Mod A - EBB and Gatsby Feedback

[beeangkah]

Hii, could I please have some feedback on this?

Spoiler

Explore how context impacts on the depiction of an individual’s search for love in EBB’s sonnets and The Great Gatsby

Texts are a product of their time and place – as their historical, social and cultural contexts differ, so does their portrayal of an individual’s search for love. Despite this, by cross-contextual examination of how one rejects or adheres to the values and attitudes of their time, there is a greater understanding of how demonstrations and perceptions of love are inherently dependent on the ideology of the composer’s context. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s suite of Petrarchan Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) reflects the rigid and religious principles of the Victorian era surrounding love, her female voice challenging the patriarchal and conservative society. In contrast, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s prose fiction The Great Gatsby (1926) critiques the Jazz Age and prominent Modernist conventions by representing the hedonistic and superficial behaviours dominating the public psyche and hence how this shapes their search for love.

One’s search for love can be portrayed as being shaped by an adherence to societal values, yet due to the different contexts of the composer, such attitudes vary. Browning highlights her Romantic-based Victorian ideals of highly spiritual love through religious connotations in sonnet 43, “And, if God choose, I shall but love thee better xafter my death.” The diction of “but” suggests that love will only be stronger in heaven, expressing that there is no bigger expanse of love that she can offer. Her superlative, hyperbolic statement furthermore suggests that her love is eternal and transcendent – confining to the conventions of the theological society. Browning’s resignation towards her future is highlighted in sonnet 1 for she utilises dark, supernatural imagery to personify what she mistakenly perceives is death but is actually love, “a mystic Shape… drawing me backward by the hair.” In a classical allusion to Homer’s “The Illiad” where Achilles is saved from irredeemable anger, Browning is ultimately saved from irredeemable pessimism for the newly-found search for love is instigated by submission to the societal convention of her undeserving persona as a societal outcast. Sonnet 32 expresses negative connotations on her worthiness of love through an extended conceit of an overplayed instrument, “more like an out of tune worn viol, a good singer would be wroth to spoil his song with”. She undeniably condemns herself as an invalided and unlovable middle-aged woman due to her past illness and hence finds herself unworthy of love, yielding to her context. Fitzgerald similarly conveys how the titular protagonist Gatsby obeys the conventions of hedonism and superficiality of the era, influencing his attainability of love. Nick recounts, “he had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths,” where the diction of moths instils negative imagery of creatures drifting with no sense of modesty or virtue, to whatever satisfies their need. Hence, the moral ambiguity and materialism of the Jazz Age is reflected in Gatby’s methodology of finding love - his glittering mansion symbolising the belief that accumulating wealth will lure Daisy to him.  Additionally, the objectification of his lover in, “it excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy - it increased her value in his eyes,” highlights an adherence to the sentiment of the time – a desire based off wealth and status triumphed over genuine love.  The frantic and conspicuous pursuit of possessions is the setting for Gatsby’s quest for Daisy – she is symbolically part of the American Dream which dominated the mindset of his society. The metaphor, “her voice is full of money” highlights how the love that is being yearned for is shallow and corruptive, reflecting the ideology of the 1920s that wealth inseparable from happiness. Gatsby’s desire is evidently based on expendable and superficial values, aligning with the patriarchal attitude of the idolisation of women. Hence, both Browning and Fitzgerald portray that the expression of one’s journey of finding love can adhere to composers’ specific values influenced by their contexts.

In contrast, an individual also can reject the conventions of their era while seeking to attain love, evidently differing according to personal context. Browning’s Victorian society in particular embraced the notions of a Romantic, unrealistically idealised and spiritual love, but she subverts this tradition of courtly lovers by reversing the gender roles. Sonnet XIV expresses her request for unconditional and genuine love, not based on physical appearances, utilising archaic language to express her depiction of the immortality of love, “If thou must love me, let it be for nought but love’s sake only. Do not say I love her for her smile,…her look. Her imperative tone demanding for a transcendent and enduring love rejects the notion of the conventional male being the partner who dominated the relationship. Further, Sonnet XXII explores the tensions amongst intellectual Victorians between the matter of life on earth and life after death. Browning rejects the conventional view of the spiritual catharsis in heaven, “for angels would… drop some golden orb of perfect song into our deep, dear silence.” Alliteration draws attention to delicate preciousness and assonance elongates the perfection of loving in silence – she openly subverts her context by stating that she prefers to remain on Earth in a perfect microcosm, rather than be intruded upon by the sounds of heaven. Browning also challenges her status as an invalid shunned by society, incapable of being loved, through a rhetorical question, “who can fear too many stars,… too many flowers?” The natural imagery and anaphora of “too many” conveys a renewed confidence in her and Robert Browning’s love. Thus, she is given a new identity and purpose, rising to be viewed as an equal with him. Gatsby also challenges his time and society through the immense hope that he bears in seeking love in a morally devoid and transient world. He replies to Nick’s pithy statement with a hypophora, “can’t repeat the past?... Of course you can!” Gatsby’s impoverished past motivates him to break free from the shackles of the low class imposed by the elitist society. He believes by creating a metaphorical façade – “a Platonic conception of himself” – he can rekindle Daisy’s past love. Nick’s first person narration offers insight into the rarity of the transformative power of love in the consumeristic era, “it was an extraordinary gift for hope… such as I have never found in any other person and which is not likely I shall ever find again.” Nick does not ever dismiss Gatsby as misguided – “worth the whole damn bunch put together” – and admires his rejection of the hopeless and nihilistic world in which they live in due to his enormous capacity for love. The extended symbolism of the light at the end of the dock represents the extent of the reach of Gatsby’s dream for love, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us”. Nick’s eulogistic reflection poignantly presents Gatsby as a tragic Promethean hero on quest for love whose rejection of the sense of hopelessness and transitory era eventually conquers him. Clearly, Browning and Fitzgerald elucidate how the notion of one’s search for love can reject and challenge composers’ specific attitudes shaped by their personal circumstances.

Clearly, by cross-contextual examination of Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese as well as Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, what emerges is how an individual challenges or embraces the perceptions on certain notions and attitudes of their context. Through examination of such reactions to context, one discovers how this shapes the portrayal of one’s search for love.

Thank you!