James (Yang Zhen)ENGL1601-B02Professor: HargraveOct 10th 2009Pursuing the Forbidden loveIn the novel The Great Gatsby the protagonists were pursuing their ideal but forbidden love. Gatsby thought that Daisy loved him so much and she didn’t love her husband Tom at all and if he could get a great deal of money, he could join the upper class’s life and then Daisy would leave her husband for him. Meanwhile, another protagonist Almasy thought he could give up everything to pursue his ideal love. But both of their thoughts were too idealistic, simple and naive. The cruel reality and social environment would not make their dream come true. In my points of view, the huge gap between their ideal love and the cruel reality would make it a certainty that their pursuing for love would become a tragedy and their tragedy could be a warning for us.Jay Gatsby was a son of shiftless and unsuccessful farm people in the middle west of USA. When he joined the army, he met Daisy, a beautiful woman from the upper class, and fell in love with her. Then, he took apart in the war and five years later when he came back from the Europe, Daisy had got married with a rich boy Tom. Later, Gatsby began his love to woman who had a husband. And Almasy, a Hungarian-born historian, follow the explorer Madox to do some research in the Sahara desert and met Geoffrey Clifton and his wife Katharine Clifton. Katharine’s charm and flair deeply attracted Almasy. He fell in love with her and also began to pursuing.Both Gatsby and Almasy believe that they could get the love they wanted and pursued. But actually, we can find that their pursuing loses contact with the harsh reality was doomed to fail.Gatsby’s ideal about the society and Daisy went far beyond the real ones. From the novel, we can find that he looked Daisy as the embodiment of beauty, purity and nobility and he thought that being together with her is like the being at wonderland which represented all the beautiful things which actually went far beyond Daisy herself. “The colossal vitality of his illusion had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way” (Fitzgerald, P95). More seriously, he also believed that money could help him eliminate the diversity between the upper class and him and buy the past and the love of Daisy. But actually, he was wrong. Like anyone else in that period, as a reality mortal, Daisy wanted not only the life of spirit and love, but also the stability of material life and superiority and immobility of social status. Under the influence of harsh realities, Daisy became more pragmatic. She had refused to leave Tom for five years probably because she had realized some kind of truth from life: the lack of emotion could be patient; paying little attention to emotion could at least provoke less hurt feelings and compared to it, the material enjoyment should play a very crucial role as she was born in a wealthy family. So when she found Gatsby‘s money came from illegal way, she wavered because she thought that although Gatsby had a great deal of money, he was only a upstart; being together with him may hurt her social status and when she had to choose one between Gatsby, a man who loved her so much and would devote his whole emotion and energy to her, and Tom, a man who betrayedher but had a stable social status, she choose the latter. Because she was a typical bourgeois woman who love money and value power with which only Tom could provide and she need more about the material comforts and superiority of social status. Even after the accident happened when Gatsby would like to be responsible to Daisy’s mistake, Daisy frankly sat face to face with Tom and would sacrifice him anytime and then escape.Meanwhile, what I would like to talk is that the process of Gatsby’s pursuing the forbidden love to Daisy was also the process of his pursuing for his American dream, because in his mind, Daisy was like a flower: beauty and purity and she could also be the symbol of all the virtue of the upper class. Gatsby did also have an active but naive American dream; he thought the life of the upper class was full of beauty and glory of love and he could join them through personal struggle. Seen from Gatsby’s “SCHUDULE”and “GENERAL RESOLVES” (Fitzgerald, P173), we can find that Gatsby was a man who was bright and had great ability and strong enterprise; he believe that he could get fortune through personal struggle and then change his social status. But that the American society was not the pure American dream any more: since 1820s, as the rapid development of capitalism, monopoly-capitalist group had gradually controlled the national economic arteries and every parts of the social life, a normal people could hardly get the chance to earn a great deal of money and join the upper class; meanwhile, as the writer said: that period called “Jazz Age”, is the most voluptuous and gorgeous period in American history; the youth in that time blindly pursued the enjoyment, aspired after money and were infatuated with wine and sex, so Gatsby’s ideal would be inconsistent with the society, even after he got a great deal of money, he still could not eliminate the diversity between the upper class and him and stillcould not join them. In my points of view, Gatsby was a representation of idealism which loses the contact with the harsh reality and Tom was representation of the extremely selfish realism. The process of pursuing