Comparing Love In The Great Gatsby And The Painted Door
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As Javan once said, “love can sometimes be magic. But magic can sometimes just be an illusion”. Javan delivers a message that sometimes love is a mirage, the enchanting emotion individuals experience when in love, may just be a lie they created for themselves. Javan’s perspective applies to Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, “The Painted Door” by Sinclair Ross, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and finally “Funeral Blues” by Wystan Hugh Auden. All these authors reach a consensus in their stories and share the common theme, which is that illusion of love leads to destruction in people’s lives. In Fitzgerald’s work, Gatsby earns his millionaire status from bootlegging and forges his background all because he believes that he and his past love, Daisy were meant for each other. Gatsby tries to recreate their past in order to convince Daisy that she was waiting for him for all those years, when in fact she had already moved on. For some time, Daisy manages to be enamoured by Gatsby, but when Gatsby forces Daisy into leaving Tom, she is suddenly hit with reality, realizing how their missing five years can’t be filled in with past memories. Her illusion is shattered and thus indirectly murders Gatsby for not stepping up to her wrongdoing. Daisy's false belief leads both of them onto the wrong path, which relates to Ann, whom is featured on…show more content… Before marriage, she was overwhelmed with the attention she received and misinterpreted it as love due to this reason. However as time went by, realization dawns upon her by the fact that she didn’t love John, thus feeling alone and in a desperate attempt to escape her chaotic emotion, she sleeps with another man. John witnesses this scene and commits suicide and so, Ann feels even more alone than before and now has to live with the guilt that she is responsible for her husband’s death. Her misinterpreted emotion deludes her from the truth, like "The