How does the The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and The Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning reflect the human desire for the pursuit of perfection?

Answer 1

Literary texts often deal with the human condition, capturing the experiences that people go through regardless of their backgrounds. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s and The Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the 19th century are both about the human desire to strive towards what we define as perfection. While Gatsby becomes a businessman to pursue his ideal hedonistic lifestyle, Browning builds a romantic relationship with Robert to liberate herself from her past sorrows. Although the two tests are very different in nature, it is evident that the idea of the pursuit of perfection being a trans formative experience is embedded into these two tests where both protagonists undergo great change when they improve their lives.

In The Great Gatsby, we learn about the human desire to pursue perfection to improve our state of living. Although Gatsby is introduced to us as one of the wealthiest men in America, it is revealed that Gatsby was originally from a working-class background with descriptions of his teenage days as a "clam-digger". Fitzgerald gives James Gatz the name "Jay Gatsby" for the new identity that Gatsby creates for himself as well as the title "the son of God" to capture his desire to change his socio-economical status. The phrase "son of God" particularly brings the impression that Gatsby wants to become perfect and deity-like in the future where he has the money and social influence to do and buy anything that he wants in society. The imageries of what Gatsby owns later in his life such as his "hydroplane" and his "Rolls-Royce" juxtapose with his harsh childhood experience and emphasizes how his pursuit of wealth changes his quality of life, where he gets to live the hedonistic lifestyle of his dreams. By mentioning location names, we know that Gatsby moved from "Detroit", an area where the working-class lives, to "East Egg", one of the most expensive districts of New York. This reveals that Gatsby's desire to become "the son of God" successfully allows him to improve himself, a trans formative experience which liberates him from poverty.

In the meantime, Gatsby's obsession with Daisy illustrates that we may desire to become perfect in order to impress someone we love. In fact, Daisy herself can be interpreted as a symbol for perfection as Fitzgerald describes her with the adjective "perfect". Gatsby's action of buying a "mansion in East Egg" symbolizes his obsession with pursuing Daisy, where he is willing to invest millions of dollars to move near the girl of his dreams. With the imagery of an "enormous garden" and an orchestra that is "no thin five-piece affair" in his "dazzling parties", Fitzgerald captures Gatsby's desire to win Daisy's love. Gatsby's love for Daisy is one that drives him to pursue material wealth, and we understand that the human condition of falling in love is one that can motivate us to create a perfect image for ourselves.

Similar to The Great Gatsby, we can see that Browning strives to improve her own life in The Sonnets from the Portuguese yet in a manner which is not as extreme as Gatsby. Browning's idea of perfection can be interpreted as liberating herself from the sorrow she faced earlier on in her life, which is similar to Gatsby's desire to change his socio-economical status. By describing her past years as "sweet", "sad" and "melancholy", Sonnet 1 allows us to form the impression that while she looks at her past with nostalgia, the miseries from the past continues to bother her by inflicting emotion harm on her. Elizabeth's desire to be with Robert is one that enables her to be free from her past sorrows. With the arrival of spring, a season where life flourishes, Elizabeth justifies her call to hear "I love you" from Robert in Sonnet 21. This allows us to associate her relationship with Robert as one which brings positive changes into her life. By including imageries of spring such as a "valley" and a "wood without her cuckoo-strain", Browning gives her sonnet a sense of hope and joy and we link this with her being happy about her relationship with Robert, where he provides her with love and companionship. As readers, we understand that Elizabeth's pursuit of a relationship with a partner which she sees as perfect-like is a transformative experience, one that improves her quality of life similar to Gatsby's pursuit of wealth and status.

However, The Sonnets from the Portuguese are very different from The Great Gatsby as Elizabeth is willing to give up perfection just to be with the one she loves. The imageries of "angels" and "two souls standing up erect and strong" in Sonnet 22 remind us that the sonnets are composed in an era where people strongly adhered to religious beliefs where they believe that followers of God can go to heaven after they pass away, a perfect place which is free of sin and suffering. The adjective of the orb being "golden and the angels' song being "perfect" further emphasizes that the heaven is viewed as a flawless place of purity by believers. However, this is immediately juxtaposed with Elizabeth's statement of "let us stay rather on earth, Beloved". Readers of the 19th century would be surprised that she chooses to reject heaven just to be with Robert. The imagery of "darkness rounding [their time together]" further points out that she is sacrificing an eternal afterlife for a brief time on earth with her lover as she believes that their love must be experienced in the mortal world. With Elizabeth's rejection of heaven, we understand that love can be more important than our pursuit of perfection at times, where we are willing to make sacrifices just to be happy together with our dearest ones.

As contemporary readers, we see the pursuit of perfection as a transformative force where Elizabeth and Gatsby undergo great changes when they strive to improve their own lives. While Gatsby becomes one of the wealthiest men in his country, Elizabeth finds love and companionship. However, a fundamental difference between the two texts is that while Gatsby strives towards creating a perfect image of himself as a millionaire to impress Daisy, Elizabeth deliberately chooses to reject the idea of going to heaven just to be with Robert in a physically intimate manner. Both of the two texts are composed in different contexts, yet both allow us to learn that humans often desire to change their own lives in a positive manner. In the meantime, we understand that love may play a greater role in our lives. While some may want to create a perfect image of oneself to win over a lover's affection, others may sacrifice eternal afterlife to be with a loved one in a physically close manner. This just goes to illustrate that the human experience of being motivated to improve oneself and pursuing love seems universal to us all. It is this universal nature of the human experience which enables literature to be timeless, where they can transcend their original contexts and appeal to audiences from different backgrounds.

Answer 2

Both "The Great Gatsby" and "The Sonnets from the Portuguese" explore the theme of striving for an ideal, whether it be wealth and social status in Gatsby or love and spiritual connection in the Sonnets. Both works depict characters who are driven by a desire to achieve perfection in their pursuits, ultimately leading to both fulfillment and disillusionment as they confront the limitations of their aspirations.