Idealised love Flashcards
Myrtle’s idealised love - her view of her relationship with Tom
‘You can’t live forever, you can’t live forever’ - Selfish hedonistic pursuit of pleasure motivates debauchery. She views her affair with Tom in an idealised way - he represents what she desires
Tom’s actions crushing the idealised version of the relationship between him and myrtle
‘Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.’ - declarative tone reflects it impulsive nature
Jordan Baker’s ‘golden arm’
reflects a sense of idealised unattainability
Nick’s comment on Jordan being reality compared to the dream image of daisy
‘Unlike gatsby and tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floared along’
Jordan is REAL – juxtaposition of the physical reality of Jordan and the dream image of Daisy.
Gatsby’s home as idealised with a dark undertone
‘Your place looks like the World’s Fair’
Artificial imagery – façade – almost a sense of purposelessness. Underneath the glossy appearance there is a sinister undertone.
The green light - illusion of idealised love as now lost
possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever…now it was again a green light on a dock’
Before this day the green light symblised his unattainable dream of daisy. He sees the pursuit of money as a substitute for love – therefore his American dream pursuit is for purusing love and pursuing daisy. Buys everything/earns money for the purpose of winning daisy back – now he has her he is almost disenchanted. Reality hits, and he realises that this isn’t necessarily the life he has romanticised – almost a sense of emptiness. The dream has lost its enchanting quality and it leaves his unsatisfied. He is in love with an unattainable ideal rather than the reality. His love for daisy is symbolic of the American dream for fitzgerald – is fitzgerald dispelling the myth – the reality you have will never live up to your dreams.
Nick’s comment on the real vs idealised version of daisy
‘there must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams…because of the collosal vitality of his illusion’
An obsession with an ideal, romanticised version of her – so many years apart means that he has falled in love with the idea of her memory rather than reality. Nick recognises the idealised version of Daisy for Gatsby. He doesn’t blame them – it is more a criticism of the pride/arrogance of men in new America. Gatsby has embellished his life with material objects in the pursuit of love and money. Nick points out that this has no impact on the version of love created in man’s heart. This makes the reality of love fall short.
Daisy and gatsby’s meeting is a pivotal chapter in the novel – feels almost climactic. It highlights the relationship between past and present – repeated time references show how Gatsby is trying to control and orchestrate time in the same way that he controls every other aspect of his life – returning to 5 years ago when eh met daisy. However when they meet it is an anti-climax as she can never live up to the intensity of his dream, suggesting the idea of love is more powerful than the reality. Fitzgerald therefore dispels the myth of the American dream – that you can ever truly achieve happiness.
The flashback of Daisy and Gatsby’s kiss
Flashback of their kiss. ‘the sidewalk was white with moonlight’
she walks in beauty’ both speakers assume their lover has an innocent heart. Romanticised image, purity and femininity.
The kiss is narrated through nick’s second person perspective in past perfect tese. Emphasises that gatsby’s kiss belongs to the nostalgic past. Romantic prose here is used, and the kiss is entwined with philosophical images – Gatsby is here at his most vulnerable as he is lost in a Romantic dream.
Obsession with daisy
he knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable vision to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of god’
He is in love with the platonic ideal of Daisy. ‘Wed’ – images of marriage, sacramental. His obsession with daisy replaces all his other dreams.
the kiss and image of the beginning of obsession
‘at his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete’
Reborn in a life of unfulfilled love – image of incarnation – blurs his percepton of the world and becomes more important than anything else, his love for her sustains him and becomes part of his identity. Image of delicate femininity contrasting with ‘crushed flowers’ . structural juxtaposition of dream like chater 5 and harsh reality of chapter 6.
Gatsby’s dream-like delusion
‘a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing’
Adds a dreamlike quality to the story – emphasising the delusion. Mythical imagery of the birth of gatsby’s American dream.
gatsby’s facade as the ideal man
‘You resemble the advertisement of the man’
Advertisement – strictly capitablist and materialistic illusion – Gatsby is almost selling the ideal man – perhaps the idea that daisy regards this innocently reflects how she is blind to his façade like the stereotypical consumer – link to context of conspicuous consumption.
Daisy and money
‘her voice was full of money’
Suggests the innate affluence and ease of her wealth – suggesting an almost inherited, genetic old money trait which cannot be replicated despite gatsby’s attempts – her voice transcends the physical units of money reflecting her innate superiority.
Gatsby as a courtly lover
‘now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail’
Grail – something unobtainable and destined to fail/ He has sacrificed his identity, sanity, and his chance at a normal life to pursue her. Religious imagery given by FSF to gatsby’s love [parallels the religious journey of the pilgrims to the new world, and the intensity of the viison of the dutch sailors who first saw the shores of this ‘virginal land\ - fsf therefore makes a connection between the sexual destiny of Gatsby and the national destiny of America. It links gataby to medieval knights who follow strict chivalric codes in a gallant manner. They’d complete dangerous quests to win a lady – FSF does this, harking back to a fantasy past – Gatsby is in love with what daisy represents rather than who she actually is.
‘incorruptible dream’
Extent of delusion
Ending of novel - comment on green light
‘gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms further’
Green light represents uattainable viison/dream. Nick connects this ‘greenness’ to how the first settlers viewed America as full of vitality and promise of a flourishing life – but this dream is firmly rooted in the past. America tried to distance itself from the traditional class sytem of Europe promising wealth and social mobility to anyone, but it failed. The social hierarchy still exists therefore its dream is unattainable. The fragmented nature of the sentence means it is unfinished – no conclusion to what this dream will give you.
Gatsby’s undying hope
‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past’
Gatsby’s undying hope. It is an impossible dilemma – paradoxical – universal problem – the American people (collective we) are striving for what america was supposed tp be, the ‘ideal’ rather than reality.
