essay: romantic relationships

  • NO PLAN

  • sonnet 116

  • remember

  • gatsby

parag 1 (sonnet 116):

ao1: love exists regardless of societal expectations on it

ao2: “let me not to the marriage of true mindes/Admit impediments”

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

  • “Love alters not with his breefe houres and weekes/But beares it out even to the edge of doome”

ao3: in this time, marriage was seen as more of a required arrangement, enabling a passage to higher parts of society and there for the functional aspects. shakespeare opposes this stance, talking of the nature of true love and what marriage could be like when filled with genuine passion and romance

ao4: in burns’ ‘ae fond kiss’, the poem is focused on saying goodbye to his love, from which once can infer that burns does not believe that love is everlasting, as shakespeare does

ao5: simultaneously could be read within the understanding of shakespeare as not only holding romantic feelings towards his wife, but towards men too, therefore positioning him against the norm of the time, potentially posing an alternate suggestion of what he is trying to encapsulate - that not only does love withstand the lengthy processes and unstable settings that couples of the time lived in, but also the restrictions imposed in regards to the nature of that love. essentially, under the belief of shakespeare also being attracted to the same sex, sonnet 116 could be comprehended as lamenting the inability for open love regardless of the nature, and not only a text detailing the value love holds outside of the pure practicalities of it.

parag 2 (gatsby):

ao1: because of society’s rules, daisy and tom try hard to keep their ‘love’ or marriage alive

ao2: “I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling”

  • “that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”

  • “she’s not leaving me!” Tom’s words suddenly leaned down over Gatsby. “Certainly not for a common swindler who’d have to steal the ring he put on her finger.”

  • “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together”

ao3: fitzgerald presents a relationship centred upon societal gains and status, rather than sentiments and love, because of the prestige imposed upon the act of marriage. women were expected to marry to ensure financial security whilst men were expected to marry in order to begin a family, enabling the family name to continue.

ao4: ‘to his coy mistress’ (marvell), a poem under the classification carpe diem literature talks of romance with short-term satisfaction in mind, over long-term investments.

ao5: ALT READING: daisy never loved tom yet realised marriage to him was necessary, and so their marriage is not suffering anymore than it may have been already, and so she is only susceptible to society’s rules in the form of security rather than appearances

parag 3 (remember):

ao1: love can extend beyond the limits of life, within memories

ao2: “remember me when I am gone away/Gone far away into the silent land”

  • “Yet if you should forget me for a while/And afterwards remember, do not grieve”

  • “better by far you should forget and smile/Than that you should remember and be sad”

    • the speaker’s love is so extensive that she would rather her lover be happy and forget the memories of her than remember her and grieve for longer than necessary, falling into despair

ao3: rossetti suffered a mental breakdown at 4, father suffered from poor MH » explains wish for lover not to have to live through the same thing?

ao4: shakespeare believes love is stronger than and can overcome everything, including death and can withstand passage of time

ao5: perhaps a cynical outlook on this poem would highlight the fact that this poem rather focuses on the ephemeral nature of love, in the way that despite how strong it may be, it cannot overcome the finality of death, because whilst it may be contained in memories, these memories can be forgotten…

parag 4 (gatsby):

ao1: broadly unstable relationship, despite any love that may be/may have been within the relationship

ao2: “two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face” (ch1, pg8)

  • “it was a body capable of enormous leverage - a cruel body” (ch1, pg8)

  • ‘the knuckle was black and blue.’ (ch1, pg12)

  • “i know you didn’t mean to, but you did do it. That’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking, physical specimen of a —” (ch1, pg12)

  • “Tom’s got some woman in New York.” (ch1, pg15)

  • “ ‘Here, deares.’ …’Take ‘em downstairs and give ‘em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ‘em all Daisy’s change’ her mine. Say: “Daisy’s change’ her mine!” ‘(ch4, pg63)

  • “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” (ch7, pg106)

ao3: daisy blames herself for tom’s abuse, women made to feel inferior, men owned them

ao4: shakespeare shows that love means equality and balance

ao5: could be seen as stable because although neither are satisfied with the relationship, they get each of their satisfaction from their extra-marital affairs whilst the marriage is functionally satisfactory