Similarities Between Othello And The Great Gatsby

Shakespeare’s line ‘One that loved not wisely but too well’ ultimately describes the biggest tragic similarity between his own character of Othello in ‘Othello’ and Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby in ‘The Great Gatsby’. The intense love they have for Daisy and Desdemona is true but unwise; throughout both plots, wrong choices in love lead Gatsby and Othello to their eventual demises. Debatably, the differences between their characters in other senses are too many to consider them alike; however, Shakespeare and Fitzgerald’s presentation is inarguably similar. Both characters can be seen as tragic – Othello a tragic hero, redeeming himself too little too late, and Gatsby a tragic lover, allowing himself to be destroyed by his own love.

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Othello’s speech is captivating and poetic at the beginning of the play, as is demonstrated in Act One Scene Three, when he addresses the senators as “Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, // My very noble and approved good masters”, the majesty and eloquence of his language emphasising his gentle nature. The listing used here would be emphasised for the audience onstage to highlight Othello’s humble and gracious conduct. Similarly, when Nick first meets Gatsby, he uses expressions such as “Don’t give it another thought, old sport”. Here Fitzgerald is highlighting Gatsby’s grandeur and politeness which Nick himself describes as “picking his words with care”. Both characters are polite and poised, seeming to bring an heir of majesty whenever they are present; however, Gatsby’s romanticism and ambition crumbles when he realises that Daisy is slipping further away from him, comparable to Othello’s deterioration of character when he is lead to believe Desdemona is being unfaithful to him. Fitzgerald, using Nick as a narrator, describes that “the words seemed to bite …show more content…
Gatsby does everything he does to lure Daisy to him, not drawn to her because he misses her, but because she, to him, is the only missing constituent, and the most essential. Gatsby needs Daisy to prove his own self-worth and success to himself; with her, he will have achieved the life he’s worked for for the past five years. He sees her as a glorious trophy, one that he must win. Although Fitzgerald’s form in the novel is with Nick as the narrator, meaning everything that happens is undoubtedly manipulated by his own opinions, by Gatsby’s language it is easy to