《了不起的盖茨比》影评 盛世挽歌：盖茨比和咆哮的二十年代

19xx年代，第一次世界大战刚刚结束不久，新生的美国第一次以强大的胜利者姿态迎接着属于自己的时代，科技工业商业艺术教育文化空前繁荣。这个十年，共和党人柯立芝凭借“秩序与繁荣”的竞选口号当选总统并成功连任，上任不久他就说“美国人的头等大事就是做生意”； 这个十年，芝加哥的黑帮头子艾尔卡彭凭借着自己在禁酒令时期的私酒生意大发横财，在整个美国中西部翻手为云覆手为雨，这时离他19xx年被关在旧金山的恶魔岛监狱还有几乎十年；这个十年，声名卓著的卓别林上映了电影《马戏团》和《淘金记》，无需等到多年之后的今天，他毫无疑问地在那个时候就成为了默片电影的代名词；这个十年，查尔斯林德伯格驾驶着“圣路易斯精神号”单引擎飞机横跨大西洋，从纽约飞到巴黎，不可思议地实现了工业时代飞跃大洋的人类梦想。当他在巴黎着陆时，机场热情等待他的巴黎人居然有15万之众；这个十年，以道德名义通过的宪法第18修正案宣布全国范围内禁酒，这条针对道德的立法毫无意义适得其反地只带来了无尽的黑帮私酒生意，随处可见的非法酒吧和地方司法系统的全面腐败；这个十年，宾夕法尼亚州的匹兹堡诞生了历史上第一个商业电台KDKA，爵士乐成为了这个时代的最强音，路易斯阿姆斯特朗这样的爵士乐大师群星辈出；这个十年，亨利福特卖出了1500万辆福特T型车，10年前被拆分的标准石油各自为政的公司再度在全国建起了无数的加油站，陶氏化学有了自己的商标成为了美国屈指可数的大型化工企业。

一个疯狂咆哮所有人都在狂飙突进的十年，多年之后人们再提起，最伟大最自我实现预言（self-fulfilling prophecy）的总结却只是菲茨杰拉德如挽歌般的小说《了不起的盖茨比》。即便近百年后的今天，依然被Baz Luhrmann导演搬上银幕。影片极尽浮夸奢华之能事：服饰、珠宝、布景、宴会，甚至是盖茨比锃亮闪耀的黄色跑车，无不时刻提醒观众那个疯狂享乐的爵士年代。可能菲茨杰拉德自己都没有意识到，但所有的后来人，都从那些纸醉金迷灯红酒绿的描写中看到了预言版无可避免的大萧条幻灭的到来，以致时至今日，也为人所感慨。

如果只是一个在所有人的狂欢盛宴中都看到那个覆灭的曙光预兆的话，这部电影的原作也不可能影响如此深远，因为它旨在追问一个问题：“到底美国梦是什么？”莱昂纳多迪卡普里奥饰演的主角盖茨比无疑代表了那个时代最直接的精神诉求：我要不断努力赚到更多的钱，获得更高的地位，通过自己的努力，尽可能快得从一个nobody变成somebody。然后带着自己拥有的一切去追回过去，追回所有当年自己拿不到的一切。自己豪宅里所有的舞会、盛宴、乐队、美酒、喧嚣，都是为了追回五年前在路易维尔失去的一切，不止是Daisy，还有所有在他看来自己失去的这五年的前程，那些甚至从未发生过的假定的五年幸福生活。时间对于执着的近乎偏执的盖茨比来说，最好就能停滞了：这五年从来没有发生过，他带着自己的财富成就地位回到Daisy身边，从五年之前重新开始一切，至于现在的Daisy和Tom已经有了一个女儿，盖茨比甚至从来不在乎甚至不去想过该怎么办。他如此执迷于自己的过去不肯放手，以至于当Nick直觉一般地追问：“你不可能重复过去发生过的事情”（You can’ t repeat the past）时候，盖茨比本能怀疑般的回答：“不可能重复过去？为什么？当然可以！我会让一切回到

原本应该的样子！她（Daisy）会看到的！”(Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can! I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before. She’ ll see)。在他的世界里，一切都是为了自己豪宅隔水相望Daisy住所晚上闪耀的绿光。

