A study of Gatsby & Barrett Browning illustrates the timeless nature of obsession.

Many values and themes explored in literature are timeless in nature, with the
ability to speak and touch different audiences, regardless of their own historical time
period. This holds true for the texts The Great Gatsby (1926, F. Scott Fitzgerald) and
Sonnets from the Portuguese (Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1850), as they both examine
the enduring nature of obsession. Obsession is abundant in both texts, whether it is
an obsession or love for a person, a pursuit of a dream, or sometimes even the
pursuit of a superficial material security. Even though the texts were composed in
completely different historical contexts and in completely different textual forms,
they both help in illustrating the everlasting nature of obsession.
The entire of Fitzgeralds American classic is based on the love of his protagonist for
an unattainable object of feminine desire and his almost fanatic preoccupation with
her. Fitzgeralds hero, Gatsby, obsesses and dreams over Daisy for five long years,
even when confronted with the stifling materialism and shallowness of the 1920s
Jazz Age that Fitzgerald was so concerned about. Instead of following the mantra
that he who dies with the most toys wins, Gatsbys entire life is centered around
the following of a grail, a green light that acts as a metaphor for Daisy. Fitzgerald
establishes Gatsbys obsession through his portrayal of him as a Promethean hero
(Prometheus was a Greek titan punished for stealing fire from the Gods for the
common people). The Promethean impulse of Gatsby, the instinctual need to
overcome insurmountable opposition and certain failure, can be seen from an
ordinary perspective as being nave, puerile and irrational, but from Fitzgeralds
and inevitably Nicks he is shown to be admired, as he does not allow the sense of
futility to overcome his necessity to struggle. This perpetual reaching for Daisy can
be seen through the gesture and image: he stretched out his arms toward the dark
water in a curious way. Shows his obsession with Daisy, as even though he is cut off
by dark water representative of the constraints that he faced he is still following
his quest for love. His almost fanatical devotion to Daisy is epitomized by his
comments of incredulity to Nick when Nick remarks that You cant repeat the past.
Instead of accepting reality, Gatsbys enduring love for Daisy, his romantic
readiness, forces him to ignore the obvious, instead reiterating and reinforcing his
obsession with obtaining Daisy: Cant repeat the past? Why of course you can!
Fitzgerald is able to show how timeless and persistent Gatsbys love is for Daisy, as
even after five years, Gatsby still hopes to be able to be able to achieve what has
shown to be impossible in the Jazz Age of New York, as Daisy prefers her financial
and material security to the love of Gatsby.
Fitzgeralds concern with the values of his 1920s world resonates throughout the
novel, however, he is careful to also depict the seductive nature of the Jazz Age and
the prosperity that accompanied the Roaring Twenties as it was so often referred
to. He does so through the literary mouthpiece of Nick Carraway, the narrator of
the novel. Much like Marlowe in Heart of Darkness, Nick is an observer to the events
of the summer in New York and West Egg, and as such, gives a highly personal and

opiniated recount. Nick shows the obsession that society held with attaining
material assets through his own enamored state, as he uses a combination of bright,
glowing imagery and lyrical descriptions to depict his fascination with the twilight
world of New York. A key example of this description is his picturesque portrait of
Gatsbys party: By seven oclock the orchestra has arrived verandas are gaudy
with primary colours, and hair bobbed in strange new ways, and shawls beyond the
dreams of Castile. Here, Fitzgerald and in effect, Nick sustains the present tense
to create a sense of the perpetual nature of the parties, showing his seduction and
obsession with the glittering world of the 1920s. The obsession with the material,
caused by the prosperity of the share market and economic boom of the post war
United States, is depicted in Fitzgeralds novel, as he exemplifies several characters
which he holds an unadorned scorn for as being representative of the superficiality
that distinguished the age. Daisy is one of these characters, as she cries stormily at
the sight of such beautiful shirts, instead of letting her emotions be shown for
Gatsby. The polsyndeton used to describe the shirts: shirts with stripes and scrolls
and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange shows this
material excess and decadence that Daisy has become obsessed with.