Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

1. Life

• Born in Minnesota in 1896.
• Catholic boarding school in New Jersey.
• Princeton University .
• US army in WW I.
• Married Zelda Sayre in 1921 and settled in New York.
• to Europe in 1922: Paris and the French Riviera. He met Ernest Hemingway.
• Back in the United States, film scripts to pay his debts.
• Died of a heart attack in 1940.

F.S. Fitzgerald.

Scott and Zelda in 1920.

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

2. Main works

1920

This Side of Paradise

Tales of the Jazz Age

1922

1922

The Beautiful and Damned

1925

The Great Gatsby

1934

Tender is the Night

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

3. The Great Gatsby: plot

• The protagonist is James Gatz, from a humble Mid-western family.
• He tries to rise above poverty, he changes his name into Jay Gatsby.

• Jay falls in love with Daisy, a beautiful superficial woman who eventually marries Tom Buchanan, a wealthy brutal man.

A poster of ‘The Great Gatsby’ (2013). A romantic drama film adapted from the novel and directed by Baz Luhrmann.

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

3. The Great Gatsby: plot

• Gatsby makes a fortune as a bootlegger

• He rents a mansion on Long Island, on the opposite side of the bay to Daisy’s house

• He gives fabulous parties

• Nick Carraway, a young stockbroker from the Midwest, is Gatsby’s neighbour and Daisy’s cousin.
• Thanks to him, Daisy and Jay meet again and have an affair.

• One day Daisy runs over Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, while driving.

• She does not stop, and Gatsby hides the car.

Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby in the film directed by Jack Clayton (1974).

Leonardo Di Caprio as Gatsby and Carey Mulligan as Daisy in the film directed by Baz Luhrmann (2013).

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

3. The Great Gatsby: plot

• Myrtle’s husband finds out that Gatsby’s car killed

his wife.

• Gatsby does not protest his innocence because he wants to defend Daisy, but she reconciles with her husband.
• Gatsby is shot in his garden by Myrtle’s husband.

• Nick arranges his funeral but nobody comes.

Gatsby’s dream of Daisy: corrupted by money and dishonesty American Dream of happiness and individualism is over

Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby in the film directed by Jack Clayton (1974).

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

4. The American-ness of the novel

It is emphasised by some themes

• the move from West to East
• the confrontation between the romantic ideals of courage, honour and beauty and the corrupted world of money (disillusionment of the ‘American Dream’)
• the poverty of spiritual life in America during its most hedonistic decade.

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

5. The theme of blindness

Blindness is another central theme the characters in the novel do not wish to see

Daisy and the guests to Gatsby’s parties seek out blindness in the form of drunkenness.

Jordan, Daisy, Tom and others drive carelessly and are blind to danger in the selfish pursuit of pleasure.

Only Nick ­truly sees. He is Fitzgerald's spokesman in his representation of the decay of his generation.

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

6. Jay Gatsby

• A mysterious character.
• He seldom takes part in the lavish parties he organises.
• Rich and attractive, with some secret hidden in his past.
• He has the stature of a romantic hero who dies for his dream.
• He also embodies the self-made man who tries to recreate the past through the power of money and is finally destroyed.

Leonardo Di Caprio as Gatsby in the film directed by Baz Luhrmann (2013).

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

7. Nick Carraway

• Both observer and participant in the novel.
• The only character to show and hold onto a sense of morals and decency.
• Represents the outsider that Fitzgerald felt himself to be.
• Comes from the West, and returns there by the end of the novel.
• Through Carraway, Fitzgerald shows his fondness for the West, which he regards as more moral than the East.

Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway in the film directed by Baz Luhrmann (2013).

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

8. Tom Buchanan and Daisy

• Extremely wealthy
• Unfaithful
• Arrogant
• Aggressive

Joel Edgerton as Tom in the film directed by Baz Luhrmann (2013).

• Enchanted object of desire = American dream
• moody, theatrical, impulsive
• Carelessness, superficiality
• Absence of loyalty

Carey Mulligan as Daisy in the film directed by Baz Luhrmann (2013).

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

9. Narrative technique

• Nick Carraway = retrospective narrator --> after going through an experience, he looks back on it with a better understanding.

• Nick’s point of view.
• NO Chronological order: fragmentation of time and flashbacks to represent the inner world of the characters and the way knowledge is acquired in real life.
• References to the senses:
• colours (sense of sight)
• repetitions, similes, metaphors (sense of hearing)
• Cinematographic style: Fitzgerald moves from one scene to another.

Nighthawks, Edward Hopper, 1942, The Art Institute of Chicago

Gas, Edward Hopper, 1940, Museum of Modern Art of NY

Jonathan Swift

F. S. Fitzgerald

10. Symbolic images

The language blends realism (detailed descriptions) and symbolism (poetic language)

Gatsby’s car = destructive power of money

The valley of ashes = emotional and spiritual sterility

Gatsby’s house = celebration of his success during the parties, of his loneliness when empty

Four Lane Road, Edward Hopper

Green light = Gatsby’s hope and dreams; physical and emotional distance between Gatsby and Daisy

F. S. Fitzgerald

Jonathan Swift

11. Symbolic images

Morning Sun, Edward Hopper

White = Daisy; symbol of transparency and fragility

Spring = Nick’s new life Summer = Gatsby and Daisy’s love (CLIMAX) Autumn = Gatsby’s death