes so far removed from reality that he looses all connections. Although nick tries to hide it, we can still see that loneliness will always be damaging, even to gatsby
        ‘Gatsby seems alone, despite the hordes of party guests’ - Stephanie Forward
      4. Ellen is isolated simply because she is not the typically passive woman of romantic novels. She has chosen to physically remove herself in "what was certainly a strange quarter to have settled in"
        "these scattered fragments of humanity had never shown a desire to be amalgamated"
        as a writer herself she faced the criticisms of her class who disdained and feared what they called the bohemian life of artists and writers
    2. The outsiders of the AOI "had never shown any desire to be amalgamated with the social structure". There is a sense that these people don't want to be a part of it, they are ready for the change of the jazz age
      1. Wharton saying that isolation is necessary because we must fight against convention but she appreciates that we need support because the gatsby era is far too lonely, there is no hope left anymore
    3. Come from society in AOI vs. fitzgerald believe it to be a result of individualism
  3. The AOI is about the totem terrors that ruled years ago - its a part of the past, these members of society are in fact the isolated ones which Ned WInsett point out "you're in a pitiful minority, you've got no competition, no audience"
    1. There are less, if any unwritten rules in the GG, theere are ways you are supposed to act but they are not as strict as AOI, Tom has an affair with someone in a lower class. The women in GG say "I never care what i do, so I always have a good time"
      1. Zelda saw herself as the new woman - the flapper. Of course Scott's work was interrupted by the incessant party going, they soon began to quarrel, for their life together lacked any semblance of order
        The closing decades of the 19th and early 20th century gave rise to a unique social phenomenon - the new woman. The increase in educated and independent women who sought fulfilment beyond the bounds of marriage and motherhood, against those traditional female roles that amounted to a kind of gender enslavement. for others it was a disturbing and socially divisive construct that went against nature
        The Great Gatsby “suggests that a woman has no identity except in the eyes of her beholder.” - Rena Sanderson
        Rena Sanderson - the truth is that Fitzgerald was ambivalent, both fascinated and disturbed by women and by the changing distribution of power between the sexes
        it is a phallocentric novel - male dominated, none of the women work, have no meaningful purpose. hegemonic - women police themselves and reinforce patrichal values - daisy kills myrtle for reaching beyond her status - symbolic destruction of the woman as a broken body. gatsby's obsession with idealised version of daisy does not help women achieve liberation.
  4. There is recklessness in GG, characters do not conform to the same old fashioned traditions but there are still unspoken rules
  5. EAST EGG
    1. Daisy doesn't have a good time at Gatsby's party - she hates west egg because there is no etiquette - everyone is drunk and has no sophistication. Everything is described in east egg cinematically and moving - Nick is in a different world of wealth, it is not normal. Until the characters open their mouths, the world is decedent, then the ugliness spills out - they are petty, ordinary, mean and stupid
  6. Wharton was often critical of the rigidity of the social code but she saw its purpose of handing down values and replicating culture. The new york society rigidly enforces the social code. Until the van der Luydens come to her rescue, society refuses to welcome Ellen because she is woman who has left her husband.
    1. Theres an understood social code, Mrs Archer says "boys will be boys" - men are expected to have affairs, whilst women are expected to be faithful
      1. "i didn't think the mingnotts would have tried it on" - the actions of an individual reflect upon the whole society - "the... embarrassed gaze of her family"
      2. Men too have restrictions - the only acceptable vocation for Newline is the law, he must not dirty his hands in business or trade
        "when such things happened it was undoubtedly foolish of the man but somehow always criminal of the woman" - double standards
    2. The eyes of society are everywhere, when Newland is out for a walk and sees Ellen he worries about the eyes of Lefferts and Chivers
    3. Newland's stagnant lifestyle - "the other conventions on which his life was moulded" - the language shows how boring this life can be where no one acts differently - its a stultifying environment.
