Tragedy In The Great Gatsby And A Streetcar Named Desire

Tragedy is an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress. (The Definition of Tragedy). Both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, and Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire, contain a character who undergoes a number of tragedies. In The Great Gatsby, main character Jay Gatsby is an extravagant, rich man who works hard for his fortunes and lives in a mansion located in West Egg. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois comes from wealth and acts very prim and proper to deflect from the misfortunes her life entails. Jay Gatsby is the architect of his life, but Blanche Dubois is destroyed by the world in which she lives in. She is more sinned against than sinned. Jay Gatsby leads himself to his main tragedy when he purposely moves in order to rekindle a relationship with Daisy. He also willfully takes the blame for Daisy’s car accident, which, in turn, results in …show more content…
Gatsby makes his decisions fully aware the negative consequences, whereas Blanche is destroyed by factors around her that are out of her control. Jay Gatsby purposely moves across the bay from the love of his life, but also the person who creates his heartache. While being blurred by his love for Daisy, he makes the choice to protect her and take the blame for the killing of Myrtle, which indirectly leads to his own death. In contrast, Blanche Dubois undergoes a large amount of losses in her life that she does not deliberately cause, thus being Belle Reve, her job and Mitch. Following these traumatic experiences, Stanley Kowalski inflicts emotional and physical pain on her that brings her to ultimate destruction, that being another outside source of her tragedies. While Blanche is wishing to escape the traumatic experiences that occur one after another in her life, Jay Gatsby is arbitrarily constructing his