Ideas on Shared Representations by Mary Childs

mary_childs — 2024-02-21 01:34:43 UTC

CLASS

In both The Great Gatsby and Titanic, class is depicted as a rigid social structure that significantly shapes individuals’ lives and relationships. However, while Gatsby presents class mobility as an unattainable illusion, Titanic suggests the possibility of transcending class boundaries through love and human connectedness.

mary_childs — 2024-02-21 04:49:15 UTC

Social Class

Both texts offer the idea that those who have not been born into wealth (like Gatsby and Molly Brown) but go on to acquire it later in life, remain outsiders who lack the necessary education/breeding/social niceties that identify them as belonging to a higher social class.

Women

2024-02-21 22:16:34 UTC

In both "The Great Gatsby" and "Titanic," women are depicted as subordinate to their male counterparts, illustrating the patriarchal norms of the time. While "Titanic" illustrates the societal expectation for women like Rose to adhere to their husband's commands obediently, "The Great Gatsby" suggests a contrasting notion: within a society where women wield less power than men, they strategically marry affluent and socially prominent men to elevate their own status and influence. Nonetheless, the common theme across both texts remains the portrayal of women as being portrayed less than and a lower status compared to men.

Dreams

2024-02-21 22:53:20 UTC

Men grasp the American Dream of unlimited wealth and freedom, in which women are also seen as objects to take possession of to enhance or build their class and social status. This is seen both in The Titanic and The Great Gatsby through the characters of Cal and his ideal over control of Rose, as well as Tom wanting Daisy to be a fool and only be beautiful.

Wealth and Social Class

2024-02-22 05:49:58 UTC

Both The Great Gatsby and The Titanic share similar values and views around wealth and social class, particularly in the contrast between the female characters and their love interests. Despite both sharing the common theme of Class, they each represent a different side of this as Rose isn't bothered by Jack being from the working class, however Daisy looks only for wealth and power in her potential suitors.

Power

2024-02-22 09:13:30 UTC

The Great Gatsby and the Titanic both display constant power imbalances between characters to portray the societal norms for relationships. This is demonstrated through the gender roles Cal and Rose are forced to follow in the Titanic, along with the highlighted class difference between Tom and Nick in The Great Gatsby. These imbalances are both shown through Cal and Tom's superior complexes indicating they believe they have power over their fellow character.

Marriage

2024-02-22 11:08:47 UTC

Marriage is portrayed in contrasting lights in The Great Gatsby and Titanic. The Great Gatsby provides the perspective that social class is indispensable and therefore more important than love and desire, evident since two of the main characters of the story's love for each other was not enough to overlook class. However, Titanic provides the polar view that love can overcome all boundaries of social class; whilst the two main characters have an unfortunate demise, their love ultimately transcends boundaries of other characters, regardless of their opposing social classes.

Class

2024-02-22 22:42:22 UTC

The texts The Great Gatsby and Titanic promote the idea that whilst individuals can cross the class divide momentarily, the structure of the class system cannot be broken, even by love.

Women-Object of Desire

2024-02-22 22:51:12 UTC

Both The Great Gatsby and Titanic share a similar idea around women being an object of desire. For both Jay and Cal they have wealth and are set in life but they are not fulfilled without Daisy and Rose. This idea links to the desire of the American dream.

Women

2024-02-22 22:53:41 UTC

Love and desire

2024-02-22 22:58:44 UTC

Within The Great Gatsby and Titanic, love and desire is portrayed as a driving force behind overcoming class boundaries, however, in Titanic, Jack and Rose promote the idea that love can exist despite social class differences, whereas in The Great Gatsby, love is portrayed as an economic proposition in order to solidify one's social status and can offer an attempt to cross class barriers.

Love and desire

2024-02-22 23:01:58 UTC

Wealth and Power

2024-02-22 23:03:25 UTC

In both The Great Gatsby and The Titanic wealth is depicted to be seen as the main source of power, which forms characteristics of selfishness and arrogance. This is represented by Cal and Tom as their source of power is fuelled by the wealth, especially in the Titanic when Cal tries to buy a seat on a lifeboat to save himself. Tom uses his power and wealth to keep his family together but also always him to get away with his affair.

Social status

2024-02-22 23:08:58 UTC

The Great Gatsby and the Titanic depict social status as highly sought-after and influential to a persons public perception, however not necessarily to their happiness. This is demonstrated through the upper class characters such as Cal and Tom Buchanan and their lifestyle and domination which contrasts greatly to the likes of those poorer to them such as Jack Dawson and Nick. Despite this, the reader is not positioned to believe that this social status boosts their quality of life as these upper class characters are depicted as miserable and always in search of something greater.

Love and Wealth

2024-02-22 23:09:20 UTC

In both "The Great Gatsby" and "Titanic", love is seen as a gateway to Wealth. In titanic, Ruth (Rose's mother) reveals that she is leading the campaign for Rose and Cal's marriage purely for her own financial security. In "The Great Gatsby" Gatsby's love for Daisy becomes entangled with his drive for wealth, reflecting his divine need to live the 'American Dream'.

Masculinity

2024-02-23 04:01:29 UTC

James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic and F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary tragedy The Great Gatsby both explore masculinity through techniques of comparison and juxtaposition of male protagonists and antagonists (or anti-heroes) to provide correlation between styles of personal masculinity and connections with women, or both plot's female characters. Both creators of studied works utilize foils (Titanic: Cal Hockley vs. Jack Dawson - Great Gatsby: Nick Carraway/Jay Gatsby vs Tom Buchanan) to communicate how a man's sense of healthy masculinity centered around gentleness makes him more appealing and attractive to women looking for an escape from a hyperaggressive man.