Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby is a tragedy of modern growth, which describes how a hopeful modern youth failed to grow up in an adult world without miracles. At the same time, it is also a romantic tragedy: romantic imagination can neither create truth nor replace value, all romanticism will eventually fail, and the imaginative mind will return to dust and remain silent forever. This paper reveals the root of Gatsby's tragedy by analyzing his romantic dream and escape from reality.
Keywords romance; Eternity; Gatsby; tragedy
I. Introduction to The Great Gatsby
Through Nick's memory, the story tells the story of Gatsby (hereinafter referred to as Guy) pursuing his dream all his life. Guy, a poor boy, fell in love with Daisy, a rich girl, but Daisy married a rich man named Tom. Guy was unwilling to fail, decided that money had taken away Dai's love and was determined to win it back. After he became rich, Gai built a mansion opposite Dai's mansion, and held a dance in his mansion every weekend, partying all night and spending money like water, sending a silent call to Dai. Later, he met Diane as he wished and tried to renew his friendship with her. Then Dai killed Tom's mistress, Mertel, in a car accident. Even when she was with Tom, she blamed Gai, which directly led to Gai's death.
Second, the bitter romantic thesis www.ct86.com
Guy's life is a life of chasing dreams. Some people say that Diane is an important part of Guy's American dream, but in fact she is all of his dream. In order to accumulate wealth, he gave up his belief in youth and even resorted to unscrupulous means; After having money, he was surprisingly extravagant and wasteful. All this is for a simple purpose-to win back Diane. So, what Guy pursues is only a romantic love dream. He tried to stick to his ideals and true love. He looked at the mob at the ball indifferently, watched the lamp of hope that lit his dream all night, and loved Dai painfully and hopelessly, even though she was money-hungry, shallow and selfish. From beginning to end, he is trying to weave a dream of love, unable to extricate himself. Dai easily played with him, framed him, tore his dreams and tore his body and mind, and he was still immersed in his wishful romance until his death.
Gatsby is willing to devote his whole body and mind to the love of Dai. Guy's love is real. When he tried to achieve the perfect combination of truth, goodness and beauty by relying on his superb imagination, the new reality ruthlessly defeated him. Some people call Fitzgerald "the last romantic fighter", so this guy he wrote is undoubtedly the last romantic. He used his young life to guard the illusory flower that bloomed in the moonlight, and this romance eventually withered in the ruins of the ideal, which was intriguing.
Third, unattainable eternity.
He regards his love as the highest value, which is his eternity and the whole value and meaning of his life. For him, time is no longer the standard to mark and measure reality and dreams. Fitzgerald, deeply influenced by romanticism, shaped Gatsby as a romantic who was born out of his own Plato thought. In the eyes of Gai, there is only one style of time, and that is eternity. For Gai, his love with Dai never seems to change. He forgot to distinguish the past, the present and the future. In his place, the past, the present and the future are integrated, so he unconsciously transcends the boundaries of time. He has been working towards the goal of getting close to Dai. He has been doing it step by step, collecting money, building luxury houses and hosting banquets. He knows that he and Dai haven't seen each other for five years, but five years is just a process for him, not a long time boundary separating the past and the present. Of course, he was always intoxicated with that dizzy state and fell in love with Dai, so when Nick asked him seriously,
"You can't relive the old dreams."
"Can't relive the old dreams?" He shouted disapprovingly, "Of course I can!"
He looked around crazily, as if his old dreams were hidden here, and in the shadow of his house, he could almost reach out and catch them.
"Old Dreams" is the past for Nick, the past that a person has experienced, and has nothing to do with the present except the memories in his heart. But guy doesn't see it that way. "Old dream" is just a word that has to be borrowed. It doesn't mean the past, but the present, which is closely related to the present. Guy focuses on every gift. Of course, he relived the time he spent with Dai countless times in his mind, but for him, it was not a sentimental memory, but his present and the psychological motivation to act with him.