the love to Daisy could also be the competition between the idealism who respected spirit and realism who respected the benefits. Although Tom show up the humanity of blackness and obduracy, but he was accepted by the American mainstream society because that society did not advocate personal struggle any more and began to cult the hedonism and extravagance and waste. Meanwhile, Daisy was also the product of that kind of society: pompous, self-serving and shallow. The fundamental diversity of value made Gatsby’s tragedy. Gatsby, a man who confounded with the dream and the reality, spent his whole life and whole energy to build a mirage, a beautiful world of dream. He realized that “Daisy’s voice was full of money”(Fitzgerald, P120) but he never understood that they belonged to the different world, standed for different value. So his devotion of his whole life energy and pure emotion to pursue the forbidden love to Daisy was doomed to fail. It is the huge gap between Gatsby’s ideal life and cruel reality made it a certainty that Gatsby’s pursuing would be a tragedy.Meanwhile, the English patient’s protagonist also had the same problem with Gatsby. He was a Hungarian but rejected all the national identity, choosing to shed “the clothes of country. He pursued the freedom: the freedom of love and freedom of everything. After he fell in love with Katharine, passion and obsession overwhelmed him, causing him block out the outside world and its rules of right and wrong. He sometimes admitted that he and Katharine are "sinners in a holy city."(The English Patient), but he also believed that love could transcend everything: including nationality, morality and responsibility so he did notever show his remorse over their deception or betrayal of Geoffrey. Meanwhile, Katharine also showed the lack of regret for hurting her husband. However, I think they were also selfish and unrealistic. Firstly, there was a serious conflict between their pursuing for the forbidden love and Katharine’s husband, a man, who was hurt seriously due to that forbidden love. Almasy considered only about possessing Katharine, and did not consider Geoffrey’s feeling: he did not consider what Geoffrey would do after the forbidden love happened. But latter, Geoffrey drove a plane to hit him and wanted to die with him and Katharine. Although Almasy was OK, Katharine was hurt seriously. Another serious conflict happened during his pursuing of the forbidden love was between his ideal, love is the most important thing, it could transcend everything, there is no need to have any national identity in the desert, and concrete specific situation-the cruel world war. In wartime, however, national identity is of great importance. With a casual attitude towards national allegiances, he went to ask the British for help because he thought they would help him undoubtedly. But actually, they didn’t help him and even arrested him as a war criminal. Because as we can know, in the war, people especially the army would not help the people from the adversary state and even wanted to kill them as soon as possible. Although later, he found Katharine through providing the map of Northern Africa to German army to exchange the oil, she had already died. In sum, we can get a conclusion that Almasy’s belief of pursuing the love for Katharine also went far away from the harsh realities, his thought was so simple, naïve and idealistic that there was a huge gap between his belief and that concrete specific historic period and cruel war environment which would make a certainty that his dream of pursuing the love for Katharine wouldnever come true.Someone may still argue that some parts of their dreams are still not bad and even we can learn from them. Such as Gatsby, he is man who had great ability and strong enterprise and who would to achieve his dream through personal struggle. If we have the same enterprise with him in the studying of our course, we may get much more improvement. And also for Almasy, his beliefs do not consider anything about the national identity which related to freedom and equality which means that different people from different place could be together only if they love each other. But we should mention that both of their pursuing happened in the specific period and situation. Although some parts of what they thought about was good, but it did not confirm to that special environment and the harsh realities. So their pursuing would become a tragedy.In conclusion, both Gatsby and Almasy’s ideal and dream were too simple, naive and idealistic because they lose the contact with the harsh realities. The huge gap between their ideal love and the cruel reality would make it a certainty that their pursuing for the forbidden love would never come true. And I think it could also be a warning for us. Pursuing such forbidden love or anything else likes that which loses contact with the harsh realities is meaningless and it could never come true.BibliographyFitzgerald, F. S[cott]. The Great Gatsby. 1925. New York: Scribner, 2004.Han Shujie.“论盖茨比的悲剧”“The discussion of Gatsby’s tragedy”Diss. Guangdong:Guangdong Institution of Education, 1995.Zhang Fuyong, Wang Xiaoni. “关于黛西-布坎农的评价”“The evaluation of Daisy Buchanan” Diss. Shandong: Shandong Foreign Language Education, 1994.Wang Ping, Wang Weiping. “美国梦的解释”“The explanation of the American dream”Wuhan: Wuhan University of Technology, V ol 14 No.2, April 2001.。