Lit crit- The Great Gatsby

Question 1

Ralph Coghlan

Answer 1

1925
Narrator’s voice is ‘bored, tired and cynical’
Iaconic mood focuses on superficiality of the roaring twenties.

Question 2

TIME Magazine

Answer 2

1925
‘Gatsby remained Daisy’s incorruptible dream’
Plight of women, when Tom pursued his ‘incorruptible dream’ (Myrtle), nothing happened, but with Daisy, leads to corruption.

Question 3

Harold Bloom

Answer 3

2010
‘His death preserves his greatness and justifies the title of his story, that is anything but ironic’
Death of naive optimism.

Question 4

Sarah Beebe Fryer

Answer 4

1988
‘Her fear of emotions and her need for stability makes her cling to her unsatisfactory marriage to Tom’
Plight of women
Daisy ‘deserves more pity than blame’

Question 5

John Callahan

Answer 5

1996
‘For each man, Daisy is a possession; for Buchanan material, for Gatsby ideal’
Gatsby in love with the idea of her, not actually her. Fitzgerald commenting on the superficiality of human relationships.

Question 6

Thomas Boyle

Answer 6

1969
‘His silence has an important bearing on the events of the novel: it results in Gatsby’s murder and Wilson’s suicide’
Nick’s presence acts as a catalyst, without him, Daisy and Gatsby would have never met.

Question 7

What play can The Great Gatsby be compared to?

Answer 7

Aristotelian tragedy ‘Romeo and Juliet’
Both have a focus on time, Gatsby wants to change the past, Daisy’s current love for him isn’t enough.
But Romeo and Juliet want to extend the present.