The literary analysis of The Great Gatsby and Pre 1900 poetry reveals profound themes of love, desire, and gender dynamics across different eras. These works explore the complex relationships between men and women, particularly focusing on power dynamics and societal expectations.
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald presents a critical examination of women through characters like Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker. The novel highlights the objectification and control of women through various relationships, especially in how Gatsby idealizes Daisy and Tom treats women as possessions. This connects thematically with Pre 1900 poetry works like Christina Rossetti's "Remember", which explores similar themes of love, loss, and memory but from a female perspective. The poem "Absent from thee" particularly resonates with Gatsby's themes of longing and separation. These works collectively demonstrate how authors across different time periods handled themes of desire, power, and gender roles.
The portrayal of female power in The Great Gatsby is particularly complex, with women like Jordan Baker representing the emerging "new woman" of the 1920s, while Daisy embodies traditional feminine roles and their limitations. This creates interesting parallels with the Pre 1900 poetry anthology works, where female poets often wrote about love and desire within the constraints of their historical context. The comparison reveals how feminism in The Great Gatsby builds upon and challenges earlier literary traditions. Students studying these texts should focus on how both the novel and poetry explore themes of love, power, and gender through different literary techniques and historical contexts. The works in the Love through the Ages Anthology provide valuable context for understanding how these themes evolved over time, particularly in how they address the changing roles and expectations of women in society.
