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Sonnets of the Portuguese and The Great Gatsby


            Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese, and Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, may at first appear to have tenuous links due to vastly different contexts and text types, yet, they both share a challenging vision of humanity. These two writers are divided both geographically and historically, Browning, an English female poet of the Victorian era, and Fitzgerald, an American male novelist of the 1920s Jazz age. This context has affected how each writer has decided to present their challenging view of humanity; Browning, choosing a predominantly male dominated poetic style, the sonnet, in order to sublimate a female's expressions of love, and Fitzgerald, choosing to novelize in order to best convey his tale of love, corruption, and loss. Despite this, similar themes are explored in both Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby to convey their views that challenge society at the time, in particular love. Both writers clearly draw on personal experiences to add an element of realism to their pieces, with Browning drawing on her courtship with Robert Browning, and Fitzgerald focusing on his college literary experiences, engagement to Zelda Sayre, and alcohol consumption. .
             Despite the concept of love being subjective, informed by the context and perspective of the individual, there are similar elements of love explored in both Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby in order to share a challenging vision of humanity. Sonnet 14, from Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese, highlights Browning's use of quotations in order to call attention to qualities in women that were strongly admired by men during the Victorian era. For example, '"I love her for her smile. her look.her way/ Of speaking gently"'. Browning focuses on traditional male adoration of these physical traits in order to convey that love based on these will not last "through love's eternity" as they "may/Be changed".


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