Themes (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes
Themes
Themes represent the fundamental and often universal ideas that authors explore throughout a literary work. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald examines several interconnected themes that reveal deeper truths about 1920s American society, human nature, and the pursuit of dreams.
The themes in The Great Gatsby are deeply interwoven, creating a complex portrait of American society. Understanding how these themes connect—particularly the American Dream, class divisions, and moral decay—is essential for grasping Fitzgerald's critique of 1920s America.
The American Dream
Understanding the American Dream
The American Dream represents a collection of values that have historically guided the United States. These values centre on the belief that freedom and upward social mobility are available to all Americans, provided they work hard enough to achieve them. Every character in The Great Gatsby finds motivation in this promise of wealth and prosperity.
However, whilst the characters pursue the American Dream, Fitzgerald simultaneously challenges the idea that it can truly be achieved. Readers may finish the novel questioning whether the American Dream is actually attainable at all.
The Central Paradox
Fitzgerald presents the American Dream as both motivating force and destructive illusion. While all characters are driven by this promise, the novel systematically demonstrates its unattainability, creating a fundamental tension that drives the entire narrative.
Gatsby's pursuit and failure
Gatsby demonstrates the most extreme case of someone chasing social mobility through the American Dream. He spends his entire life believing that accumulating enough money and possessions will allow him to transcend his lower-class origins and become equal to Daisy and Tom. Yet despite his success in acquiring wealth, he never gains acceptance from the upper class.
Worked Example: Gatsby's Failed Dream
Consider how Gatsby's pursuit unfolds:
Step 1: The Foundation Gatsby believes wealth = social acceptance
Step 2: The Accumulation He amasses a fortune through questionable means
Step 3: The Display He throws extravagant parties and buys an ornate mansion
Step 4: The Reality Despite his wealth, he remains an outsider to the old aristocracy
Conclusion: Gatsby's failure reveals that class barriers cannot be overcome by wealth alone.
Gatsby's inability to attain the American Dream suggests that the Dream itself is both an unattainable and unwise goal. His story reveals the fundamental flaw in assuming that wealth alone can overcome deeply entrenched class barriers in American society.
The decline of the American Dream in the 1920s
Beyond the love story
Whilst The Great Gatsby appears on the surface to tell the story of thwarted love between a man and a woman, the novel's main theme reaches far beyond this romantic plot. Though all the action occurs over just a few months during the summer of 1922 in the specific geographical area around Long Island, New York, Fitzgerald uses this setting as a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole. The novel particularly examines the disintegration of the American Dream during an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess.
The 1920s as an era of decay
Fitzgerald presents the 1920s as a period of decayed social and moral values, demonstrated through the novel's overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The reckless jubilance that led to decadent parties and wild jazz music—epitomised in The Great Gatsby—resulted from opulent parties where Gatsby throws extravagant Saturday night gatherings. This unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals, ultimately corrupting the American Dream.
The novel's setting in the summer of 1922 is significant. This period represents the height of the Jazz Age—a time when materialism and hedonism reached unprecedented levels in American society. Fitzgerald uses this specific moment to capture the broader corruption of American values.
Post-war disillusionment
When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought became intensely disillusioned. The brutal carnage they had faced made the Victorian social morality of early twentieth-century America seem outdated, empty, and hypocritical. The craving of this younger generation in the aftermath of war led to a sudden, sustained increase in national hedonism and materialism. People from all social backgrounds began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels.
The War's Impact on Values
World War I fundamentally transformed American society. The disillusionment and cynicism that resulted from witnessing unprecedented violence caused an entire generation to reject traditional moral codes. This rejection created a vacuum that was filled by materialism, ultimately corrupting the original American Dream.
Those who could amass a fortune, regardless of their origins, potentially achieved wealth. However, the American aristocracy—families with old wealth—scorned the newly rich industrialists and speculators. The passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which banned alcohol sales, created a thriving underworld designed to satisfy the massive demand for bootleg liquor amongst rich and poor alike.
