Examining Hamlet and The Great Gatsby Essay

According to Roger Lewis, The science of m whizzy and esteem ar both part of the same dream, the exit to return to the quintessential unity that exists only at birth and at death (41). In both William Shakespeares play, crossroads, and F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel, The spectacular Gatsby, the protagonists are impulsive to sacrifice all that they have in order to deliver the goods their unrealistic objectives and ambitions, resulting in their tragic demises. While there are numerous an(prenominal) themes and c formerlypts relevant to both settlement and The Great Gatsby, their parallels regarding their aspirations stand out for get ahead evaluation. The concept of sacrificing all that a per male child has, non limiting to their give birth breeding, is ever present in these works. two village and Gatsby make unambiguous that they are involuntary and are cap satisf pieceory of sacrificing all that is themselves to possibly egest their ultimate goal.Throughout William S hakespeares play, critical point, the Prince of Denmark is set on his goal of achieving revenge and justice for his fathers murder, without the realization that his obstinate aspirations eventually race to his own downfall. Unlike many different characters, hamlet is real analytic he makes very calculated and persuasionful moves before he acts, in the end leading him to his death. small town represents the type of man whose power of direct performance is paralyzed by an excessive development of his intellect (Freud, Sigmund). This is furthermore back up when Hamlet is given a golden opportunity to attain payback for his father, but does not kill Claudius, the king of Denmark, for Hamlet mistakenly as marrow squashes that Claudius is praying. Hamlet Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And flat Ill dot. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged, That would be s corporationned. A baddie kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain sen d, To heaven. Oh, this is hire and salary, not revenge. (Hamlet, III, iii, 74-80)Hamlet misses an opportune chance to complete his cathexis, one to which he would have no op purview, but loses his chance due to his over-excessive thinking process. On the other hand, Jay Gatsby is a person who appears to be motivated by only his urges and emotions no other forces drive him more than his ultimate love lust. Gatsby does not appear as a man of ordinary longing acting under the direction of ordinary, explicable impulses. He appears instead as one under the spell of some enchantment (Langman, F.H.). In other words, Gatsby him ego was driven by a mighty inner need to reattain his once bemused love.Through this, we trip up that Gatsby was not controlled by anything but his tenderness his heart controlled his actions and thought process, and had completely consumed his entire life since his breakup with Daisy. Gatsby was willing to adjust himself to what Daisy seemed to desire at that moment. He hadnt once ceased expression at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house gibe to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and staggering presence none of it was any longer real. Once he most toppled down a flight of stairs. (Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 112)In F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has make it his life mission to donate all of his possible energy and resources to flack to acquire his love once lost. According to Carla Verderame, The novel concerns itself with the struggles of reinventing oneself to attain the dreams and pleasures of ones youth. In Gatsbys case, the effort goes terribly awry. Gatsby, throughout the novel, strives to see his long lost love he is willing to conform himself to whatsoever means he must conform to in order to discover his end desired goal. The poor boy who becomes a millionaire by extra- legal activities endeavors to feel Daisy Buchanan by means of his newly acquired wealth. This ostentatious, mysterious character becomes the exemplar of the Ameri arouse dream and its flaws (Bruccoli, Matthew J.).Jay Gatsby spends years of his life involved in illegal activity in order to accumulate enough wealth to be able to throw many parties, all for a possible chance to see his love once lost, Daisy. In this, both Jay Gatsby and Prince Hamlet are willing to sacrifice all that they have, not limited to themselves, in order to compass their unrealistic goals. In comparison, Hamlet is content with altering his life and his flow rate relationships, all for the sake of being closer to his ultimate goal, vengeance for his father. Hamlet lacks faith in G-d and himself. Consequently he must define his universe of discourse in terms of others He would like to become what the Greek tragic hero is, a creature of situation. Hence his in major power to act, for he can only act, i.e., p lay at possibilities (Auden, W.H)Hamlet is willing to act mad, ruining all of his relationships, not limited to his romantic life, for a useless opportunity to get close enough to Claudius to kill him. Although both Jay Gatsby and Prince Hamlet are willing to sacrifice all for their aspirations, Gatsby puts on a rancid front, while Hamlet covers his Gatsby thrusts a facade as though he had been wealthy throughout his entire life, while Hamlet pretends insanity.Gatsby has attempted to pull a facade of him having always been wealthy, thus allowing him to be part of Daisys circle. Gatsby claims to have inherited his vast sum, hiding that he had actually self accumulated it over the years. By pretending to be wealthy to conk in an elite class, he is hoping for the opportunity and chance to have the ability of mixing in with Daisy, his lost love. Past the stopping point door to the last room and Gatsbys facade is equable up he is still marshaling, even in his bedroom many colored disarray, literally pilling up there is no end to his soft rich bay windowBut despite all the wealth they embody, they remain piles of things (Lhamon Jr, W.T., 58).though Jay Gatsby indubitably pretends he fits into the elite richs circle, he did not belong there in the least. Gatsby goes so far as to multifariousness his hollo, the one part of a being that will always be himself infinitely. He had gone so far as to change his name and identity as though it could be almost impossible to discover the fake facade from the real being.While delving so deep into a lie and false pretense, one can presume that believably at a point the two