Theme Poem Gatsby
‘Whoso’
(separation, lost, barriers to love, unrequited love, unobtainable love)
Giving up, unrequited ‘I leave off therefore’ ‘clatching at some last hope’
love
Catching unobtainable ‘Sithens in a net I seek to hold the 'it was already behind him’
wind.’
‘Can’t repeat the past?' ‘Why, of
course you can!’
Barriers to love ‘for Caesar's I am’ Gatsby is ‘a common swindler’
compared to Tom
Barriers to love ‘And graven with diamonds’ ‘a string of pearls’
Objectification of ‘the deer’ ‘green light’
women -> to be chased -> not humane
Position of women
Volta After which the speaker finally lets Chapter 7 – hotel: ‘lost voice’
go of their love
Pronoun, selfishness Repetition of ‘I' ‘what happened afterwards to
Position of women me’
‘she lay perfectly still’
‘Song: Absent from thee’
(infidelity, separation, letting go, barriers to love)
Infidelity ‘Absent from thee I languish still’ ‘Once in a while a go on a spree
and make a fool of myself, but I
Semantic field of ‘The torments it deserves to try always come back, and in my
torture, self-abuse That tears my fixed heart from my heart, I love her all the time’
love’ (Tom)
Juxtaposed with
positive description of ‘To thy safe bosom I retire’
woman
‘Faithless to thee, false,
unforgiven’
Images of flying that ‘from thine arms then let me fly’ ‘The voice begged again to go’
connote freedom -> synecdoche
‘short flight around the house’
Tom ‘shut the rear windows …
the two young women ballooned
slowly to the floor’
Contextual similarities Restoration period - liberation Roaring twentieth – after the
war
‘Ae fond’
(separation, idealized love)
Juxtaposition of state ‘nae cheerful twinkle lights me; ‘she came to the window and
with and without the Dark despair around benights me.’ stood there for a minute and
woman then turned out the light’
….later....
‘there was an autumn flavour in
the air’
, Light motif ‘the star of hope she leaves him’ ‘the colossal significance of that
light had now vanished forever’
‘you always have a green light
that burns all night at the end of
your dock’ (p90)
blame ‘I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy’ ‘and suddenly this included
Jordan too’
‘I met another bad driver’
(Nick doomed the relationship)
saying goodbye ‘Ae fareweel, alas, forever!’ ‘Nobody came’ (to the funeral)
-> repetition – masochism? ‘I called up Daisy … but she and
-> falling rhythm Tom had gone away’
‘an awkward, unpleasant thing’
(breaking up with Jordan)
Remember
(separation, position of women, enduring love)
Theme of death ‘Gone far away into the silent ‘her life violently extinguished,
land’ knelt in the road and mingled
-> euphemism her thick blood with the dust’
(p131)
‘It will be late to counsel then or
pray’ ‘God sees everything’
‘Wilson stood there a long time,
his face close to the window
pane, nodding into the twilight’
romantic images ‘When you can no more hold me ‘I want to wait here till Daisy
by the hand’ goes to bed’ (p139)
Barriers to love ‘darkness and corruption’ ‘careless people'
Position of women ‘our future that you planned’ Daisy: ‘Let’s go back, Tom’
Tom: ‘I’ll stay in the East’ ‘I’d be
a God-damned fool to live
anywhere else’
‘She walks in beauty’
(idealised love)
focus on physicality ‘She walks in beauty’ ‘I enjoyed looking at her’
Light motif ‘tender light’ ‘the lamplight … dull on the
autumn-leaf yellow oh her hair’
ideas about ‘thoughts serenely sweet express ‘that’s the best thing a girl can
intelligence how pure, how dear their be in this world, a beautiful little
dwelling-place’ fool’ (p22)
-> absolute language
better than everyone ‘But tell of days in goodness spent, ‘Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe
else A mind at peace with all below,’ and proud above the hot
struggle of the poor’
‘contemptuously'
innocence ‘whose love is innocent!’ ‘both in white’
‘Whoso’
(separation, lost, barriers to love, unrequited love, unobtainable love)
Giving up, unrequited ‘I leave off therefore’ ‘clatching at some last hope’
love
Catching unobtainable ‘Sithens in a net I seek to hold the 'it was already behind him’
wind.’
