Most texts reflect a complex and uneasy relationship with

the values of their time

Compare texts and relationship to their context.
Elizabeth Barrett Brownings Sonnets from the Portuguese and
Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby both explore the concepts of hope
and spiritual love in regards to their own individual contexts both
complying with and subverting expected values.
Hope
Brownings subversion of the archetypal Petrarchan sonnet reverses
the conventional objectification of love and the idealisation of the
perfected female form through a male voice. EBBs female
perspective hopes for a deep love not founded on external
attributes that could easily be unwrought rather a love for loves
sake only. The technique of listing the typical qualities that were
often valued during courtly love in the words of a male I love her
for her smile adds immediacy to the idea and animates the
speakers request that such attributes not be admitted. This
negation of the Petrarchan form contradicts the Victorian view of
courtly love a concept popularised by C.S Lewis and rather places
the female at the centre of conscious feeling and action and
adheres to the empowerment of womens rights in love.
EBBs hope for an honest, unaffected love is distinctly different from
the basis of Gatsbys hope, an unattainable desire for Daisy
Buchanan that he pursues with such a passionate zeal that he is
blinded to her limitations. Unlike EBBs hope for a wholesome love
based purely on the act of loving, Gatsbys attraction to Daisy
parallels his hope of acquiring wealth and fulfilling the American
Dream.
Daisy embodies sophistication, affluence and charm and this is
everything that Gatsby hoped to achieve exposing the theatrical
quality of his life, emphasised in the novel through delayed
character revelation. The fabrication of his unachievable hope is so
idealistic that even Daisy the subject of his desire falls short of it.
Through the symbolism of the green light and the way that the
narrative voice Nick Carraway could have sworn he was trembling
as Gatsby stretched out his arms towards the dark water in a
curious way we are made aware of the intensity of his hope and the
fore coming destruction that will eventuate when it is not fulfilled.
Gatsbys hope and view of ideal love is distinctly different from
EBBs as it is based on superficial qualities typical of his consumerist
and hedonistic context.

Spiritual love
The concept of religious love is closely examined within both the
sonnets and Gatsby as the sonnets explore the tension between
raw, earthly love and its religious quality while Gatsby reveals the
inability to achieve a transcendent love in an increasingly secular
and demoralized world. The juxtaposition between earthly and
eternal love in the sonnets is revealed through the sublime imagery
of the two souls standing erect and strong echoing the
metaphysical poetry of Donne drawing nigher and nigher before
the angels would press on them. This image of rapture before
oppression by the angels is a confrontation typical of Brownings
Victorian context as the matter of faith and doubt was prevalent
during this era. The resolution in the sestet of let us stay on earth
reveals that although EBB desires an eternal love she is aware of the
necessity that it be experienced in their present life.
In 1920s America the secularization of love restricted it to an object
rather than a spiritual experience and resulted in transitory
attraction rather than the everlasting commitment that is evident in
the sonnets. The moral decay of society is manifested in the valley
of ashes whereby the eyes of Dr Echleburg a symbol of God look
down upon the careless society in judgement. Gatsbys love is
inferred as possessing a religious quality through committing
himself to the following of a grail and feeling wed to Daisys
perishable breath. Daisy unlike EBB cannot present Gatsby with
the undying love that he desires essentially leaving him watching
over nothing. She fails to recognize the concept of eternal love
stating I love you now- Isnt that enough? Daisys transitory
understanding of love is typical of her context, which was devoid of
loves sanctity.
Female voice
The sonnets are written through EBBs personal voice allowing for
reflections seen through the use of syntax and rhetoric. Like the
sonnets Nicks narration is reflective, however, in the form of a novel
this is revealed through retrospection. EBB is strong in her
understanding of Victorian society, however, Nick is both within
and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the
inexhaustible variety of life. He is a person of traditional moral
values and was used specifically by Fitzgerald to critique the
abhorrent indulgence of the 1920s.

EBBs sonnets reject the conventional Petrarchan form and reveal a

strong female voice in a patriarchal society while also revealing the
questions of faith and doubt typical of her Victorian context through
juxtaposition of earthly and eternal love. The Great Gatsby critiques
its 1920s American context through the inability to attain a spiritual
love and the eradication of the fulfilment of hope. Both texts
therefore present a complex and uneasy relationship with the values
of their time by both subverting and coinciding with contextual
expectations.

