AO5

Question 1

Lilian C. Ford - 1920s

Answer 1

The book ‘leaves the reader in a mood of chastened wonder.’ It is a ‘work of art’.

Question 2

Edwin Clark - 1920s

Answer 2

‘Curious … mystical and glamourous.’

Question 3

Harry Eagleton - 1920s

Answer 3

‘One finishes The Great Gatsby with a feeling of regret, not for the fate of the people in the book, but for Mr Fitzgerald.’

Question 4

Ruth Snyder - 1920s

Answer 4

The book is ‘painfully forced’, ‘Mr Fitzgerald is not one of the great American writers of today.’

Question 5

Lionel Trilling - 1945

Answer 5

Gatsby could represent America himself, a tragic figure of the American Dream, corrupted by capitalism.

Question 6

Arthur Mizener - 1960

Answer 6

‘A classic of 20th century American fiction.’

Question 7

Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar

Answer 7

Daisy functions as a symbolic object in a male fantasy—idealised and controlled by Gatsby. (Feminist lens).

Question 8

Lois Tyson

Answer 8

Women in Gatsby are either commodified or punished for exerting autonomy. (Feminist lens).

Question 9

Raymond Williams

Answer 9

The novel reveals the instability of class identity and the illusion of upward mobility. (Marxist lens).

Question 10

Frederic Jameson

Answer 10

Gatsby’s dream is a symptom of repressed desires—material, sexual, and nostalgic. (Psychoanalytic lens).

Question 11

Thomas Boyle

Answer 11

Gatsby is caught between ego and superego—his ideal self clashes with reality. (Psychoanalytic lens).