Literary Techniques In The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald uses a variety of authorial methods and techniques to inform the tragic nature of ‘The Great Gatsby’, and amongst these are the settings and structure of the novel. These both enhance and detract form the tragic nature of the novel. By examining each aspect of the setting and structure, it can be determined how they inform the tragic nature of the novel.

Gatsby’s position in society, shown by the setting that he represents, diminishes the tragic nature of the novel. He is superior to inhabitants of the ‘Valley of ashes’ such as Myrtle and George Wilson, who hold a low position which is indicated by Myrtle’s purchase of ‘a copy of Town Tattle’, which shows her to be more concerned with common gossip and socially inferior to West …show more content…
The dissention reaches its climax in the diner, when Gatsby says "she only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved any one except me". This is an integral part of the plot, not only for what it brings to the story but for the other structural elements, such as catharsis and peripataeia, which it allows Fitzgerald to incorporate. Therefore by creating a conflict, Fitzgerald is allowing ‘The Great Gatsby’ to contain all of the elements of a typical tragedy, thus informing its tragic …show more content…
He appears to be writing as a way of coming to terms with the events, which he shows in the first chapter when he writes about his desire for the world to be ‘at a sort of moral attention forever’, as the loose morals of a world which was ‘material without being real’, which focused on material possessions instead of the things that Nick perceives to be important: morality. However, there is also a specific catharsis within the novel: when Nick reflects on Gatsby’s life and the events of the summer, coming to terms with them and allowing the feelings of pity for Gatsby and fear of the changed society in which he lives to be release. There are many passages in the final chapter which show this acceptance, but ‘he had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night’ shows both his recognition of Gatsby’s dream, and his acceptance of the events of the summer. This catharsis, whilst not the identifiable moment or event that is typical of tragedy, informs the novel’s tragic nature as the purpose of tragedy, according to Aristotle, is to purge emotions of pity and fear in the theatre so that they do not affect life outside, in the real world. Therefore the