‘Can’t repeat the past?' ‘Why, of
course you can!’
Barriers to love ‘for Caesar's I am’ Gatsby is ‘a common swindler’
compared to Tom
Barriers to love ‘And graven with diamonds’ ‘a string of pearls’
Objectification of ‘the deer’ ‘green light’
women -> to be chased -> not humane
Position of women
Volta After which the speaker finally lets Chapter 7 – hotel: ‘lost voice’
go of their love
Pronoun, selfishness Repetition of ‘I' ‘what happened afterwards to
Position of women me’
‘she lay perfectly still’
‘Song: Absent from thee’
(infidelity, separation, letting go, barriers to love)
Infidelity ‘Absent from thee I languish still’ ‘Once in a while a go on a spree
and make a fool of myself, but I
Semantic field of ‘The torments it deserves to try always come back, and in my
torture, self-abuse That tears my fixed heart from my heart, I love her all the time’
love’ (Tom)
Juxtaposed with
positive description of ‘To thy safe bosom I retire’
woman
‘Faithless to thee, false,
unforgiven’
Images of flying that ‘from thine arms then let me fly’ ‘The voice begged again to go’
connote freedom -> synecdoche
‘short flight around the house’
Tom ‘shut the rear windows …
the two young women ballooned
slowly to the floor’
Contextual similarities Restoration period - liberation Roaring twentieth – after the
war
‘Ae fond’
(separation, idealized love)
Juxtaposition of state ‘nae cheerful twinkle lights me; ‘she came to the window and
with and without the Dark despair around benights me.’ stood there for a minute and
woman then turned out the light’
….later....
‘there was an autumn flavour in
the air’
, Light motif ‘the star of hope she leaves him’ ‘the colossal significance of that
light had now vanished forever’
‘you always have a green light
that burns all night at the end of
your dock’ (p90)
blame ‘I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy’ ‘and suddenly this included
Jordan too’
‘I met another bad driver’
(Nick doomed the relationship)
saying goodbye ‘Ae fareweel, alas, forever!’ ‘Nobody came’ (to the funeral)
-> repetition – masochism? ‘I called up Daisy … but she and
-> falling rhythm Tom had gone away’
‘an awkward, unpleasant thing’
(breaking up with Jordan)
Remember
(separation, position of women, enduring love)
Theme of death ‘Gone far away into the silent ‘her life violently extinguished,
land’ knelt in the road and mingled
-> euphemism her thick blood with the dust’
(p131)
‘It will be late to counsel then or
pray’ ‘God sees everything’
‘Wilson stood there a long time,
his face close to the window
pane, nodding into the twilight’
romantic images ‘When you can no more hold me ‘I want to wait here till Daisy
by the hand’ goes to bed’ (p139)
Barriers to love ‘darkness and corruption’ ‘careless people'
Position of women ‘our future that you planned’ Daisy: ‘Let’s go back, Tom’
Tom: ‘I’ll stay in the East’ ‘I’d be
a God-damned fool to live
anywhere else’
‘She walks in beauty’
(idealised love)
focus on physicality ‘She walks in beauty’ ‘I enjoyed looking at her’
Light motif ‘tender light’ ‘the lamplight … dull on the
autumn-leaf yellow oh her hair’
ideas about ‘thoughts serenely sweet express ‘that’s the best thing a girl can
intelligence how pure, how dear their be in this world, a beautiful little
dwelling-place’ fool’ (p22)
-> absolute language
better than everyone ‘But tell of days in goodness spent, ‘Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe
else A mind at peace with all below,’ and proud above the hot
struggle of the poor’
‘contemptuously'
innocence ‘whose love is innocent!’ ‘both in white’