Both Elizabeth Barrett Brownings sonnets and Fitzgeralds The

Great Gatsby explore womanhood in regards to their own individual
contexts. While living in a patriarchal society where women were
often oppressed, EBB was able to defy her context by writing in the
characteristically male genre of the sonnet and her subversion of its
a traditional form. Throughout her sonnets she critiques her
societies subjugation of women and the expectation that they would
love in silence. She ironically states let the silence of my
womanhood commend my woman-love to thy belief. Although she
is stating a womans suppression, her writing about love is
contesting the periods ideals of a woman and their role. EBB
expressed freedom amongst oppression and subverted her societal
expectations.
Daisy Buchannan, however, embodied the 1920s flapper reflecting
the money, superficialities and seduction of the era. Fitzgerald was
able to portray Daisys conformity with her context through the
image of her being buoyed up as though upon an anchored
balloon expressing her lack of substance and her trivial persona
was also exemplified through the use of banal conversation
throughout the novel. Although 1920s America expressed the
individualism of women and their transformation from the Victorian
era into the modern woman, Daisy unlike Barrett Browning was not
free. She conformed completely to her societies expectations and
incarnated an oppressed woman in a free world.
Both texts challenge their contextual values while also submitting to
the ideals or their era through form, characterisation and the
exploration of certain concepts. This represents an increasingly
complex relationship between texts and their context as neither
completely reflect the time and values or subvert them.

Although it is evident that Gatsbys love for daisy possesses a

religious quality, referring to having committed himself to the
following of a grail, he is essentially watching over nothing as
Daisy does not reciprocate this dedication and love. Through the
image of Gatsby feeling wed to Daisys perishable breath it is
evident that their relationship could be no more than transitory due
to Daisys instability and the unfortified basis that his love for her
was built upon. Elizabeth Barrett brownings realistic view that love
while sacred also has to take on an earthy quality is not reflected in
Gatsbys unachievable view of love. He has given their relationship
such divine proportions that even Daisy herself cannot live up to his
idealised view of her. Daisy view of love reflects that of her 1920s
context, one devoid of loves sanctity and based purely upon
superficialities. This is seen through her saying Gatsby always
looked so cool and comparing him to an advertisement. Gatsbys
holy love cannot be achieved in an era characterised by immorality
and superficialities of which Daisy is a product.

Gatsby held an extraordinary gift for hope that

resulted in the fabrication of his idealised and
unattainable love for Daisy Buchannan. His
inextinguishable desire to fulfil the dream of reuniting
with Daisy and rewriting the past is denoted by the
reoccurring reference to the green light. The green
light of Daisy and Tom Buchannans colonial mansion
is symbolic of Gatsbys desires and hopes for the
future. It was by no colossal accident that Gatsbys
house was positioned directly across the sound from
Daisys and as he stretched out his arms towards the
dark water in a curious way we become distinctly
aware that he believed in the green light and it was
his connection to Daisy despite their distance apart.
Gatsbys hope complies with the desires of his context,
to fulfil the idealised American dream of wealth,
pleasures and individual successes which Daisy
Buchannans persona epitomizes.

The octet of the sonnet introduces the tension between eternity and
the material world before being contemplated through rhetoric and
is resolved in the sestet with let us stay rather on earth.

It is also a testimony to their strength of love that it could withstand

the darkness and death that may result from either mortality or
life on earth.
Her sonnets are intensely personal with each succeeding poem
revealing a new perspective on love.
The use of first person the love I bear thee reveals an intimate
experience whereby EBB is inviting the reader to interpret meaning
rather than manipulating their perspective. Gatsby employs Nick
Carraway as a flawed narrator who forces the reader to question the
novels writings on love rather than allowing the reader to infer
meaning.
ElizabethBarrettBrowningsconceptoflovebothcoincideswithandcontestsher
Victoriancontextthroughthetensionbetweenreachinganeternalandelevatedlevel
oflovewhilealsomaintainingtherealismoftheraw,earthlyaspectsoflove.This
tensionisexplicitlyrevealedthroughtheimageoftheirtwosoulsstandingerectand
strong,echoingtheworkofJohnDonneandaplacetostandandlovein,foraday
whichrecogniseslovesrealityandtheearthlyrecognitionthattheyarenotexempt
fromdarknessanddeath.
ItisalsomadeclearthatEBBwantedhersacredlovetoberealonearthandenjoyits
qualitiesbeforedeathtakeshold.Theremarkwhatbitterwrongcanearthdotous
thatwecannotlongbeherecontentedexemplifiesthatBarrettBrowningwantedto
alsoappreciatetheirloveonearthaswellasineternity.Theacknowledgementofthe
spiritualrealmsandthehumancapacitytoreachthislevelofdivinityistypicalofa
romanticidealandstronglycontradictsVictorianrealism.HoweverBrownings
angelicimageoftheloversdrawingsohighthattheybreakintofireshowsher
concernthatalthoughshewishesfortheirlovetobeeternaltheystillmustbeaware
ofitsearthyreality.