其实Daisy这种肤浅的优柔寡断甚至不值得去多加置喙，因为她Tom都是这样环境中成长起来的这样的人。既便是Daisy本人，也不可能对自己的处境和Tom的外遇一无所知毫无觉察，她看着自己和Tom的女儿说“我很高兴是个女儿，我希望她是个傻瓜。对一个女孩儿来说，世界上最好的结果就是变成一个美丽的小傻瓜”（I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool — that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.）。他那种对自己所拥有的一切物质财富理所当然的想法和物质的欲望使他在本质上和Tom并没有区别。如Nick在盖茨比死后对Tom和Daisy那种毫不在乎的冷漠的看法：“我无法原谅他或者喜欢他。但是他所做的一切，在他们自己看来都合情合理：一切都非常冷漠令人困惑。Tom和Daisy是冷漠的人，他们把所有事情都搞砸，然后退缩到到自己的财富和麻木不仁或者不管什么使他们在一起的东西之中，留下烂摊子让别人去收拾”。

诸如“盖茨比爱上了一个bitch，然后他一辈子被毁了”这种说法也是很值得商榷的。盖茨比这种如小马哥一样“我忍了三年，就是要等一个机会，我要争一口气，我不是想证明自己了不起， 我是要告诉人家：我失去的东西我一定要拿回来”的坚忍宣誓毕竟动人，只是一个人若对所有自己经历过的世事都不放手的话，不管盖茨比后来的成就多么伟大，若他的成功和自我实现都要通过翻开过去的伤疤挽回早已经不属于他的Daisy来证明的话，那在他面前所注定的，就只能是一个死胡同。因为过去发生的事情真的就那么无可置喙不容辩解地发生了，除了接受之外，唯一的选择是遗忘。而盖茨比的可悲之处则在于，这两者他都做不到。

盖茨比用尽所有努力造就了一个全新的自己实现了美国梦，他甚至亲自给自己改了名字。他对Daisy的隐藏的含义是，他拒绝相信因为自己出身低微就注定无所成就。任何能够让自己获得财富和成就的方法，哪怕是非法的，都在所不惜。盖茨比的葬礼上，只有Nick、盖茨比的父亲和牧师等几个人出现，几乎所有人敬而远之，生怕和这个靠贩卖私酒和有组织犯罪起家的盖茨比先生有什么瓜葛，即便不久前他们都在盖茨比的豪宅里饮酒作乐笙歌艳舞彻夜狂欢。人们赞颂财富和成就，却毫无例外地面对后事避而远之。盖茨比的父亲得知儿子的死讯后赶来为儿子送葬，在盖茨比堂皇的豪宅中对Nick说，我为我儿子的成就感到骄傲。

回到最初的问题：“美国梦到底是什么？” 老罗斯福总统19xx年在巴黎发表了题为《共和国的公民》的演讲，在文中他说：“重要的从不是那些在一旁指手画脚的人，不是那些对别人的失败评头论足的人，更不是那些指责别人如何可以做得更好的人。荣耀属于那些真正站在竞技场里打拼的人：他们满面灰尘，浸透着汗渍和血迹；他们英勇无畏；他们一遍又一遍地犯错跌倒，因为这路上一定伴随着打击，即便如此他们依然奋力向前做到了；他们理解自己执着和专注；他们献身于崇高的事业；在最好的情况下，他们最终品尝了伟大的胜利和成就；在最坏的情况下，即使他们失败了，至少他们也很伟大地倒下，因为那些自始至终从不知道胜利或者失败的冷漠和胆怯的灵魂远远不能与他们相提并论”。两百多年

来，一代代的移民来到这里，就是为了摆脱过去的旧世界。路过纽约港的自由女神像旁，旧金山的金门大桥下，在洛杉矶的长滩港上，所有来到这里在这里生活的人们都相信不管自己出身如何贫寒卑贱，只要凭借自己的勤劳奋斗和不懈追求，总有一天我们总会得到我们觉得自己应该得到的一切：财富、地位、尊重、爱情。每个生活在这里的人都像盖茨比一样，“信奉那盏绿灯，那个一年年离我们渐渐远去的完美未来。我们从前抓不到他，不过不要紧：明天我们会跑得更快，手伸得更远，总有那么一个早上，我们奋力向前，逆水行舟，不断地被推向过去”。

