The Great Gatsby

Question 1

When was Gatsby written?

Answer 1

• 1922

Question 2

What was happening with the economy around the time Gatsby was written?

Answer 2

• rapid economic growth

- wealth was becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few at the top of society

Question 3

What was happening with women at this time?

Answer 3

• women found new freedom after being given the vote
• resulted in changing behaviour/ fashion ie. flappers
• however, poorer women still had to play traditional roles

Question 4

What were the impacts of WW1?

Answer 4

• devastating
• spurred beginning of a shift in people’s attitudes towards the state, religion, morality, culture and society
• arguably produced a ‘lost generation’ who were “shocked, disillusioned and embittered”

Question 5

Had women overcome the patriarchy in this period?

Answer 5

• no, America was still firmly patriarchal

- they were still subjected to double standards and stricter moral standards

Question 6

How did mass consumer culture influence women’s position?

Answer 6

• radios and cinemas exposed females to new role models and the ever-changing world of fashion and music

Question 7

What role did the American Dream play in 1920s America?

Answer 7

• it was a real driving force especially for working class and immigrant population

Question 8

How did mass consumer culture impact society’s thoughts about love?

Answer 8

• love stories became more plentiful and permeated popular entertainment

Question 9

What are the conventions of classical tragedy?

Answer 9

• charts fall of a noble man
• good man makes a mistake
• often this good man has a tragic flaw/ weakness (hamartia)
• good man is punished by the Gods
• a chorus comment on his life

Question 10

How could you consider Gatsby a modern tragedy?

Answer 10

• Gatsby falls victim to the Jazz Age
• he is a hero as well as victim - he wants something more than the flawed life of consumerism but also a victim of this
• religion is replaced by consumerism
• the choric voice is taken on by Nick (and perhaps other characters who contribute to narrative) who comment on Gatsby’s life

Question 11

What things could be thought of as Gatsby’s hamartia?

Answer 11

• can’t comprehend not being able to live in the past
• desires to be a social climber through his material wealth
• love and Daisy

Question 12

How can you see the influence of Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’?

Answer 12

• Daisy references how romantic a nightingale she sees is but the moment ends when there is a ‘shrill’ telephone ring
• ie. Fitzgerald borrows Romantic poetic imagery but juxtaposes it with 20th century technology

Question 13

What are some traditionally identified features of a Byronic hero?

Answer 13

• often harbours a torturing memory of an enormous, nameless guilt that drives him to doom
• is aloof, and views himself as superior in passions and powers
• pursues his own ends according to a self-generated moral code
• he exerts an attraction on other characters that is all the more compelling because it involves their concern at his obliviousness to ordinary human concerns

Question 14

What are some physical/ personality features of a Byronic hero?

Answer 14

• attractive
• wounded/ physically disabled
• moody, mysterious, gloomy
• passionate
• remorseful but unrepentant
• wandering
• isolated
• self-reliant

Question 15

In what ways does Gatsby appear to be a Romantic hero?

Answer 15

• imagination becomes self-realisation
• he lives in the past and surrounds himself with a vision of recreating the past to the point that he can become delusional

Question 16

At what point was modernism at its height?

Answer 16

1900 - 1930

Question 17

What is a modernism influence on the structure of the novel?

Answer 17

• non-linear fragmented structure

Question 18

What are some key themes explored in Modernist literature that can be found in Gatsby?

Answer 18

• disillusionment
• breakdown of communication
• alienation
• frustration
• loneliness

Question 19

What are examples of modernist techniques used in Gatsby and how?

Answer 19

• juxtaposed characters, juxtaposed relationships etc.

- symbolism - key motif of the green light throughout

Question 20

In what way is Gatsby presented as a courtly lover?

Answer 20

• Gatsby loves from afar
• he is unrelentingly devoted to Daisy
• Gatsby is enobled by love and becomes very chivalric, ie. Nick as the narrator elevates him to this position
• he tries to impress Daisy with parties/ shirts, she is eventually cruel
• sense of unsatified desire, just as he leaves out the climatic reunion, he leaves out sexual scenes, perhaps so the reader shares in Gatsby’s distress

Question 21

Who else could be considered a courtly lover?

Answer 21

• Wilson
• he is lovesick and unrequited
• Myrtle is cruel and exploitative

Question 22

In Gatsby’s case, how might the war context have influenced him?

Answer 22

• perhaps love sustained him
• perhaps he returns to the base values of love
• holds onto what is familiar

Question 23

In what way is TGG not a love story?

Answer 23

• story about love, creates a realist observation about love but this is ultimately a social critique

Question 24

What makes Gatsby anachronistic?

Answer 24

• he is presented as a courtly lover who expresses pure romantic commitment and is surrounded by people who have such loose notions of commitment

Question 25

What is Daisy when she marries Tom and wears the pearls?

Answer 25

• a debutante (an upper-class young woman making her first appearance in fashionable society)

Question 26

As well as a courtly lover, what other medieval tradition is Gatsby a part of?

Answer 26

• chivalric tradition

Question 27

Who makes Gatsby ‘great’?

Answer 27

• arguably Nick, the text is perhaps more about Nick than Gatsby