The Great Gatsby의 悲劇性 : 사랑과 죽음의 의미 = Three Deaths in the Great Gatsby Its Meaning and Tragic Effects

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

We can not read even a page of The Great Gatsby without being aware that we have a little jewel of a novel, nicely shaped and polished with a perfection of craftmanship which gives each page and each paragraph into a contribution to the whole. It is, as T. S. Eliot said, the first great step that American fiction has taken since Henry James.
Most critics of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby tend to agree that the main theme of this work is the American dream and a fine record of the corrupt society of the twenties. And some praise its excellent from and structure, others its style and impressive uses of symbols.
But I feel that one more word should be said, above all these critical terms, for The Great Gatsby deserves to be called “Great” in the point of its tragic characters. Tragic effects of The Great Gatsby must be studied still further in order to cover the missing faults of Gatsby's criticism.
There happen the three deaths just as a series of accidents in The Great Gatsby. The meaning of them is mostly out of our regards. The chain deaths can not be just a solution to the complex stories of the five a affairs. If the deaths did not have any meaning the work would be a simple melodrama.
The most tragic effects lie, of course, in the death which is not inescapable by Gatsby. He willingly goes under the burden of responsibility for killing Myrtle in the accident, which is caused by Daisy's careless drive of the Gatsby's yellow car. He pretends to drive the very yellow car to protect Daisy from any possible damage. For Daisy is his incarnation of pure dream. The greatness of Gatsby is here in his attitude of martyrdom believes in his achievement of dream.
Gatsby and the first death, Myrtle stand side by side in the point that they are both the pursuer of dreams. In case of Myrtle to participate in the upper class is her persistent dream by means of having sex affairs with Tom, who represents wealth and physical excellence.
Wilson, the very killer of Gatsby under the misguide of Tom, is, however, on Gatsby's side because of this unawareness of the surrounding forces and innocent behaviors.
The Great Gatsby is not simply a dramatization of American dream of the Zazz Age but rather a tragedy representing human defeat of innocence and the purity of dream in the corrupt society. But the defeat of Gatsby is not merely a death. The death of Gatsby means the martyrdom of dream pursuer in a sense and in another it is a good model of tragic defeat arousing our pathetic feeling for the pure which is dying out of the materialized society.
The Great Gatsby is a systematical exploration of the American dream as it exists in a corrupt period and it is an attempt to determine that concealed boundary that divides the reality from the illusions. And the American dream has two phases; the outer phase is reality standing for Tom and Daisy and the inner phase is illusions representing Gatsby. But these two phases can not exist in the same place and period. They struggle each other for their own realization. In this sense the Great Gatsby is the struggle between spirit and body. Without the guide of the spirit, the body must be drifting and floating. But the dealth of Gatsby is a tragic appeal of spirit to the drifting corrupt society.