Compare how ideas about enduring love are presented in two texts you have studied
Although enduring love is typically seen as essential for happiness in relationships, the idea
that such continual and inescapable feelings are actually painful for lovers is conveyed in
these texts. Perhaps the connotations of enduring love are therefore subverted, leaving
lovers with intense feelings of sadness.
Enduring love is shown to cause great melancholy to lovers when time passes in
relationships but powerful feelings fail to change. In the Great Gatsby, Gatsby is presented
as trapped by feelings of love for Daisy, desperately spending the last five years making
pitiful efforts to win her love back. Fitzgerald suggests that the feelings that arose within
Gatsby in their ‘month of love’ have become so strong that he is unable to leave their
relationship in the past. The imagery of Tom and Daisy ‘conspiring together’ unites them as
a couple, leaving Gatsby ‘watching over nothing’. Perhaps this conveys the futility of his
entire ‘quest’- a futility that he himself is desperate not to recognise. The speaker in The
Garden of Love is comparatively able to ‘see’ that the nature of their love has changed.
Arguably their love is not as powerfully enduring as Gatsby’s, as yet the pathos created by
Blake is indicative of remaining feelings of love, despite acknowledging ‘what I never had
seen’. The description of the ‘graves and tomb-stones where flowers should be’ is symbolic
of the death of this innocence, suggesting that love’s endurance had altered the experience
of love for the speaker who is now unable to see it in the same naive light that Gatsby clings
onto. Fitzgerald’s text is similarly littered with imagery of death, and when Gatsby is
confronted with reality in the form of ‘Tom’s hard malice’, the nature of the enduring love is
powerfully conveyed. Fitzgerald personifies the love as a ‘Dead dream’ which ‘fought on,
struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice’. As such the life of the ‘dream’
prevails despite its futility, suggesting that such strong enduring love cannot simply be
forgotten when faced with reality. Arguably then enduring love is powerful and extreme,
metaphorically fighting on despite the changing circumstances of love.
The impact of such enduring love is shown to be overwhelmingly painful for lovers. In Non
Sum Qualis, the speaker desperately attempts to escape their feelings of love as ‘I cried for
madder music and for stronger wine’, conveying a sense of mania, also portrayed through
the quick pace and exclamatory tone. Indeed, the poem is frequently interrupted by the
refrain ‘Cynata!’, who is therefore seen as an intruding presence that the speaker attempts to
drown out with ‘music’ and ‘wine’. Although Gatsby doesn’t allow himself to reach this sense
of desperation, the mania conveyed by Dowson can be likened to that experienced by
Gatsby. For the reader, the futility of his love is clear and yet he holds onto the absurd hope
that you can ‘of course’ ‘repeat the past’. Fitzgerald conveys some pathos for Gatsby’s
character, suggesting that this enduring love has been painful for him. He dies with the hope
that ‘Daisy’ll call too’, conveying a sense of sadness of his character whose powerfully
enduring love has ultimately led to his destruction. Nick speculates that in this moment he
realised ‘what a grotesque thing a rose is’, portraying a final recognition that his love was
destined to fail from the start. This leaves readers to speculate on the pain experienced by
Gatsby in this moment whose enduring love has built up to a bitter ending. Dowson
describes how his speaker was ‘desolate and sick of an old passion’, emphasising the pain
that accompanies enduring love.
Although enduring love is typically seen as essential for happiness in relationships, the idea
that such continual and inescapable feelings are actually painful for lovers is conveyed in
these texts. Perhaps the connotations of enduring love are therefore subverted, leaving
lovers with intense feelings of sadness.
Enduring love is shown to cause great melancholy to lovers when time passes in
relationships but powerful feelings fail to change. In the Great Gatsby, Gatsby is presented
as trapped by feelings of love for Daisy, desperately spending the last five years making
pitiful efforts to win her love back. Fitzgerald suggests that the feelings that arose within
Gatsby in their ‘month of love’ have become so strong that he is unable to leave their
relationship in the past. The imagery of Tom and Daisy ‘conspiring together’ unites them as
a couple, leaving Gatsby ‘watching over nothing’. Perhaps this conveys the futility of his
entire ‘quest’- a futility that he himself is desperate not to recognise. The speaker in The
Garden of Love is comparatively able to ‘see’ that the nature of their love has changed.
Arguably their love is not as powerfully enduring as Gatsby’s, as yet the pathos created by
Blake is indicative of remaining feelings of love, despite acknowledging ‘what I never had
seen’. The description of the ‘graves and tomb-stones where flowers should be’ is symbolic
of the death of this innocence, suggesting that love’s endurance had altered the experience
of love for the speaker who is now unable to see it in the same naive light that Gatsby clings
onto. Fitzgerald’s text is similarly littered with imagery of death, and when Gatsby is
confronted with reality in the form of ‘Tom’s hard malice’, the nature of the enduring love is
powerfully conveyed. Fitzgerald personifies the love as a ‘Dead dream’ which ‘fought on,
struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice’. As such the life of the ‘dream’
prevails despite its futility, suggesting that such strong enduring love cannot simply be
forgotten when faced with reality. Arguably then enduring love is powerful and extreme,
metaphorically fighting on despite the changing circumstances of love.
The impact of such enduring love is shown to be overwhelmingly painful for lovers. In Non
Sum Qualis, the speaker desperately attempts to escape their feelings of love as ‘I cried for
madder music and for stronger wine’, conveying a sense of mania, also portrayed through
the quick pace and exclamatory tone. Indeed, the poem is frequently interrupted by the
refrain ‘Cynata!’, who is therefore seen as an intruding presence that the speaker attempts to
drown out with ‘music’ and ‘wine’. Although Gatsby doesn’t allow himself to reach this sense
of desperation, the mania conveyed by Dowson can be likened to that experienced by
Gatsby. For the reader, the futility of his love is clear and yet he holds onto the absurd hope
that you can ‘of course’ ‘repeat the past’. Fitzgerald conveys some pathos for Gatsby’s
character, suggesting that this enduring love has been painful for him. He dies with the hope
that ‘Daisy’ll call too’, conveying a sense of sadness of his character whose powerfully
enduring love has ultimately led to his destruction. Nick speculates that in this moment he
realised ‘what a grotesque thing a rose is’, portraying a final recognition that his love was
destined to fail from the start. This leaves readers to speculate on the pain experienced by
Gatsby in this moment whose enduring love has built up to a bitter ending. Dowson
describes how his speaker was ‘desolate and sick of an old passion’, emphasising the pain
that accompanies enduring love.
