Similarities Between Macbeth And The Great Gatsby

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A society lies upon the foundation of morals and whether people choose to follow them or not depicts corruption and disorder. Individuals who are unethical would probably seem better off dead. Joan Rivers a pop culture American actress/comedian once made a controversial statement that “[bad people] deserve to be dead”, although she was referring to a group of criminal Palestinians, can one say that she is entirely wrong? William Shakespeare and F Scott Fitzgerald wrote pieces that both reflect whether death restores moral order to society. William Shakespeare wrote The Tragedy of Macbeth, a play about a power hungry man who will do anything to gain higher political position. F Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby, a novel about a man who becomes friends with Jay Gatsby, a love hungry man who will do anything to achieve an already married woman. In comparison both pieces take place in a corrupt society, and major and minor characters die throughout the text. Restoration of moral order through death is demonstrated through characterization, foils, and irony between The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. First, it is important to understand characterization and how it contributes to whether that…show more content…
Shakespeare and Fitzgerald uses characterization to elaborate on the immorality of characters so that it is easy to identify the moral order that erupts once that character dies. Fitzgerald further shows dramatic irony through the murder of Gatsby. Characters in the book think that Gatsby committed a crime because they felt it was their duty to restore moral order. Just like Joan Rivers implied, the desire to create a sense of peace to both societies is common and often takes control of a person’s inner well-being and can result to
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