Love Through the Ages Reading
English Lit: AQA A Level The Great Gatsby - Specification A, topic 7.1.2
Love Through the Ages Reading
The aim of this topic area is to encourage students to explore aspects of a central literary theme as seen over time, using unseen material and set texts. Areas that can usefully be explored include:
Romantic love of many kinds
- Tom and Daisy.
- Daisy and Gatsby.
- Myrtle and Tom.
- Nick and Jordan.
Love and sex
- Tom and Daisy.
- Daisy and Gatsby.
- Myrtle and Tom.
- Love and Sex in the context of the 1920s in general.
Love and loss
- Gatsby losing Daisy the first and second time.
- Tom losing Myrtle.
- Tom almost losing Daisy.
- The failure of Jordan and Nick’s relationship.
Social convention taboos
- Extra-marital affairs.
- Having ‘old money’.
- Breaking up of family life.
- Carrying on an affair in front of the husband.
- The differences applied to men and women.
Love Through the Ages Reading
The aim of this topic area is to encourage students to explore aspects of a central literary theme as seen over time, using unseen material and set texts. Areas that can usefully be explored include:
Love according to history and time
- Conventions during the ‘roaring twenties’.
- The ability of ‘old money’ to do what it wants.
- The challenge of ‘new money’ for love.
- The openness of the Jazz Age.
Individual lives (young/maturing love)
- Gatsby and Daisy when younger.
- Tom and Daisy when younger, but also their maturity at the end.
- The impact of having children.
- Nick and Jordan’s awareness of not making the wrong connection.
- Nick’s failed attempt at love in New York.
- The dull marriage of George and Myrtle Wilson.
Jealousy and guilt
- Gatsby’s jealousy of Tom.
- Tom’s guilt over Myrtle and Daisy.
- Myrtle’s guilt about her affair.
- Wilson’s jealousy of Tom and (he thinks) Gatsby.
Truth and deception
- Myrtle’s deception of George Wilson.
- Tom’s deception of Daisy.
- Gatsby’s realisation of truth about Daisy.
Love Through the Ages Reading
The aim of this topic area is to encourage students to explore aspects of a central literary theme as seen over time, using unseen material and set texts. Areas that can usefully be explored include:
Marriage
- Tom and Daisy’s marriage and how it survives.
- George Wilson and Myrtle’s failed marriage.
- Gatsby’s first and second attempts to marry Daisy.
- Nick’s incapacity to marry.
Proximity and distance
- Tom and Daisy’s marriage and eventual closeness.
- Gatsby’s enforced distance from Daisy.
- George Wilson’s distance from Myrtle.
- Nick’s eventual distance from New York City.
- Tom and Daisy’s distance from Long Island at the end.
Approval and disapproval
- Social approval that Tom and Daisy’s marriage survives because of Pammy.
- Nick’s initial disapproval and then approval of Gatsby.
- George Wilson’s disapproval of Myrtle.
- The general approval of love affairs in the society at the time.
Test yourself on Love Through the Ages Reading
Which relationships could you discuss in relation to romantic love?
Which relationships and ideas could you discuss in relation to love and sex in The Great Gatsby?
What could you discuss in relation to love and loss in The Great Gatsby?
Which of these is NOT a social convention taboo explored in The Great Gatsby?
Which of these would you NOT discuss in relation to approval and disapproval in The Great Gatsby?