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Comparative study : 'The Great Gatsby' and 'sonnets from the portugese.'

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Comparative study : 'The Great Gatsby' and 'sonnets from the portugese.'
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2014
Love is a significantly powerful emotion which has the ability to positively transform a life, but also the ability to possess, and destroy lives. Many different concepts of love have been expressed in texts, throughout history, and have been influenced by divergent contextual values appropriate to the time, in which the text was written. Through the comparative study of the 1925 novel, ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 1845 ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese,’ HSC students are provided with varying concepts of love in dissimilar contexts through the use of narrative and poetic techniques, thus resulting in an enhanced appreciation of each text.
The themes and values portrayed in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ are appreciably influenced by various traditions and trends of the ‘Roaring 20s’ including modernism, consumerism and idealism based on the concept of the ‘American Dream.’ Through the narration of an ‘objective’ young man Nick Caraway; ‘The Great Gatsby’ depicts the strong rejection of moral and spiritual values during the 1920s. Fitzgerald uses his characters to divulge an attitude, by portraying the characters as superficial and materialistic, hiding behind a veneer of beauty but lacking substance, as a reflection of society of the 1920s. Elizabeth Barrett Browning conveys love within her poetry which is viewed as pure, and transcendent. Barrett- Browning’s ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese,’ reject the traditional conventions of the Victorian Era. The sonnets, written during the courtship

Sarah Walliss between Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, demonstrate Barrett Browning’s denunciation of the Patriarchal values of the time and portrays women with the ability to possess passionate emotions, rather than to exist only as objects of affection. An understanding of the contexts of each composer gives HSC students a greater appreciation of each text.
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