Sunday, December 21, 2014

What is the overall mood of the The Great Gatsby as a whole?

In The Great Gatsby, the mood is dark
and pessimistic. The overall feeling in the novel is tragic. It is such a shame to live
one's life chasing material gain only to come down to the end of life with nothing of
value, nothing meaningful.


Jay Gatsby is a sad character.
The reader has a sense of pity for Gatsby. He is a tragic character. The reader is left
with a solemn, pessimistic view of those seeking material gain to try and find
happiness.


After reading, the reader is left with a sense
of hopelessness. What should be a romantic ideal turns into a devastating tragedy
following the deaths of Gatsby and Myrtle. Also, Daisy contributes to the tension in the
novel:



Daisy
puts the constant tension between romantic ideal and cynical reality into words without
even realizing it...



No
doubt, the reader senses the tension and longs for some sort of reprieve with no relief
in sight. The order of events proves to be lives filled with pretense. The reader can
sense the facades of Jay and Daisy. Neither character is truly happy. The atmosphere is
so pessimistic until the reader is grieved throughout the work. Truly the reader has to
endure a range of emotions:


readability="13">

The mood is largely dark, pessimistic, and vapid
as set by the purposelessness and carelessness of the wealthy, the ongoing string of
meaningless parties, the ugliness of the Valley of Ashes, and the tragic deaths of
Gatsby and Myrtle. Only Nick Carraway's honest and moral view of life breaks the sense
of tragedy.


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