merged, creating a build of equilibrium state, as though there had genuinely existed a Jay Gatsby. Gatsbys parents were shiftless and unsuccessful conjure up people- his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The law was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a s on of God he must be somewhat His Fathers business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end. (Fitzgerald, F. Scott)In contrast, Hamlet has dissembled his uncoiled solemn self in order to feign madness to draw Claudius near. Hamlet is far superior than any other characters in Hamlet, intellectually and with a potent inner force out. He embodies many incredible capabilities and abilities Hamlet can be considered a paradoxical character, being both witty and cautious, signifier but stern, etc. Hamlet is endowed with the finest sense of propriety, susceptible of noble ambition, and exposed in the highest degree to an enthusiastic admiration of that excellence in others of which he himself is deficient.He acts the part of madness with unrivaled power (Schlegel, August Wilhelm Von). Hamlet is inherently a noble and impe rial being, therefore, for him to dissemble himself and conceal it enables him to feign his insanity, for insanity is much less noble than nobility. Hamlet appears to be a strong character, both physically and mentally. He is a very picturesque thinker, who is by far more intellectual than his peers. The character of Hamlet stands sooner by itself. It is not a character marked by strength of will or even of passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment (Hazlitt, William). Hamlet is a very unique character in regards to his highly mature and noble sophistication.While it seems that Gatsby was not deserving of his vastly enourmous wealth along with the status that accompanied it throughout the book, on the opposite it is possible that he might in fact had been. One could conclude that in reality he was a nobel character, deserving of his status in elite circles . Whether or not Gatsby had indeed inherited his sum or had invested legally or illegally, he truly did acquire an enormous sum of cash. Gatsby had come into life with almost nothing to his name, and had left it with enormous wealth.He was an honored individual who served his country and truly can be referred to as the epitome of the American Dream throughout his life. Gatsby represented everything, Nick says, for which he feels an unaffected scorn. Even when he tells Gatsby, on their last meeting, that hes worth the whole damn bunch put together, Nick continues to winnow out of him on a social level. Gatsby has redeeming qualities, however Parts of his chimerical story turn out to be true. He had been a warfare hero, and has the medal from Montenegro to prove it. He had actually attended Oxfordfor five months, as a postwar reward for military service, and produces a photograph in evidence. Above all, there was nothing phony or insincere about his dream of Daisy (Donaldson, Scott).That being said, it is important to also reanalyze Hamlets position Hamlet could well possibly have not been conce aling his true self, but rather trying to develop his plan cognitively. Although the question be if he had truly become consumed by his madness charade or if it had been an act all along, William Shakespeare gives no indication in his work. Hamlet, a very unconventional hero whose eloquence and endless deliberation on wherefore he cannot consummate the revenge his father desires underscores his essential rhetorical routine in the play. While Hamlet so eloquently describes his feelings, the question ashes as to whether he actually feels them ( crown, Harold). Although it may appear that he had lost himself, if not beginning with his escapade concerning his old girlfriend then with his plainly drivel conversations, it is highly likely that Hamlet had just been playing a part. This is seen when Hamlet is able to not only save his own life from the decree put forth by his uncle, but to complete his mission in the end as well.While there are many germane ideas present in both litera ry works, their parallels to each-other regarding their willingness to carry through their aspirations are regarded as a main point to be extracted for further assessments. Both protagonists were willing to do about anything, including altering their destinies, in order to achieve some aspiration of theirs, regardless of how unrealistic it may be. According to Khalil Gilbran, To attend the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to. (97) This being said, both Gatsby and Hamlet are intricate characters with much to delve and dissect on though they both died tragic deaths, their deaths were not in vain for their legacies continue onward. full treatment CitedAuden, W.H. Hamlet. qtd in Lectures on Shakespeare ed. Arthur Kirsch. newly Jersey Princton University Press, 2000 Bloom, Harold, ed. Background to Hamlet. Hamlet, Blooms Guides. Philadelphia Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bruccoli, Matthew J. impertinently Essays on The Gre at Gatsby. Cambridge Cambridgeshire, 1985. Donaldson, Scott. Fool for Love F. Scott Fitzgerald qtd. on On Gatsby and the Historical Antecedents for Gatsby. Bloom, Harold, ed. New York Chelsea House Publishing, 2006. Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretations of Dreams. qtd. as Hamlets Deepest Impulses Harold Bloom, ed. Shakespeares Tragedies, Blooms Major Dramatists. Philadelphia Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York Scribner, 2004. Print. Gilbran, Khalil. qtd in A Toolbox for Humanity ed Lloyd Albert Johnson. Victoria, Canada Trafford Publishing, 2003. Hazlitt, William.Characters of Shakespeares Plays qtd. as Hamlets Power of Action in Harold Bloom, ed. Shakespeares Tragedies, Blooms Major Dramatists. Philadelphia Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. Lewis, Roger. Money, love, and aspiration. qtd. in New Essays on the Great Gatsby ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli. Cambridge University Press Cambridge, UK. 1985 Lhamon Jr, W.T. Style and Shape in the Great Gatsb y. Critical Essays on F. Scott Fitzgerals, Cambridge. ed. Scott Donaldson Bostom Hall, 1984 Schlegel, August Wilhelm Von. Hamlets flaws. qtd. in Shakespeares Tragedies, Blooms Major Dramatists. Harold Bloom, ed. Philadelphia Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York Simon and Schuster, 1992. Verderame, Carla. The Great Gatsby. McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York Infobase Publishing, 2011.