marriage

point 1 - TGG: purpose of marriage in TGG

marriage as a social and economic contract rather than a romantic union

point 1 quotation - TGG: Daisy’s idealisation of Gatsby reinforcing connection between marriage n financial security

"Her voice is full of money."

point 1 quotation - TGG: Daisy’s marriage to Tom for financial stability

"She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me."

point 1 quotation - TGG: companionship n mutual interests over passion

"There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together."

point 1 quotation - TGG: marriage as a protective barrier

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness."

point 1 AO3 - TGG: 1920s marriage factors

In the 1920s, marriage was often influenced by social class and financial stability rather than emotional connection. Women, particularly in the upper class, had limited independence, making marriage a necessary economic arrangement

point 1 AO4 - TGG: compare to sonnet 116 » shakespeare’s authenticity of love

shakespeare does not seem to believe in the institution of marriage, believing rather in the purity of the strength and significance of love

point 1 AO5 - TGG: Marxist criticism: love as a commodity

Marxist critics argue that marriage in The Great Gatsby is a reflection of capitalist structures, where love is commodified, and relationships are dictated by economic gain

point 2 - sonnet 116: implied distrust of love

shakespeare seems to discount the authenticity of marriage, aware that they acted more as a function in his time, rather than as a definitive symbol of love and passion

point 2 quotation - sonnet 116: more to love than conventional marriage

“let me not to the marriage of true mindes/admit impediments”

point 2 quotation - sonnet 116: steadfastness of love

“it is an ever fixed marke/that lookes on tempests and is never shaken”

point 2 quotation - sonnet 116: the nature of a couple’s love can only be known by those involved

“whose worths unknowne, although his highth be taken”

point 2 quotation - sonnet 116: the supernaturality of love

“love alters not with his breefe hours and weekes,/but beares it out even to the edge of doome”

point 2 AO3 - sonnet 116: functionality of marriage

marriage seen as required arrangement, enabling couple to higher parts of society » shakespeare opposes this perspective, talking of what true love is like = genuine passion n romance

point 2 AO4 - sonnet 116: compare to TGG: marriage as a barrier

whilst marriage acts as a barrier, preventing true love from flourishing, shakespeare believes that love should be let alone, to develop

point 2 AO5 - sonnet 116: queer criticism: homosexuality forbidden

much literary evidence for shakespeare queerness: not only functionality, but convention and norms can at as barriers to love, all of which are often associated with institutional, Christian marriage

point 3 - TGG: steadfastness of marriage?

Infidelity and the Fragility of Marriage

point 3 quotation - TGG: common knowledge of Tom’s infidelity

"Tom’s got some woman in New York."

point 3 quotation - TGG: Myrtle’s insistence on challenging Tom’s marriage » blurred lines between marital commitment n extra-marital affairs

"Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to!"

point 3 quotation - TGG: marriage double standards w gender

"I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife."

point 3 quotation - TGG: instability of marriage » whilst one chases, one retreats

"There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired."

point 3 AO3 - TGG: liberal attitudes in the Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties saw a cultural shift, with increased liberal attitudes toward relationships and gender roles, but traditional structures like marriage remained largely intact

point 3 AO4 - TGG: compare to the garden of love » criticism of organised religion

like sonnet 116, the garden of love focuses on the liberation and passion that true love should contain, over the restricting nature of functional marriage, perhaps reinforcing the passion-filled infidelity present in the great gatsby

point 3 AO5 - TGG: postmodern criticism: superficial marriages throughout the great gatsby

Postmodern critics see marriage in the novel as a performance, a facade maintained for appearances rather than emotional fulfilment

point 4 - the garden of love: errors of love in institutional marriage

institutional marriage often becomes performative, lacking in genuine, emotional connection

point 4 quotation - the garden of love: purity of love has gone

“I went to the Garden of Love/and saw what I had never seen”

point 4 quotation - the garden of love: impure love blamed on religion

“a chapel was built in the midst/where I used to play on the green”

point 4 quotation - the garden of love: former vs present love > unofficial vs official n visible

“and the gates of this chapel were shut/and ‘thou shalt not’ writ over the door”

point 4 quotation - the garden of love: restrictive, judgemental ‘love’

“and priests in black gowns were walking their rounds/and binding with briars my joys and desires”

point 4 AO3 - the garden of love: Blake’s motivation for ‘The Garden of Love’

Blake was devoutly religious, but as a ‘dissenter’, expressed criticism of Church of England = the Garden of Love

point 4 AO4 - compare to TGG: authenticity better than convention

moral ambiguity in a world where convention was kept to rigidly was rife » genuine relationships would have undoubtedly reduced the open infidelity, broken trust and superficiality of the relationships in the novelp

point 4 - AO5: queer reading: repression of natural desires

within the authenticity in being unconstrained by convention, a queer interpretation works well with Burns’ poem » homosexual desires and passions were unable to be openly explored, and so Burns is perhaps commenting on how once, perhaps privately he was able to love another man, but once that becomes public knowledge, this spell a social death