Characters as emblems of social trends
Fitzgerald positions the characters of The Great Gatsby as representations of these broader social trends. Nick and Gatsby, both of whom fought in World War I, exhibit the newfound cosmopolitanism and cynicism that resulted from the war. The various social climbers and ambitious speculators who attend Gatsby's parties demonstrate the greedy scramble for wealth.
The clash between old money and new money manifests itself in the novel's symbolic geography: East Egg represents the established aristocracy, whilst West Egg represents the self-made rich. Meyer Wolfsheim and Gatsby's fortune symbolise the rise of organised crime and bootlegging.
Symbolic Geography
Fitzgerald's choice to divide his setting into East Egg and West Egg is deliberate and meaningful:
- East Egg: Old money, inherited wealth, established aristocracy, taste and refinement
- West Egg: New money, self-made fortunes, social climbers, ostentation and vulgarity
- The Valley of Ashes: The forgotten poor, moral decay, the cost of wealth
The corruption of the original dream
As Fitzgerald understood it (and as Nick explains in Chapter 9), the American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. However, in the 1920s depicted in the novel, easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dream, especially on the East Coast.
The main plotline reflects this assessment. Gatsby's dream of loving Daisy is ruined by the difference in their respective social statuses, his resorting to crime to make enough money to impress her, and the rampant materialism that characterises her lifestyle.
Symbols and meaning
Places and objects in The Great Gatsby have meaning only because characters invest them with significance. The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg best exemplify this idea. In Nick's mind, the ability to create meaningful symbols constitutes a central component of the American Dream, as early Americans invested their new nation with their own ideals and values. Nick compares the green bulk of America rising from the ocean to the green light at the end of Daisy's dock.
Worked Example: The Green Light as Symbol
Consider how Gatsby invests the green light with meaning:
Original Object: A simple dock light—functional, ordinary, without inherent meaning
Gatsby's Investment: He transforms it into a symbol of his dreams, hope, and desire for Daisy
The Parallel: Just as Americans invested their nation with ideals, Gatsby invests Daisy with idealised perfection that she neither deserves nor possesses
The Result: When the object proves unworthy, the dream collapses—both for Gatsby and for 1920s America
Just as Americans have given America meaning through their dreams for their own lives, Gatsby invests Daisy with a kind of idealised perfection that she neither deserves nor possesses. Gatsby's dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American Dream in the 1920s is ruined by the unworthiness of its object—money and pleasure.
Like 1920s Americans in general, fruitlessly seeking a bygone era in which their dreams had value, Gatsby longs to recreate a vanished past—his time in Louisville with Daisy—but is incapable of doing so. When his dream crumbles, all that is left for Gatsby to do is die. All Nick can do is move back to Minnesota, where American values have not decayed.
The hollowness of the upper class
New rich versus old aristocracy
One of the major topics explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology of wealth, specifically how the newly minted millionaires of the 1920s differ from and relate to the bred aristocracy of the country's richest families. In the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, whilst East Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old aristocracy.
Fitzgerald portrays the new rich as being vulgar, gaudy, ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. Gatsby, for example, lives in a monstrously ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a Rolls-Royce, and does not pick up on subtle social signals, such as the insincerity of the Sloanes' invitation to lunch.
In contrast, the old aristocracy possesses grace, taste, subtlety, and elegance, epitomised by the Buchanans' tasteful home and the flowing white dresses of Daisy and Jordan Baker.
The moral emptiness of wealth
What the old aristocracy possesses in taste, however, it seems to lack in heart. The East Eggers prove themselves careless, inconsiderate bullies who are so used to money's ability to ease their minds that they never worry about hurting others. The Buchanans exemplify this stereotype when, at the end of the novel, they simply move to a new house far away rather than condescend to attend Gatsby's funeral.
Fitzgerald's Reversal of Expectations
While the old aristocracy appears refined and elegant on the surface, they are morally bankrupt beneath. Meanwhile, the new rich like Gatsby—despite their vulgarity—possess genuine qualities like loyalty and love. This reversal reveals that wealth and class do not determine moral worth.
