'THE GREAT GATSBY' CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS Flashcards
Tony Tanner : (Gatsby’s Lifestyle)
- “His ostentatious house and expensive parties are an..”
“His ostentatious house and expensive parties are an elaborate advertising display designed to impress Daisy”.
Kathleen Parkinson : (Daisy’s Voice)
- “Daisy’s voice seems to promise exciting times to come… it is just like…”
"”Daisy’s voice seems to promise exciting times to come… it is just like Gatsby’s dream of her, which contains no present reality, only past and future ecstasies”.
Kathleen Parkinson : (Portrayal of Daisy)
- Fitzgerald reduces her to “a shining radiance of Gatsby’s construction, the centrepiece of…”
“a shining radiance of Gatsby’s construction, the centrepiece of Tom’s wealth, rather than a woman with a personality of her own”.
Kathleen Parkinson : (Daisy)
- “Fitzgerald allows Daisy to exist only in…”
“Fitzgerald allows Daisy to exist only in the images men create of her”.
Ronald Berman : (Nice vs Buchanans)
- “Nick himself exemplifies loyalty to people and ideas, while Daisy and Tom have freed themselves…”
“Nick himself exemplifies loyalty to people and ideas, while Daisy and Tom have freed themselves from troublesome conscience - and from even more troublesome self-awareness”.
Kathleen Parkinson : (Myrtle)
- “Myrtle represents overt…”
“Myrtle represents overt, unconcealed sexuality’.
Kathleen Parkinson : (Nick’s view on Myrtle)
- Myrtle’s “‘lower class pretensions appear comic to Nick because…”
Myrtle’s “‘Lower class pretensions appear comic to Nick because he judges them from a position of social superiority, but her overt sexuality impresses him”
Toby Tanner : (Tom)
- “Tom certainly has the worst kind of ‘colonizing’ mentality - …”
“Tom certainly has the worst kind of ‘colonizing’ mentality - all others exist only to satisfy his needs and appetites”
Toby Tanner : (Desecration of the American Ideal)
- “The green breast of the new world has given way, as an image, to the shocking spectacle of Myrtle’s left…”
“The green breast of the new world has given way, as an image, to the shocking spectacle of Myrtle’s left breast, ‘swinging loose like a flap’ … Fitzgerald … wants to show America desecrated, mutilated, violated.”
Richard Golden : (Why Gatsby loves Daisy)
- “Gatsby loves Daisy because she is…”
“Gatsby loves Daisy because she is his point of access to a dominant class.”
Leslie A. Fielder : (Daisy’s Seduction)
- “Daisy is ‘the girl who lures her…”
“Daisy is ‘the girl who lures her lovers on, like America itself.”
Rosa Innoncencio : (Money)
- “Money is a shield between the careless wealthy…”
“Money is a shield between the careless wealthy and the consequences of their actions”.
Guy Reynolds : (Fitzgerald’s prediction of crash, from G’s parties to empty funeral)
- “Fitzgerald’s portrayal of dizzying, narcissistic wealth and its sudden…”
“Fitzgerald’s portrayal of dizzying, narcissistic wealth and its sudden corruption eerily prefigured the US stock market’s 1929 ‘Great Crash”.
Philip McGowan : (Myrtle Versailles depictions & Gatsby’s Marie Antoinette drawing rooms)
- “They are trying to ape this sense of lavishness and excess that was associated with the French monarchy…”
“They are trying to ape this sense of lavishness and excess that was associated with the French monarchy and their fruitless attempt to belong to a class that will never accept them.”
Sarah Churchwell : (Gatsby & Myrtle)
- “Myrtle and Gatsby are each others mirror images … they both think a…”
“Myrtle and Gatsby are each others mirror images … they both think a rich Buchanan will get them what they want.”
Sarah Churchwell : (Gatsby & Myrtle)
- “Gatsby has a more appealing version of the story…”
“Gatsby has a more appealing version of the story while Myrtle is more degraded.”
Sarah Churchwell : (Gatsby’s Failures & Flaws)
- “The question the novel forces us to answer is whether Gatsby’s failures and…”
“The question the novel forces us to answer is whether Gatsby’s failures and deep flaws are redeemed by his idealism.”
Sarah Churchwell : (What the novel is about)
- “It is a novel about how reality is…”
“It is a novel about how reality is inevitably disappointing”.
Philip McGowan : (Nick’s Construction)
- “Nick constructs a romance novel that…”
“Nick construct a romance novel that he wants, Gatsby has to be great.”
