On The Love Writing In The Great Gatsby

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896-1940) is a famous American novelist of the twentieth century. As one of the member of young people of the" Jazz Age",Fitzgerald indulged in the carnival and pleasure of the era,and at the same time,he has soberly understood its emptiness beneath the extravagant life. Therefore, he has practical experience and unique views for love of his time. This thesis aims to analyze the love writing in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s works are mainly about the love story and life experience of the youth of the"Jazz Age". His attitudes towards love of the era seems to be contradictory:seemingly pessimistic but not giving hope. Essentially,the description of love in The Great Gatsby shows modernistic anxiety. Through in-depth analysis of the love writing in the novel,it provides great guidance and reference for people’s emotional problems,emotional choice in life and the harmonious development of the modern society.This article is divided into four parts. The first part will discuss two types of love in The Great Gatsby,that is the secularization of love and the religiousness of love. Tom’s love is sensual and mainly out of physical needs and profit motive. His love belongs to secularized love. In his mind,love is less important than wealth,interests and status. On the contrary,Gatsby is supremely faithful to love. In his eyes,love is the greatest and the most important above all,he can sacrifice everything including life in order to get Daisy’s love. His love resembles to the devout of the religion and tends to religiousness. While he shows extreme idealism and illusion to true love and his lover,thus doomed to failure. The second part will focus on the specific analysis of the character’s love attitude to know about people’s mental states of the era. In the third part,it will probe into the love tendency:some people’s love lends to marriage or deceit while someone dies from love. The fourth part points out the ending of hope and explores the reasons why Fitzgerald has contradictory attitude towards love. On one hand,Fitzgerald shows a pessimistic attitude to love. On the other hand,he never gives up pursuing true love. Fitzgerald’s pessimistic attitude relates to his failure of emotional experience and more with the influence of the "Jazz Age". But his optimism mainly comes from American optimistic spirit and the optimism in the American dream. Finally.the paper analyzes the essence and value of love writing.The love tragedy in The Great Gatsby shows that the economic prosperity and material progress do not guarantee the promotion of spirit and social values. On the contrary,excessive development of material will make people pay more attention to money and material enjoyment,leaving the spirit into vanity,even love can be changed and twisted by wealth and enjoyment.China today sees the rapid economic development; people’s living standard has been improved; the lust for money and status are steadily on the increase; all kinds of new ideas emerge endlessly and stuck in people’s mind. Therefore,traditional values of love and marriage has been seriously challenged. Knowing well about the love tragedy in The Great Gatsby gives us a warning and significant implications.