The different functions of adultery in F. Scott Fitzgeralds "The Great Gatsby"

Friederike Lang

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Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies, grade: 2,0, University of Cologne (Engli...

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Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies, grade: 2,0, University of Cologne (Englisches Seminar), course: Theorien und Modelle der Literaturwissenschaft English/North American/Postcolonial Anglophone Literature(s) and culture(s), language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze what message F. Scott Fitzgerald as a modernist writer tries to convey to his readership through the employment of the theme of adultery in his 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. To create a basis, I will shortly present literary modernism and adultery as a theme and establish a profound link between them. Furthermore, I will offer a short overview of how marriage, family, and divorce developed in the U.S. over time. Most importantly however, based on the assumption that committing adultery fulfils different functions in the novel, I will present Daisy Buchanan's and Myrtle Wilson's motivations pushing them to do it. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the Western world went through a process of change and became more modern. Industrialization and its rapidly growing cities led society to shake off Victorian ideals and principles. Also, the Great War from 1914 to 1918 changed people forever. Although it was at first considered to be a great adventure and brought about the empowerment of women, it left countries and societies in a profound crisis and raised endless questions. New ways of coping with reality in this age of uncertainty were needed. The literary genre which today is called modernism dealt with this era particularly through experimenting with literary forms and styles. F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American modernist writer of the Lost Generation who produced five novels, four collections of short stories, and over 150 short stories, and dedicated his life to depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age. His accurate and posthumously celebrated representations of the societal corruption of the roaring twenties and the failure of the American Dream, as well as the creation of the flapper in fiction have awarded him a permanent place among the immortals of American literature.