Chapter Nine: Love & Historical Context
English Lit: AQA A Level The Great Gatsby - Specification A, topic 3.9.2
Chapter Nine - Love, Historical Context and Historicism
For specification A, you are specifically interested in the implication of texts in history and how the ideology of love is presented in this text. Here are some ideas relevant to that reading:
Speculation over Gatsby's death
- Speculation over Gatsby’s death seems to show that no-one much really loved or cared for him.
Daisy's treatment of Gatsby
- Gatsby was willing to give anything for the love of Daisy but at the end, he finds himself alone. Daisy is not even physically close any more.
Ceasing of female voices
- Temporarily, female voices seem to cease in the book. Consider this in the light of Feminist Literary criticism.
Lack of love for Gatsby
- The lack of love afforded to Gatsby is seen in associates such as Klipspringer, Owl Eyes and Wolfsheim.
Success of new money
- New money is, therefore, more likely to succeed and thrive in the West. So class transformation may happen there.
Chapter Nine - Love, Historical Context and Historicism
For specification A, you are specifically interested in the implication of texts in history and how the ideology of love is presented in this text. Here are some ideas relevant to that reading:
Broken relationship
- The idea of broken relationships and corruption seems to have infested the relationship Nick has with Jordan.
Carelessness of Daisy and Tom
- There is a notion that Daisy and Tom are careless about love, and it is this carelessness that prompted the mess that they left behind.
Symbolism of Gatsby
- Nick offers the reader a symbol of America in the form of Gatsby, but also too, perhaps a symbol of pure love.
Loveless Nick
- Nick is left at the end of the book without love himself. He hopes that he will find this again in the ‘West’, but perhaps there is an undercurrent that because he was witness to events here, he will never be able to find it.
- He will have become too cynical about the human condition and love.
Pammy - hope for the future
- The hope for love in the future remains with Pammy who may be able to rise above the corruption and ‘old money’ of her parents.
Test yourself on Chapter Nine: Love & Historical Context
What ceases temporarily in Chapter Nine?
Which of Gatsby's associates show the little love afforded to him after death?
Which character represents hope for the future in Chapter Nine?
Which relationship is infested by the ideas of broken relationships and corruption?