      1. The times are changing in both - AOI foreshadows the GG era and GG foreshadows the great depression
        Becoming a thing of that past - New Winsett points out how they have "no audience"
        Wharton was herself born into the claustrophobic world of Old New York
        when she wrote she had witnessed an astounding amount of social change, both horrified and fascinated by the chaos and freedom of the the new century as it headed towards modernism and war, Wharton was prompted to compare this new age with that of her own past
        The AOI then stands as both a personal recollection of the culture of wharton's youth and a historical study of an old-fashioned world on the brink of profound and permanent change
        Dale Bauer - appearing in 1920 the year that saw a great wave of anti-foreign incidents culminating in the second wave of the KKK and the anti- immigrantion act of 1924. the reference to the bohemian in this novel is not to the artistic world of the 1920s but to the influx of bohemian immigrants of the 1870s
        Cynthia Griffin - the novel is "a look back along the past to examine the constraints that had bewildered her own impatient youth"
        In the end "the young men nowadays were emancipating themselves from the law and business and taking up all sorts of new things" - shows a time of social change and conventions - wharton suggests we shouldn't conform - otherwise we are weak
        "archer got up slowly and walked back alone to his hotel" - his social rooted restraints are too instilled in him to break
        From wharton's 1920 vantage point there were things never imagined in 1870 - automobiles, airplanes, telephones, electricity, women had just won vote after 70 years of struggle, world war. The quaint realm of upper crust new york society would have seemed a long ago dream
        cynthia griffin - Wharton noticed that the world she depicts was caught up in a process of inevitable change. new families were invading the realm of new york.
    4. "they all lived in a hieroglyphic world where the real thing was never said or done" - encapsualtes the guided age, it isn't realistic or accessible
      1. Set in old new york with a structured gridlock pattern just like the structured rules and regulations of the new york society, bohemian sector as completely separate
        The city of whatnot's youth was an isolated island, with no bridges, only ferries to connect to the outside. No more than 400 elites controlled new york, building colossal mansions of 5th avenue and rarely venturing to the lower island district where the poor lived - like the only glimpse of poor is when they travel in gatsby
        Cynthia Griffin - it was a study of the complex, intimate relationships between social cohesion and individual growth.
      2. Diane Roberts; "the age of innocence examines the power of class to warp and destroy lives"- just like this literally happens in Gatsby
        AOI transports the reader to new york during 1870s - period called gilded age when social classes in NY became increasingly stratified. in the 1880s 'the four hundred' was devised, a list of a carefully selected group of cooer class families. money mattered but the way a family made its fortune and how long they had possessed it counted most of all - unlike Gatsby.
  7. Wharton acclimatises the reader to the societies fashions which are only concerned with appearances
    1. members of the audience scrutinise each other more than the opera itself, going to the opera becomes a stage to see and to be seen
    2. The events are monotonous and predictable, everyone arrives late because "it was 'not the thing' to arrive early"
      1. It takes the entrance of Ellen - someone completely different and not confined by society to spark energy into the text "well upon my soul!" explained Lawrence lefts
        Ellen .. ‘dresses to suit herself, not New York’ - Glyn Austen. "Ellen is as unconventional as her room" - Cathy Tayloe
  8. "in conformity with the old new york tradition" - " the way of people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage"
    1. They always have monontous tridents - a way of excluding those who aren't in the know - its a tribal instinct to ostracise and reject those on the outside - reflects a sense of insecurity
4. Cynthia Griffin says AOI is "a glance back along the past to examine the constraints the had bewildered her own impatient youth". Just like Fitzgerald, Professor ruth Prigozy "he felt like an outsider throughout his childhood, for although he lived among them and socialised with them, the rich inhabited a different world"
MORALITY
1. NARRATOR
  1. AOI - 3rd person limited omniscient. Free indirect speech so the thoughts of the character slip in. We see the world through newline's eyes - ironically he sees himself as a cosmopolitan but Wharton belies this sentiment by describing his acceptance of the opera - he wears a gardenia, the socially acceptable flower, he screams conformity
    1. Belinda Jack says Newland sees everything at surface value, he is presumptuous and irritating at the beginning - he subscribes to convention, this is shattered when he questions convention and begins to look for happiness, Ellen shows him another possibility
      1. At the beginning "he was content to hold this view without analysing it" but he develops a thoughtfulness, the catalyst for which is Ellen
        "he was at heart a dilettante and thinking over a pleasure to come often gave him a subtler satisfaction that its realisation"
        Unreliable narrative perspective - he doesn't truly understand May
        ‘Not only is Newland’s perspective subjective but he has the capacity to be simply wrong’ - Fiona Macdonald
        Cynthia Griffin - a wary reader must be mindful of the severe limitations of the romantic self-serving, visionary tendencies that becloud Newland's perceptions of the world.
        he is a man of imagination rather than action - Koss and Cunningham
        "something he knew he has missed: the flower of life" - freedom and oppoutunity - he never picks the flower or the opportunity.
