Module A – Linking Two Texts.

Compare and contrast The Great Gatsby and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets

“By considering the texts in their contexts and comparing values, ideas and language forms and features, students come to a heightened understanding of the meaning and significance of each text.” (BOS Syllabus)

The Great Gatsby / EBB Sonnets
Context / Context
Key Idea about love and idealism(1) with evidence from text / Key Idea about love and idealism(1)with evidence from text
Key Idea about love and idealism(2) with evidence from text / Key Idea about love and idealism(2) with evidence from text
Values to be found in text with supporting evidence / Values to be found in text with supporting evidence
Language forms and features used to communicate ideas and values + examples / Language forms and features used to communicate ideas and values + examples

In THREE sentences summarise YOUR understanding of the meaning and significance of the two texts.

Compare and contrast the values and perspectives on love in EBB Sonnet XIV with those evident on pages 35 to 38 of The Great Gatsby

  1. What does EBB in this Sonnet present as a key value of love? What does the Sonnet see as the essence of love?
  1. Which lines best illustrate this perspective on love?
  1. How does the meaning of this Sonnet shift between the octet and the sestet?
  1. What is the last word of the poem? Why is this such an important word in EBB’s Sonnets?
  1. Comment on the word choice in this Sonnet.
  1. What attitudes towards love and marriage are shown by the character Catherine in this extract?
  1. What perspective on love and marriage is shown by Myrtle’s comments on her marriage to Wilson?
  1. Contrast Myrtle’s recount of her first meeting with Tom with the vision of love presented in the Sonnet by EBB. Which statement by Myrtle most strongly contrasts with the last line of the Sonnet?
  1. What is the implication of the last sentence on page 37? What does it suggest about the importance to Fitzgerald of Nick as narrative voice for the novel?

Compare and contrast the values and perspectives on love in EBB Sonnets XXI and XXII with those evident in

  • Gatsby’s love for Daisy in The Great Gatsby
  • the character of Nick and his relationship with Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby.
  1. What two aspects of love are highlighted in Sonnet XXI?
  1. What is the speaking voice of this Sonnet? Whose perspective on the experience of love is being given?
  1. In Chapter V how does Gatsby show Daisy that he loves her?
  2. What small details does Fitzgerald include in the Chapter that make us aware that there is something sinister about Gatsby? What details in the Chapter make us aware that Daisy is not perfect either?
  1. What perspectives does Nick give us in this Chapter suggesting that Gatsby’s love for Daisy had about it an unreal, impossibly sentimental quality? Find sentences or phrases to support your view.
  1. Contrast the portrayal of a pair of lovers in Sonnet XXII with the portrayal of Gatsby and Daisy in Chapter V and later in the novel.
  1. What similarities can you see between Daisy’s rediscovery of Gatsby after five years in Chapter Five and the image of a perfect intense love in Sonnet XXII?
  1. What do we learn about the relationship between Nick and Jordan on pages 58-59, p 77-78, p 129,p 168? Contrast Nick’s approach to love with Jordan with the perspective on love in the Sonnets.

Compare and contrast Nick Carroway, as narrator of TGG, with the narrator of the Sonnets. What different values and perspectives do they offer us? How do they reflect different social contexts?

Compare and contrast the language used in the Sonnets with the language used in TGG. What impact do word choice, imagery and form have on our reading of these two texts?