如小说第一章原文所说，“盖茨比本人到最后其实安然无恙善始善终，只不过是那些曾经吞噬了盖茨比的，在梦境醒来之后发觉的浑浊灰尘，让我们暂时对人世间壮志未酬的悲哀和转瞬即逝的欢愉失去了兴趣”。（Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men）。盖茨比的确很伟大，非常了不起，只是，他原本应该格外小心地想清楚，自己心心念之日夜不倦努力不停追求的，到底是什么。

第二篇：了不起的盖茨比

American  literature

班级：0903班

    学号：2009010119

姓名：宋丹丹

Analysis of the Personality of the Major

 Characters in The Great Gatsby

                                     

Abstract :The Great Gatsby is the finest novel written by the famous American writer, Fitzgerald. The novel mirrors the decline of the American dream and deeply reveals the essence of it. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald selects skillfully different people such as Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan to represent their different statuses in society and eventually to reflect the contradictions of the American world by their lives. This essay will focus on the discussion of the two major characters, discussing their fate by comparison and talking about the internal conflict of their personality, to have a further understanding of the corruption of the American society after the First World War and the cause of their different personality.

 

Keywords: The Great Gatsby major characters analysis of personality

1 A Brief Introduction to The Great Gatsby

Francis Scott Fitzgerald was considered as one of the most well known writers in America at an era that he named “the Jazz Age”. During the twenty years of his writing, he published about one hundred short stories and four long novels. The Great Gatsby is one of the greatest literary works of this period and one of the classics in American literature, which reveals the moral emptiness and hypocrisy under the prosperity of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald uses his pen to reveal the life and the ideas of people after the First World War and introduces one kind of valuable spirit. The American dream of happiness and individualism has fallen into the mere pursuit of wealth. Fitzgerald presents the rise and fall of Jay Gatsby, skillfully choosing a first-person narrator, Nick Carraway’s perspective.

2 Tragic Jay Gatsby

Jay Gatsby, a typical upstart after the First World War, is a sensitive young man who idolizes wealth and luxury. He falls in love with Daisy, when he stations at a military camp near her home, but later she marries another man. His search for the American dream leads him from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his beloved and eventually, to his death. He is attracted by Daisy’s grace and charm, but blinds her shortcomings.

To some extent, Gatsby is naive and stupid for he never sees Daisy in her true colors just as he never sees the green light clearly. Though he never stops loving and has taken the house in West Egg to be near her, he never realizes that he can’t come back to the old warm world. It is easy to find that throughout his courtship of Daisy, Gatsby is always in a position of less power and lower social status. Because Gatsby has idolized her, Daisy will necessarily not live up to his expectation. The reader may find out the contradiction in Gatsby’s personality after reading the novel. On one hand, Gatsby is innocent and naive in his heart for he sticks to his goal and dedicates himself to achieve his destination, but he never realizes that it is actually unreal. He shows his loyalty to his beloved and dares no effort to make his dream come into true. However, on the other hand, he owns money by all means including illegal ones and he is indifferent to the death of Myrtle Wilson, the superficial wife of a garage man called George Wilson. Just as the novel mentions, “he spoke as if Daisy’s reaction was the only thing that mattered.” Gatsby is nimble and ambitious in making money, which shows the “sagacity” of modern people, but towards love he gives us the impression of “a naive young man.”   

Gatsby is great because of his loyalty to love. For Gatsby, Daisy is the soul of his dreams. He believes he can regain Daisy. Although he has the wealth that can match with the leisured class, he does not have their manners. His tragedy lies in his possession of a naive sense.

