Love and Marriage

Question 1

The Scrutiny and Gatsby: main point of comparison

Answer 1

• in both poems, infidelity is used to present marriage as essentially meaningless - dispelling myth of the sanctity of marriage
• in absent from thee this is primarily due to male selfishness, whereas in Gatsby it is a product of consumerism

Question 2

The Scrutiny and Gatbsy:
the scrutiny

Answer 2

• Semantic field of promises ironically suggests his distaste/aversion to marriage and vows and his noncommittal nature
• He rejects the idea of the sanctity of the marriage union, suggesting that men need variety and monogamy is limiting
• ‘I must search the black and fair’ - manipulative attitude, with modal verb ‘must’ suggesting duty and arrogance
• ‘I must all other beauties wrong’ - shallow, superficial objectification

Question 3

The Scrutiny and Gatsby

Answer 3

• marriage is made meaningless by infidelity
• ‘the candles were lit again, pointlessly’ - this shift from the natural light of sunshine to artificial light from candles reflects how after realising the lack of substance in Daisy and Tom’s marriage Nick’s romantic views are shattered - myth of marriage is dispelled as we realise their relationship is unhappy
• ‘walking through her husband as if he were a ghost’ - dispels myth of marriage, disregarding George for Tom
• ‘neither of them can stand the person they’re married to’ - marriage isn’t the spiritual connection that Shakespeare claims it is
• ‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman… I thought he knew something about breeding but he wasn’t;t fit to lick my shoe… I knew right away I made a mistake. he borrowed somebody else’s best suit to get married in’ - the use of syntax here presents her as active in contrast with passive daisy - she has a completely materialistic perception of George - thus Fitzgerald connects the loss of true love in marriage to the consumerist culture of America
• '’You can’t live forever, you can’t live forever’ - selfish hedonism- links to carpe diem of the Scrutiny
• ‘every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived… every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of purples halves’ - excessive consumerism
• ‘I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes’ - commercialised love
• ‘the transition from libertine to prig was so complete’ - moral decay of America, subverts America dream

Question 4

The Scrutiny and Sonnet 116 - main point of comparison

Answer 4

• marriage is a genuine bond between lovers versus a source of entrapment

Question 5

the Scrutiny and Sonnet 116 - the scrutiny

Answer 5

• the speaker has a voice of a libidinous lothario, a man who behaves selfishly and irresponsibly in his behaviour with women
• fidelity is tedious: ‘ a tedious twelve hours space’ alliteration conveys frustration
• ‘like skilful mineralists that sound for treasure in unploughed up ground’ - use of sibilance makes him appear cunning and sinister and the image of farming creates an image of exploitation - colonial approach to land and women
• ‘spoils of meaner beauties crowned’ - spoils = rewards from war, verb crowned presents sex as a conquest, and himself as royal and self-important - robs her of her virginity but also her social status

Question 6

The Scrutiny and Sonnet 116: Sonnet 116

Answer 6

‘the marriage of true mindes’ -

Question 7

Sonnet 116 and Gatsby: main point of comparison

Answer 7

• sonnet 116 presents an ideal marriage, which is the one Gatsby imagines he would have with Daisy
• in reality for Gatsby, marriages are merely about convenience and appearances
• in sonnet 116 the love presented is everlasting - just like Gatsby’s desire to be with daisy which exists outside of marriage

Question 8

sonnet 116 and Gatsby: sonnet 116

Answer 8

-‘love is not love which alters… or bends…’ love is presented as everlasting and eternal
- ‘