The Great Gatsby Notes

The Great Gatsby Notes

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald

1896-1940

Style, Setting, and Themes

·  imagistic and poetic prose

·  motifs and symbols used throughout novel serve to develop theme (geography = social stratification, weather = human conditions, etc.)

·  setting is summer of 1922, near New York City, in the towns of West Egg and East Egg

·  The Great Gatsby accurately reflects the turbulent 1920s : population and financial growth, materialism, flourishing manufacture (cars, radios, telephones, consumer goods), dramatically increased immigration (same issues as today – threat of different political ideas and loss of jobs to foreigners triggered strong dislike of outsiders), 1919 White Sox World Series scandal, Prohibition and organized crime, 19th Amendment gives women the right to vote – women in the workplace permanently change traditional family dynamic

·  Fitzgerald exposes issues of racism, domestic violence, and loosening moral standards of the Roaring Twenties.

·  Allusions add depth to the novel: Theodore Lothrop Stoddard’s The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy, Kaiser Wilhelm, Rosy Rosenthal, “Black Sox,” Trimalchio

·  Themes: Decline of the American Dream – discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness corrupted by easy money and relaxation of social values; Hollowness of the Upper Class – new rich vs. old aristocracy, but both are spiritually and emotionally empty; Stratification of Social Classes – old money (Daisy and Tom), new money (Gatsby), no money (Myrtle)

·  Setting contributes to overall meaning. Political, social, and economic changes altered the face of America. Novel is informed by reality

Byronic Hero

Lord Byron was a Romantic poet and creator of the anti-hero (Byronic hero).

The Byronic hero is:

·  larger than life

·  flawed

·  a rebel

·  exhibits conflicting emotions and excessive moodiness

·  passionate about a specific issue

·  introspective

·  critical of self

·  struggles with his own integrity

·  operates within his own set of rules/principles

·  rejects accepted societal codes and norms

·  independent/individual

·  a loner (willingly or unwillingly)

·  lacks respect for rank/privilege

·  troubled or mysterious past

·  cynical, demanding, arrogant

·  self-destructive tendencies and behaviors

·  a quest doomed to failure

·  usually does not survive (unintended consequences or conscious choice)

Tragic Hero

Aristotle defined the tragic hero as a man who rises to a high position and then falls from that high position – death or catastrophic loss

·  Two forces at work – tragic flaw (hamartia) and fate

·  some bring about their own downfall (Macbeth)

·  some are pawns of fate (Oedipus)

·  20th Century tragic hero – flaw is attempt to gain, or regain, what he believes to be his rightful status in society – exemplifies our “underlying fear of being displaced…torn away from our chosen image of what or who we are in the world.” (From Arthur Miller’s “Tragedy and the Common Man”)