Texts_in_Time

Compare how these texts explore dreams and the world. The two texts Elizabeth Browning’s poetry and ‘The Great Gatsby’ explore dreams and the world through the themes: idealized love, the American dream and hope. Contrast is seen in these two texts as ‘The Great Gatsby’ shows the corruption and wreckage of broken dreams while Browning explores a love so pure and perfect it sustains her every need and dreams. ‘The Great Gatsby’ shows the theme of idealized love through the main character Jay Gatsby. He presents a pure and deeply emotional love for Daisy and dreams about being with her. This love is what motivates Gatsby’s very actions and character. Gatsby created an identity cased on lies hoping that this will win the affections of Daisy. Through the use of first person Nick says “He quickly said educated at Oxford…or chocked on it like it had bothered him before.” His love for Daisy is symbolized through the green light at the end of his pier. This green light shows Gatsby that his dreams are being with Daisy are within reach presenting hope for not only Gatsby but for the world, so transfixed on the American dream of wealth and social status. Gatsby’s pure dream is juxtaposed to the corruption and decay of dreams focused on materialism. Sonnet I by Browning presents her dreams of escaping from the world of “The Sweet sad years, the melancholy years” of her past. She finds her escape through love, a love that is pure and perfect. Through the use of imagery this love is expressed as “a mythic shape” using symbolism to describe that it was sudden and unchangeable. Through the use of metaphor Browning emphasises the darkness and sadness of her past life. “…who by turns had flung a shadow across me” a shadow of melancholy. The climax of the sonnet is the last lines where the change in tone suggests hope. ‘Guess now who holds thee' ‘Death’ I said. But there the silver answer rang, ‘Dot Death, but Love.’ This metaphor then emphasises the sudden change to her life as her world is changed centered on this love. Unlike Browning Gatsby does not see his dreams fulfilled like many others in his world due to the American dream. Daisy is an example of the corruption of this dream. She cannot see past herself and her materialistic obsessions. She does not even care for her child who she wanted to be a boy. She did not love Gatsby as he loved her and was in fact in love with the materialistic gain he presented. She did love him in the past when they first met but that love is gone symbolizing that it couldn’t have been pure. This juxtaposition is viewed in ‘The Great Gatsby’ to present that a love as pure as Gatsby’s could not survive in a world so corrupted by the American dream. Contrasted to this is Browning’s poetry as her dreams have been achieved and she is happy with the way this love has lead her life giving herself completely to it. This is shown in the last sonnet XLIII. Browning shows in this sonnet that she has given herself entirely to her fiancé symbolizing that she loves him as much as humanly possible. “I love thee…All my life!” The exclamation mark emphasises her finality and her happiness this love has given her. This sonnet is written in the form of list highlights just some of the ways this love has made her dreams come true and truly given her immense happiness. “How do I love thee' Let me count the ways” Repetition of the word ‘and’ in this sonnet represents her everlasting love which will sustain her even after death emphasising its future. This perfect love, the fulfillment of dreams and this blissful new outlook on life is contrasted to ‘The Great Gatsby’. In ‘The Great Gatsby’ the corruption of the American dream is symbolized through the valley of ashes. Imagery used in the line “ashes growing like wheat, rising to form grotesque gardens and hills” is used to represent the fake dreams of wealth and social status contrasted to the pure and perfect love Browning has. The victims of these false dreams are the Wilson’s who live there. These two texts express the themes of love and hope contrasting to the dreams of pure and perfect love to the hopelessness waste of the American dream. These two different worlds also contrast one showing happiness and the joy love brings and the other showing the corruption and unfulfilled dreams that will never be achieved.