Gatsby, on the other hand, whose recent wealth derives from criminal activity, has a sincere and loyal heart. He remains outside Daisy's window until four in the morning in Chapter 7 simply to make sure that Tom does not hurt her. Ironically, Gatsby's good qualities (loyalty and love) lead to his death, as he takes the blame for killing Myrtle rather than letting Daisy be punished. The Buchanans' bad qualities (fickleness and selfishness) allow them to remove themselves from the tragedy not only physically but psychologically.
Class
Class as a controlling force
In the monied world of The Great Gatsby, class influences all aspects of life, and especially love. Myrtle mentions this regarding her husband, George, whom she mistook for someone of better breeding and hence greater prospects: "I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe."
Myrtle's dismissal of George reveals how deeply class consciousness permeates even working-class characters. Her belief that she deserves better based on class distinctions shows how the American class system corrupts relationships at every level.
Similarly, Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy is bound up with class. Only after amassing a large fortune does he feel able to win Daisy's hand. However, class remains a crucial barrier that determines which marriage survives (Tom and Daisy), which one is destroyed (George and Myrtle), and which one will never come to be (Gatsby and Daisy).
Class immunity and carelessness
Only the most affluent couple pulls through the events that conclude the book. In fact, it seems that the accident may have brought them closer. When Nick spies on them through the window, he reports that there was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together.
The Power of Elite Class Status
Because of their elite class status, Tom and Daisy share a belief that they are immune to the consequences of their actions. In the final chapter, Nick calls Tom and Daisy "careless people" who "smashed up things and... let other people clean up the mess they had made."
This carelessness represents the ultimate corruption of wealth—the ability to destroy lives without facing any consequences.
Love and marriage
Strained ideals
The ideals of love and marriage are profoundly strained in The Great Gatsby, a book that centres on two loveless marriages: the union between Tom and Daisy Buchanan and between George and Myrtle Wilson.
In both cases, the marriages seem to be unions of convenience or advantage rather than actual love. Myrtle explains that she married George because she thought he was "a gentleman," suggesting she hoped he'd raise her class status. Daisy nearly backed out of her marriage to Tom the day before her wedding, and Tom had an affair within a year of the wedding. However, the couple is well-suited because of their shared class and desire for fun and material possessions.
Marriage and Materialism
Every marriage in the novel is corrupted by material considerations:
- Tom and Daisy stay together because of shared class status and wealth
- George and Myrtle's marriage fails because George cannot provide the lifestyle Myrtle desires
- Gatsby's dream of marrying Daisy is inseparable from his desire to prove his wealth
The novel suggests that in 1920s America, love cannot exist independently of material concerns.
Gatsby's idealized passion
Even Gatsby's all-consuming passion for Daisy seems more of a desire to possess something unattainable than actual love. Nick, meanwhile, dates Jordan Baker throughout the book, and though their relationship has its moments of warmth and kindness, both parties generally seem lukewarm and emotionally distant.
Nick recalls, "but I felt a sort of tender curiosity." Such "tender curiosity" may be the closest thing to love in the entire novel.
Key Points to Remember:
- The American Dream is the novel's central theme, but Fitzgerald presents it as corrupted and ultimately unattainable in 1920s America
- The 1920s setting is crucial—post-WWI disillusionment, materialism, and moral decay define the era and corrupt the original American Dream
- Class divisions prove insurmountable throughout the novel, determining who survives and who fails
- The novel contrasts old money (East Egg—tasteful but heartless) with new money (West Egg—vulgar but sometimes more genuine)
- Love and marriage in the novel are hollow, based on convenience, class, and material desire rather than genuine affection
- Gatsby's loyalty and love ultimately lead to his destruction, while Tom and Daisy's carelessness and class privilege allow them to escape consequences
- Symbols in the novel (the green light, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, the valley of ashes) gain meaning through the investment of dreams and ideals, mirroring how Americans invested meaning in their nation