Guy stuck to a constant goal, and he went beyond the artificial time limit. However, this "inseparable" and "unbreakable" time only exists in himself. To Dai Lai, the past is the past, the present is the present, and the future is the future. In this realistic background, it becomes a thing for a person to surpass time. However, the dream of love needs two people to complete. If Guy wants to realize his love ideal of "reliving old dreams", he needs Dai to share this little happiness without time limit with him. But Dai, like everyone in her class, lacks the present and action. They live in lazy memories and expectations. There's nothing they can do about it. Even if they are now, they are already in the past and the future. Because in essence, they have no real gifts. Guy is good at grasping the present. He wants to grasp the past with the present, or he tries to erase the middle five years by not dividing time. Now it means to immerse yourself wholeheartedly in practice and every fake action. Contrary to Gai's efforts to surpass it, Dai always chooses to escape. In the anxiety of waiting for Gai, she hid in the stable and numb marriage life given by Tom; After making trouble in Chicago, they moved to new york. Their constant migration is the external manifestation of their constant avoidance, which shows their ruthlessness. They smash things, destroy people, and then return to their own money or apathy or anything that keeps them together.
Guy and Dai met for the first time after five years.
The time difference between them is pointed out, which indicates a tragic ending of the novel. Gaidai visited his house and asked Klip springer (Gatsby's guest) to play the piano for them. The lyrics are as follows:
"Every morning,
Every night,
have fun ...
At the same time,
In the meantime ... "
"At the same time, during this period" points out the time theme of this book, that is, the novel has two time dimensions: "at the same time" and "during this period". One is continuous, and the other marks the boundary between past and present. When the two time dimensions collide, the "hole of time" appears. This "hole" can be regarded as five years that have slipped away in a hurry in unremitting practice. Gai prefers "at the same time", hoping to erase the boundaries of time in such a progressive state: but in Dai's place, she prefers "during this period", and what happens during this period is irreversible. This past is not in progress, it has solidified and is an approximate existence. This summer, Gai gave A Dai the power of dizziness, and made her feel that her feelings were always with Gai. However, the fact is always true. In the five years since she broke up with Gai, Gai was just the name of an old friend, so Dai collapsed under Tom's intimidation. She found that although her marriage with Tom was full of disappointment, there was no denying that she loved Tom. Www.ct86.com Changtong paper industry
"Ah, you ask too much!" She shouted to Guy, "Isn't it enough that I love you now? I can't save the past. " She sobbed helplessly. "I loved him once ... but I also loved you."
Guy wants to go back to the absolute past, which is only a five-year vacuum and a five-year dream for him. Although he changed from a poor boy to a rich man in these five years, his spiritual pursuit and the meaning of life are still closely linked with the years five years ago, and there is no break between them. However, in these five years, Dai loved others, got married and raised children, and her life was completely broken from that of five years ago. Guy had a dream for five years, but Dai was in reality. Guy wanted to prove that he and Diana had been in love, but Diana said, no, I loved you five years ago, I loved others for five years, and now I love you again. "Always" has been divided. For Guy, this is a cruel split and funny irony, because his emotions have lost their object. His five years of painstaking efforts and five years of arduous romantic love are completely romantic, and his manners and everything have lost their foundation. He failed completely.
Four. conclusion
Gai's life is a romantic life, persistently pursuing his own dreams, and all romanticism only adds to the bitterness of tragedy: the anxiety that Gai and Dai put in front of them is a prelude to mourning; After meeting, she was fascinated by Dai, reflecting the sadness of love-her incomprehension, and the sound of money in her voice was clearly a tragic prophecy; The embarrassment when wealth and identity are questioned is the sorrow of losing self; Waiting for my sweetheart all night without knowing that she is about to become her victim-wishful thinking and love without regrets always convey the sadness and bitterness of being trampled on.
Time should bring meaning, but in Gai's body, it has become an extremely abstract concept because of its eternal color. Due to the lack of practical experience, this concept proved to be empty. A five-year resignation means that at least five years of experience is insufficient. If Guy wants his love to remain unchanged, the only thing he can do is stubbornly believe in eternity and regard love as the constant goal in pursuit, not the real requirement of both parties. In this way, Gai's love is not reasonable love in life, and his pursuit of love does not have the traditional love desire. For him, love is his whole soul, and he is infinitely addicted to this soul. Although he lost eternity in the general sense, Guy can still find one for himself. Guy's "Eternal Love" reveals a kind of modern madness: a person chooses his own life without hesitation, and he will pursue it forever even if it lacks practical content and no one supports it. This is guy's eternal style and the root of his tragedy.
refer to
Scott Fitzgerald. The great Gatsby [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2006.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The great Gatsby [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1992.
Author's brief introduction Zhao Jinfeng (1974-), female (Manchu), from Fushun, Liaoning Province, is a teacher of Foreign Languages College of Henan University of Science and Technology, and her research direction is English language and literature.