        Scorsese's film - opening credits show a lace flower - it is not real, the freedom for these characters will never be real
        He wears the same white flower as everyone else - screams conformity
        In Gounod's 'Faust' - a respected man is search of power, knowledge and youth sells his soul to the devil yet is somewhat redeemed through the love of a good woman. In AOI an equally respected man resists temptation but ends up in unsatisfying marriage - ultimately all the enticement, passion and regret in the fast sorry helps prepare the reader
        Cynthia Griffn - Newline may be capable of improvement, of growth - even of achieving wisdom and contentment. however, he will never be capable of some fundamental transformation
  2. STYLE
    1. Both conclude in an elegiac mood, Wharton sees the 1870s from vantage point of 1900s as being an era of great order, structured, less extravagant, charm and less vulgarity. It is locked safely in the past but this nostalgia is qualified by wharton's judgement of the period as emotionally suffocating and stifling.
      1. The elegiac feeling in Fitzgerald's stems from his identification of Gatsby's experience with the promise and hope of america, as contrasted to the metriciousness of the present. In the GG the past is large, gorgeous and redolent with grand promise. It is too late however to achieve this goal, although we still have it in our dreams its unattainability is necessary for its status as a romantic ideal
        Wharton is ambivalent about the loss of comforting tradition - she laments yet satirises it
        WW1 = upheaval of established values, economic boom, capitalism, promotes individual to looks after themselves. Looks back to a time when there were clearer boundaries, not everyone could make it
        Cynithia Griffin - a post war novel, set in the 1870s but designed to discover those cultural strengths that might enable america to survive the postwar years of the 1920s
    2. Uses modernism but fuses with romanticism. Romanticism is an emotional directness of personal experience and the boundlessness of individual imagination and aspiration. Modernism is a rejection of 19th century traditions, adopted complex and difficult new forms and styles. T.S. Elliot replaced logical exposition of thoughts with collages of fragmentary images and illusions, the accepted continuity of chronological continuity was upset
      1. AOI - Jumps forward at the end - very modernist approach. Elements of the old (chronological story) and the modern - represents division between past and present america
    3. WINNERS
      1. HYPOCRISY
        Ellen realises the hypocrisy of New Yorkers from her first glimpse of them, she tells newland that they do not want to hear the truth, they would rather pretend.
        May throws a lavish going away dinner for Ellen but under the surface it is a triumph because of May's position as wife
        May must pretend she does not know newline is in love with ellen but from her death bed confession we see she has lived with this knowledge all her life
        Society meant to be based on nobility and etiquette but obsessed with gossip
        those who find loopholes in the code are despised but are still tolerated - lefferts has numerous affairs but still extolles xian values and snubs ellen for leaving her husband
        Archer's new look tolerated hypocrisy in private relations; but in business matters it exacted a limpid and impeccable honesty" - new york society is really just materialistic, the real god is money and bankruptcy is a sin, to show off money is to be successful
        In marriage - "with a shiver of foreboding he saw his marriage becoming what most of the other marriages about him were - a dull assoitiation of material and social interests held together by ignorance on the one side and hypocrisy on the other
      2. May and Tom win - Tom wins crudely whereas May plays a deeper game, seemingly as sweet and naive but at a crucial moment announces her pregnancy. May is manipulative and cunning whereas Daisy is passive by contrast.
      3. Tom and Daisy are not punished, they can just retreat "back into their money", allows them to behave recklessly whilst others die in the pursuit of their dreams
        Daisy and Tom are "careless people" and instigate a large amount of tragedy due to their own recklessness - money becomes a shield against responsibility
        Fitzgerald is voicing a concern between the disparity between the rich and the poor
      4. The characters that have money believe that it equates with happiness
        Tom and Daisy have old money so do not need the american dream to elevate them because they are steeped in tradition
        But Fitzgerald implies that money does not bring about happiness, even they do not live a completely fulfilled life
        The lives of Tom and Daisy seem to be filled with boredom and no purpose they "drift here and there... and were rich together"
        Described as having etiquette such as women who "were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering" - exotic and different world of wealth that is simply not normal
        Darren Morton notes how whiteness is associated with the exclusive and indestructible world of the rich
    4. GG - the gaps, silences, inconsistencies and contradictions are a result of modernism - they felt coherence was a fallacy
      1. modernist writers shied away from the conventions of chronology, point of view and coherence. Much of modern society - moral values, gender roles seemed to have splintered apart and modern art in some ways represented this fragmentation
  3. Nick
    1. autodiagetic narrator - involved in the story itself but we do not get the distance of an omniscient narrator. He says the reader can trust him because "I'm inclined to reserve all judgements"
      1. Nick rubs out the chalk word at the end - "i erased it" - he is an editor of the most intrusive type
      2. "now i want to go back a little" - he controls the release of info - he has a central role in the story, he doesn't just tell it but creates gatsby as a symbol of hope. Gatsby is outside of his disgust and recoil from the east, gatsby is shown to be a success
        He feels both 'Within and without" - he is a contradiction "simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life" - nicholas tredell says this is his narrative stance throughout - he modifies the 1st person narrative to include stories and events which Nick had no participation in
        Clearly seen in Jordan's flashback when she recalls "one october day in 1917" - this is entirely her account
        He himself admits that he concentrates on captivating episodes "I have given the impression that the events of these three nights... were all that absorbed me" - makes the narration seem unreliable because we have to depend upon other charcaters and "she was incurably dishonest"
        his unreliability doesnt stem from a desire to be untruthful, but from a lack of self-knowledge and awareness. john mullen would say he is "inadequate" not unreliable.
