Social Class and love Flashcards
P1: Due to social convention, lower classes cannot intermingle with the upper class which is why Gatsby pursues wealth so desperately as a way to become on Daisy’s level
C8: ‘He let her believe that he was a person from much the same strata as herself’
C8: ‘She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life leaving Gatsby’
The lower classes in the Valley of Ashes should hypothetically have the truest form of love however Myrtle and Wilson’s marriage is unhappy, for Myrtle at least
C2: ‘I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe’
C7: ‘Beat me, he heard her cry’
C8: ‘There was not enough of him for his wife’
P3: Both Myrtle and Gatsby try to climb the social ladder to be with their lover however this ends catastrophically for the both showing the imbalance in class structures
C7: ‘She had choked up a little in giving her tremendous vitality
C8: ‘The holocaust was complete’
Whoso Lists to Hount - It is implied that the speaker is from a lower status than his beloved and thus his pursuit for her is futile / The upper classes seems to be trapped by their status which is suggested through the diamond collar on his lovers nick
‘As she fleeth afore fainting I followe’
‘Graven with Diamondes in letter plain there is written her faier neck’
‘In a nett I seke to hold the wynde’
general comparison
Social class is presented as a constant barrier to romantic relationships
Gatsby and Daisy/ Tom and Myrtle
‘She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life leaving Gatsby’
‘He let her believe that he was a person from much the same strata as herself’
The Valley of Ashes vs East Egg
‘Gatsby stood in the centre of the crimson carpet and gazed around with fascinated eyes’
Ginevra King and Zelda were both above Fitzgerald’s social standing and this prevented the relationships in the beginning
Fitzgerald’s work often focuses on tragic romances such as ‘Tender is the Night
Whoso - ‘In a nett I seke to hold the wynde’
‘Faynting I followe’
Thomas Wyatt was rumoured to be Anne Boleyn’s secret lover
Marxists would read both of these poems as evidence for unfair treatment of the proletariat
