3322222
The Explicator, Vol. 68, No. 2, 119–121, 2010
Copyright C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0014-4940 print / 1939-926X online
DOI: 10.1080/00144941003723873
THOMAS DILWORTH
University of Windsor
The Passion of Gatsby: Evocation of Jesus in Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY
Keywords: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Passion
Douglas Taylor was the first to explore at length Gatsby’s symbolic identification with Jesus, and other interpreters have noted it, including Robert Emmitt, who sees Gatsby as being informed by the archetype of the dying god. These and other interpreters have noticed evocations of the Passion of Christ near the conclusion of the novel. There, Gatsby evokes Jesus carrying his cross. On the last day of his life,
Gatsby went from his house to its garage, picked up an inflated air mattress, and
“shouldered” it (128)—not the usual way to carry an air mattress. This alone might not recall conventional depictions of Jesus carrying his cross over one shoulder, but Gatsby is about to die on this air mattress.1 The association is strengthened by what happens next. On his way to his swimming pool, “he stopped and shifted it a little, and the chauffeur asked him if he needed help, but he shook his head” (128).
The chauffeur is a would-be Simon of Cyrene, who, for a while, carries Jesus’s cross for him (Matt. 27.32). After his death, moreover, as the air mattress revolves slowly, Gatsby’s blood flows into the water of the swimming pool, making “a thin red circle in the water” (129). This mixture of blood and water may evoke, as
Taylor suggests (37), the “blood and water” flowing from the side of Jesus after he was pierced in the side by a spear (John 19.34).
The ironically cushy, “pneumatic mattress” symbolizes the inflated, airy, or spiritual romanticism which gets Gatsby killed (128). It is what motivates him to keep Daisy’s secret about her accidentally killing Myrtle Wilson. The same romantic love keeps him awake the night
Copyright C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0014-4940 print / 1939-926X online
DOI: 10.1080/00144941003723873
THOMAS DILWORTH
University of Windsor
The Passion of Gatsby: Evocation of Jesus in Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY
Keywords: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Passion
Douglas Taylor was the first to explore at length Gatsby’s symbolic identification with Jesus, and other interpreters have noted it, including Robert Emmitt, who sees Gatsby as being informed by the archetype of the dying god. These and other interpreters have noticed evocations of the Passion of Christ near the conclusion of the novel. There, Gatsby evokes Jesus carrying his cross. On the last day of his life,
Gatsby went from his house to its garage, picked up an inflated air mattress, and
“shouldered” it (128)—not the usual way to carry an air mattress. This alone might not recall conventional depictions of Jesus carrying his cross over one shoulder, but Gatsby is about to die on this air mattress.1 The association is strengthened by what happens next. On his way to his swimming pool, “he stopped and shifted it a little, and the chauffeur asked him if he needed help, but he shook his head” (128).
The chauffeur is a would-be Simon of Cyrene, who, for a while, carries Jesus’s cross for him (Matt. 27.32). After his death, moreover, as the air mattress revolves slowly, Gatsby’s blood flows into the water of the swimming pool, making “a thin red circle in the water” (129). This mixture of blood and water may evoke, as
Taylor suggests (37), the “blood and water” flowing from the side of Jesus after he was pierced in the side by a spear (John 19.34).
The ironically cushy, “pneumatic mattress” symbolizes the inflated, airy, or spiritual romanticism which gets Gatsby killed (128). It is what motivates him to keep Daisy’s secret about her accidentally killing Myrtle Wilson. The same romantic love keeps him awake the night
Cited: The Bible. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991. Christensen, Bryce J. “The Mystery of Ungodliness: Renan’s Life of Jesus as a Subtext for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.” Christianity and Literature 36:1 (1986), 15–23 25 Jan. 2010. Bowling Green: Bowling Green UP, 1976. 273–89. Print. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Oxford UP, 1998. Print. Taylor, Douglas. “The Great Gatsby: Style and Myth.” University of Kansas City Review 20 (1953), 30–40