Literary Form (Leaving Cert English): Revision Notes

Literary Form

Genre and literary influences

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is a complex work that combines elements from several different literary genres. Understanding how these genres work together helps us appreciate the novel's sophisticated structure and themes.

Multiple genre elements

The novel incorporates four main genre influences that create its unique literary character:

• Tragedy: The story follows the classical tragic pattern where a character's fatal flaw leads to their downfall. However, Gatsby's tragedy is modern - his destruction comes from society rather than the gods, and he can be seen as a victim of his circumstances
• Realism: Fitzgerald uses authentic 1920s American settings like the Plaza Hotel and Central Park that readers would recognise. He includes real historical events such as the 1919 World Series to ground the story in reality
• Modernism: The novel reflects the sense of alienation and loss that characterised early 20th-century literature. This appears through the breakdown of traditional values and the rise of consumer culture
• Social satire: Fitzgerald uses irony and exaggeration to criticise the superficial lifestyle of the wealthy elite, particularly their moral emptiness beneath the glamorous surface

Literary influences on Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald drew inspiration from several important literary movements and writers, creating a rich tapestry of literary connections:

Romantic poetry: The influence of John Keats appears in Fitzgerald's focus on beauty, death, and the uncertainty of life. When Daisy hears a nightingale in the novel, she asks "It's romantic, isn't it, Tom?", echoing Keats's famous poem "Ode to a Nightingale".

Modernist poetry: T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" significantly influenced the novel. The Valley of Ashes represents a wasteland similar to Eliot's poem, symbolising the spiritual emptiness of modern life and the destruction of nature.

Metafiction: The novel is self-conscious about being a work of fiction. Nick refers to "this book" he's writing and deliberately draws attention to the storytelling process itself.

Narrative structure and technique

Nick Carraway as narrator

Nick Carraway serves as both narrator and character, but his reliability is questionable. Several factors make him an unreliable narrator:

• He admits to being dishonest about his own affairs and drinking
• He presents Gatsby as both great and flawed, creating contradictions
• His account is based on memory and gossip rather than direct knowledge
• He tells the story two years after the events, potentially altering details

Three-strand narrative structure

Nick's storytelling technique is sophisticated, combining different narrative approaches to create a complete picture:

Structural organisation

The novel follows a quasi-volta structure, turning around the central fifth chapter where Gatsby and Daisy reunite. The first half builds towards their meeting, while the second half deals with the consequences of their renewed relationship.

Chapters 1-4 are told from Nick's perspective, but chapter 4 includes Jordan's narrative about Daisy and Gatsby's past, creating a shift in narrative style. Chapter 5 stands out as being written entirely in past tense without interruption from Nick's other storytelling techniques, intensifying the emotional impact of the reunion scene.

Language and style

Poetic techniques

Fitzgerald employs several sophisticated language techniques to create his distinctive prose style, elevating the novel beyond simple storytelling:

Repetition and anaphora: The repeated use of "even" in chapter 9 emphasises the powerful hold the East had over Nick: "even when the east excited me most, even when I was keenly aware of its superiority..."

Sibilance: The use of 's' sounds creates atmospheric effects, particularly when describing the manipulative and deceiving nature of the wealthy characters.

Synaesthetic language: Fitzgerald blends different senses to create mysterious atmospheres, such as "yellow cocktail music", "warm darkness", and "pale gold odour".

Sophisticated vocabulary

The author uses pretentious adjectives to reflect the characters' affected speech patterns. Words like "punctilious" describe Gatsby's manner, while "bantering inconsequence" characterises Jordan's conversation style. This elevated language creates an unusual rhythm that matches the artificial nature of high society.

Symbols and imagery

The green light

The green light represents hope and aspiration, particularly Gatsby's hopes for the future with Daisy. The colour green suggests multiple meanings:

• Envy and inexperience
• Fertility and freshness
• The "fresh green breast of the new world" - America and the American Dream
• Money (as in dollar bills)

Cars as symbols

Automobiles represent both status and destruction in the novel, reflecting the double-edged nature of wealth and modernity:

• Tom uses his car to demonstrate social and material superiority over Wilson
• The newspapers label Gatsby's car the "death car" after Myrtle's accident
• Cars symbolise the dangerous power of wealth and technology
• Wilson cannot take Myrtle anywhere because he lacks transport, emphasising his powerlessness

Clocks and time

Clocks symbolise the confusion and pressure of time throughout the story, representing the impossibility of recapturing the past:

• Gatsby leans against the clock during his reunion with Daisy, showing the pressure he feels
• Both Gatsby and Nick believe the clock might be broken, suggesting they wish to revise time
• Gatsby remembers exact timeframes whilst Daisy's memory is vague, highlighting their different relationships with the past