The Great Gatsby : A Critical Analysis
In his essay "The Life of
Gatsby" John W. Aldridge writes: "Carefully plotted interior
parallels and cross references serves greatly to enhance the thematic size of
the novel and to give back to it some of the quality dramatic specification
which the method of static character portrayal takes away" (220). About
the complexity of the novel, Ken Bush, in Resource Notes to the text, writes, "Like
many great literary works, The Great
Gatsby is extremely difficult to classify as belonging to any one
particular genre (type of novel). It is certainly, in parts at least, a satire
on American society of 1920s but it could also be seen as a symbolic novel, a
love story and comment on American dream" (173). About the great
craftsmanship of Fitzgerald Matthew J. Bruccoli, in an introduction to his New Essays on The Great Gatsby, writes:
Fitzgerald's
principal concern was to improve the existing narrative plan by shifting the
pieces of Gatsby's biography: Gatsby's revelation to Nick of his love for Daisy
and the account of Dan Cody and Gatsby were incorporated into chapter six. The
novel is a work of genius, but it is equally a triumph of craftsmanship (1-2).
Bruccoli
opined that Fitzgerald was the representative novelist of the age and The Great Gatsby was classified as a
novel about the roaring twenties. Bruccoli says, "It is one of those
novels that so richly evokes the texture of their time that they become, in the
fullness of time, more than literary classics; they become a supplementary or
even substitute form of history" (6).
Some
critics have tried to interpret this novel as carrying the theme of
meaninglessness. They have found the characters and situations in the novel
equal to the situation of post-war America. The post-war world in which Gatsby
lives is meaningless and almost wholly loveless. In this connection Roger Lewis
writes:
A glance at
the relationships in The Great Gatsby
proves this later point (i.e. loveless). Daisy and Tom's marriage has gone
dead; they must cover their dissatisfactions with the distractions of the ideal
rich. Myrtle and Tom are using one another; Myrtle hates George, who is too
dull to understand her; the McKees exist in frivolous and empty triviality.
Even Nick seems unsure about his feelings for the tennis girl back in the
Midwest. His attraction to Jordan Baker is clearly an extension of this earlier
relationship (both girls are associated with sports), but occurring as it does
in the East, it partakes of East's corruption (47-48).
Any
attempt to pinpoint the importance of a work involves a slightly circular
argument. The criteria one brings to the work establish its sense of
importance, and the claim for importance then justifies the criteria. Such a
circularity need not, however, diminish the more obvious contexts used in
establishing the wroth of a literary text. Complexity and artistry vision and
technique are the values usually brought to the evaluative process. But even
within these terms critics find room for disagreement. What is narratively and
artistically complex to one may be simplistic and awkward to another. So we
must be aware that any discussion of greatness of a work involves judgement
that are both tentative and personal.
Fitzgerald's
fiction, his conception of character, the narrative unfolding, the complexity
of language–all make for a novel unbelievable complexity. This novel surprises
in every reading because we find new things in every reading. The Great Gatsby seems larger than the
criteria we bring to its evaluation; whatever we say about it seems never
complete or satisfactory enough. It is a novel that has proved larger than its
many critics, which is perhaps what we mean when we speak of it as masterpiece.
This study aims to see this novel as the representative novel of American
society of the 1920s embodying degeneration.
