Compare Donne’s presentation of love with the love in ‘The Great Gatsby’

John Donne was born in 1572; Donne was brought up a Catholic. In 1601 Donne committed an act which led him to life in prison for several months. Donne had married the daughter, Ann More, of a member of parliament, Sir George More. For the last few years of his life Donne focused on writing poetry, his poems were famous for their conceits; odd comparisons or poetic image created that runs through the whole poem, and metaphysical imagery; elaborate metaphors.

Donne’s lines across each stanza create an A, B, B, A rhyme. In the second stanza for example, this can be seen by looking at the last words on each line. The first line ends in ‘strong’, the second in ‘think’, the third in ‘wink’ and the fourth in ‘long’. Donne bases his poem ‘The Sun Rising’ around a conceit, the ‘sun’, the conceit changes throughout as the poem progresses. Donne’s poems contain many double meanings, like the conceit, the ‘sun’, the ‘sun’ can be an image used to describe warmth or happiness or the life of day. The starting of his poem ‘The Sun Rising’ produces the thought that the sun is disliked by Donne; he portrays it to be a ‘BUSY old fool’. Donne uses personification to describe how the sun has been constantly rising and setting for decades. ‘Through windows, and through curtains’ it calls on them, Donne’s lover and himself. Donne asks the sun a question, further emphasizing the personification being used, ‘must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?’ He questions why the motions of lovers have to comply with the getting up and settling down of the sun. Donne states that ‘love, all alike’, ‘no season knows nor clime, nor hours, days, months’, here he expresses love to be dominant and not be defined by change, in time or seasons, he conveys that love is greater than time.

Donne’s presentation of love in ‘The Sun Rising’ seems to show that his whole world could revolve around the love that is felt towards another. Donne shows understanding of time and how there is nothing that can stop time and days from moving forward, coming to an end and starting again. However this does not seem to matter. His attitude towards love, especially towards the end of ‘The Sun Rising’ shows that changes may occur, things may get in the way, like the sun but the love is always there.  He and his lover might have to get out of bed and live the days they have left but this love that they share, in one word is ‘everything’; ‘shine here to us, and thou art everywhere, this bed thy center is, these walls thy sphere’.

Like Donne’s poem ‘The Sun Rising’, his poem ‘The Anniversary’ clasps onto a similar tone. In both poems Donne refers to love as something that can beat time. In ‘The Anniversary’ he had written ‘our love hath no decay’ and this is similar to when in ‘The Sun Rising’ Donne says ‘nor hours, days, months... rags of time’. Love is timeless.  It is also possible that his image of love remains the same over a period of time, although a difference between the two poems would be that ‘The Anniversary’ speaks more of the realities of time. It could be argued that Donne’s idea of love is more matured in ‘The Anniversary’, as it speaks of matters like death. Donne juxtaposes the political image of ‘Kings’ with natural imagery of the ‘sun’. Donne’s attitude towards love is similar to that in ‘The Sun Rising’ as it is strong and if in battle with something will always come out on top. However it is different as Donne uses the aspect of death in ‘The Anniversary’, the serious tone demonstrates loves importance.

In the second stanza Donne considers the fact that eventually he and his lover will have lived their lives and there will come a day when both of them meet their ‘everlasting day’. Donne understands that nature of life can rob them of their physical being but nonetheless he and his lover will have ‘souls where nothing dwells but love’. Love again is represented as something that will always have a winning battle when in conflict with anything. Whether it is ‘time’ and being a depredation of time, which is spoken of in both ‘The Sun Rising’ and ‘The Anniversary’, or whether it is ‘death’, which is the mentioned to be the ‘divorce’ of two lovers. Donne emphasises on the sovereignty of their love, the dominance it has over life, he goes as far as mentioning love in the afterlife, ‘a love increased there above’.

F Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’, was published in 1925, during the historical period known as the ‘roaring twenties’. This was when jazz music and expressive culture was introduced. Fitzgerald uses these developments in writing Great Gatsby. Love in ‘The Great Gatsby’ was based on many things; it seemed to be dependent on wealth/ materialism, social class/ education.

Fitzgerald displays how one can become love’s fool in Gatsby, using Gatsby himself as a prime example. Gatsby’s character is one that shows how far someone in love can go to give it more purpose. Fitzgerald’s presentation of love shows that love has consequences. Gatsby’s love for Daisy led him so far but in the end it only had led him to his destruction. Gatsby portrays love as something that perhaps also has a time and place, Gatsby’s love for Daisy was an old love, and his struggle to bring back the same passion felt in the past corrupted the future. The irony displayed in ‘The Great Gatsby’ is that Gatsby was reaching forward for his love, to create a future for both him and Daisy, but it caused him to reach too far back into his past. We can question if Gatsby really in love with Daisy or just a dream version of her. Fitzgerald creates this allusion of love; Daisy convinces herself that she loves Gatsby, the same as when they’d first met, though the end implies that she was a materialistic kind of girl. Fitzgerald shows that love that is based on materialistic needs isn’t true love, sometimes it can just become a means of survival. If Gatsby and Daisy had stayed together when they had first met, it would not have been socially acceptable, but whether love is socially accepted or not, if it is spiritual rather than plain physical it will last a whole lot longer.

In ‘The Great Gatsby’, Daisy mentions that “I did love him (Tom) once- but I loved you too”, Fitzgerald explores love deeper, love that is felt for more than one person. Love only seems to be seen when it is associated with the character of Gatsby. The fact that he would go to such an extent to win over the one he really loves must show that his love is true, even if his character shows that he is obsessed with this past image of him and Daisy. Fitzgerald portrays Daisy’s love for Gatsby as materialistic; she appears content with the massive parties and the expensive gifts. The fact is she seems more involved in what materialistic needs Gatsby can provide rather than in blossoming or recreating her past love for Gatsby. Her love for him could be considered hyperbolic instead of selfless.

Donne and Fitzgerald both believe in love’s importance, its necessity. Though there is a difference in both of their writing periods, Donne’s writing was during the Renaissance/ Elizabethan Age, whereas Fitzgerald’s was just after the First World War, it is agreed upon that love is powerful. Historical context can affect the view of love that is held by an individual or group. For example, love in Donne’s poem ‘The Sun Rising’ seems restricted. Donne’s love for Ann More wasn’t socially accepted. Similarly, in ‘The Great Gatsby’, in Daisy and Gatsby’s past, their love was also restricted and also because it wouldn’t have been socially acceptable. However, the time period Gatsby was written and published in, women were receiving more freedom than they would have during Donne’s writing period. A similarity in John Donne’s poems and Fitzgerald’s novel is that both are speaking of realities of love, love as a feeling and love as it is seen by others during their time periods. From Donne’s poems i can understand that love can outdo all things, time, life and death and more, though from Fitzgerald’s novel i understand that much can get in the way of love and love is strong but is also dependent on those that feel it. Love could or can be something that surpasses everything, but its power is based on the power that those in love have given it. Love faces obstacles and sometimes is weakened; time can create more firm bonds though it can also change feelings or the strength and power of love. Overall Donne seems to focus on the more positive sides of love whereas Fitzgerald focuses on both the positives and negatives of love. However none, (Donne’s poems or Fitzgerald’s novel) are wrong in their views or portrayals of love.

iH