      3. He imagines guests hiding - he is always imagining things, JUST LIKE NEWLAND, even when things are not there "i think he" "as though in" "i suppose he smiled"
      4. But then he spends the remainder of the novel forming judgments - daisy is shallow, tom crude, Jordan dishonest, myrtle sensual 'there was something gorgeous about him" "i disapproved of him from beginning to end"
    2. Characterises himself as highly moral and highly tolerant but Gatsby stands out as an exception, he admires him highly although he represents everything that Nick scorns about new york - he poses a challenge to Nick's customary ways of thinking and embodies an ability to dream and escape the past, it was an untouchable dream - he would never reach it
      1. But there's a discrepancy between his principles and his practice - he succumbs to judgement - he appears spinless when he cannot truly decide how he feels
        He accepts Gatsby's wrongdoings but disapproves of Jordan's cheating. He becomes acclimtised to the east, forgets his middle western values in order to take advantage of the excitement of his surroundings - he knows jordan is dishonest, selfish and cynical but he is still attracted to her vitality
        ‘Nick wants Gatsby to be ‘Great’ and doesn’t want to expose him even though he knows he is lying’ (unreliable narrator) - Claire Stocks
2. SATIRISING/SOCIETY
  1. Wharton undercuts Newland's opinons to expose hypocirsy of the social code - tongue and cheek tone - statical towards the society. She writes about old new york where rules of society have changed, looks back in a critical manner, she is torn. Critical and ironic in tone
  2. Gatsby's world is a very shallow one, Gatsby has real fake books - he puts effort into being fake.
  3. Diane Roberts - "the age of innocence is about the absurdity and naivety of the way americans see themselves as virtuous, uncomplicated and democratic.
  4. film - narration from the voice of Wharton - dry, faintly mocking voice quoting Wharton directly, as Diane Roberts says; "constantly reminding us that this is a world where artifice is not only preferred but essential"
  5. Rob Worrall - Wharton as a writer whose narrative voice is closer to that of a satirist, it is both retrospective and prospective
3. Duty is carrying on in the face of adversity, Newland's commitment to may after she reveals she is pregnant is a duty understood, his promise to stay in a boring marriage is in the end what makes civilisation work
  1. Order is optimised by the repetition of certain rituals. Newline's wife must be sexually innocent, we lear that she knew all along about his affairs/ passions for Ellen but she followed the accepted code of ignorance
  2. Loyalty is a virtue among families, marriages and men. Newline must go to the Mingnott box to show his family loyalty when ellen arrives. Lawrence Lefferts asked newline to "cover" for him and lie to give him an alibi so that he can carry on an affair
  3. "their long years together had shown him that it did not so much matter if marriage was a dull duty, as long as it kept the dignity of duty"
  4. May embodies "the steadying sense of an inescapable duty"
  5. "a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free"
4. "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together" - worth refers to the old money part of society - even though they are in possession of money they did not earn or deserve it; morality is more important than obtaining money
  1. For Myrtle infidelity is not an issue, her affair gives her access to money and power so therefore it is justified
  2. it was other people, not Gatsby, that was the problem - the 'foul dust" - he stands out because he is pure, everything else is tainted, there's a tension between gatsby and the world that surrounds him
5. Gatsby; it is a novel without a moral centre because they do not know what is moral in the 1920s - everything is changing
  1. Nick Lacks commitment to a place, a woman, a job, set of moral values because of the war = a collapse of culture and tradition - suggests that the pose way period was lacking social responsibility
Diane Roberts - AOI "succeeds not because it shows how people used to be 'back then' but because it speaks to how we evade our feelings and compromise our desires still today"
1. essetnial to appear in right way - behaviour is similar in 1920s - fake aspirations/dreams/illusions

Next up

Comparing Gatsby and AOI

Description

Resource summary

Similar

	Created by kiki kui about 7 years ago