 Therefore, Gatsby’s tragedy does not lie in his death, but in the death of his dream of utopia. It is his lack of reason and judgment that leads him to death. When introducing the origination of Gatsby’s name, Fitzgerald writes: “The true was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself. He was a Son of God–a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty”. This sets the tone of Gatsby’s tragic life. He has not been aware of the different social statuses between his and Tom’s. In general, Jay Gatsby is one of the best among characters in the novel. Even though he is a bootlegger and all his money is illegally made he still has more conscience than many others. Gatsby wants people to be happy, and if they are happy he will be happy, too. He holds luxury parties for people to attend and enjoy themselves. He also does his best to make Nick feel easy in his garden. Gatsby shows a certain amount of kindness to almost everyone he meets. His parties are open to anyone who wants to attend no matter what his social class is. He does his best to be kind to almost everyone. From this aspect, he is a very decent person indeed.

All in all, Gatsby is only a dreamiest in his whole life. His loyalty to his love and ideal and the contradictions of his dreams lead to the disillusionment of his American dream. His death, in a sense, serves as a warning, but it also ennobles him.

3 Vanity and Selfish Daisy Buchanan

As a beautiful and charming girl in the upper class, Daisy is quiet active in all kinds of social activities and she once had her true love. It is safe to say Daisy once really loved Gatsby. But her mother prevents it .To some extent, her mother not only prevents Daisy’s stupid idea but also changes her opinions about the real meaning of life. After that, Daisy becomes a representative of the upper class. At that time, the most important thing for a lady was to find a rich husband with decent status, so Daisy makes good use of her beauty to deal with a lot of young men. Her vanity is completely disclosed when she contacts with those men. She has bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth and her best feature seems to be her voice. So she quickly marries Tom just because he is richer.

Compared with Gatsby, Daisy is superficial, shallow, and self-centered for she sees everything from the perspective of her own happiness. For Fitzgerald, women like Daisy represent the deepest seductive power of the American dream as well as its greatest dangers. Daisy’s lack of responsibility is revealed at the end of the story. When she drives over Myrtle and she doesn't even stop, which shows what Fitzgerald wants to reveal in the whole book—the rich have no concept of responsibility in reality. She is a little bit too careless. In fact, her carelessness leads to the death of Myrtle Wilson. She proves her real nature when she chooses Tom over Gatsby, and allows Gatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle Wilson even though she herself is the murderer.  Finally, Daisy and Tom move away rather than attend Gatsby’s funeral, leaving no address. Daisy is indifferent to the death of Gatsby. As a matter of fact, she is the real murderer of Myrtle Wilson. After the accident, she and Tom conspire together and follows her husband’s suggestion to let Gatsby take the responsibility.

Why Daisy is unwilling to leave Tom and come together with Gatsby after he becomes rich? In fact, there are also some contradictions in her personality. On one hand, she is moved by Gatsby’s loyalty and stubbornness, which is fully embodied in the reunion between Gatsby and her. In addition, she is also attracted by Gatsby’s wealth and disappointed at Tom’s infidelity. On the Other hand, she dose not have the power to leave her husband and her family when Tom confronts Gatsby. She can’t lose the comfortable and luxury life with Tom. “This life is boring but gives her a feeling of safety.” During the First World War, Gatsby is only an inferior officer. Therefore, though Daisy loves him, she is unwilling to marry him. After Gatsby leaves to fight in the war, she marries Buchanan, a young man from an aristocratic family who promises her a wealthy lifestyle. Gatsby gathers great fortune and becomes the new rich, but Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan who is the “the very rich” and the traditional aristocrat. Though Daisy is unsatisfied with Tom’s behavior and never forgets Gatsby, the wealth makes Daisy and him invulnerable. So in the end, Mr. Gatsby’s dream still has not come true and Daisy does not break up with Tom to go with Gatsby.

As a representative lady of the upper class at the particular time, Daisy enjoys vanity, selfishness and sophistication that a young woman often has at her time. It’s her vanity and selfishness that cause the death of Gatsby.

Conclusion:

To sum up, The Great Gatsby is an elegy of the corruption of the American Dream .The novel clearly shows that there is no way from money to love, from material to spirit. The author criticizes the American society in 1920s. Fitzgerald uses the characters to show the destruction of morals in society. The characters in this novel, many of them lose their morals in order to find their ideal place in the society.  To some extent, their different personalities are caused by their attitudes towards money. It is not only the tragedy of love between Daisy and Gatsby but also shows the tragedy of the American dream.

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