Repetition of the Past: F. Scott
Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby

Prepared by Trushali Dodiya
Roll no:- 19
Enrollment no:- 4069206420220011
Sem:- 2(M. A.) Batch:- 2022-24
Paper no. :-106 Paper Code:- 22399
Paper name:- 20th century Literature- 1
Submitted to:- Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English,
MKBU
Dated on:- 11/03/2023
Email:- trushalidodiya84@gmail.com

Introduction
01
Literary Past
02
Conclusion
03
Repetition of Past
04
The Great Gatsby
05
Table of Contents

Introduction
● Novel, Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925
● Considered as a Classic American Fiction
● Also called as The Great American Novel
● Narrated by Nick Carraway
● Central character- Jay Gatsby(Martinez)
● American Desire
● Jay Gatsby’s Love for Daisy leads him to the
desire to repeat the past

Repetition of Past
Literary Past Personal Past
Jay Gatsby in The
Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald And
the Great Gatsby

Literary Past
F. Scott
Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
● Francis Scott Fitzgerald was influenced by many
literary writers
● Including James Joyce and Joseph Conrad
● Influence of these writers leads Fitzgerald to repeat
the Literary past

● In F. Scott Fitzgerald: James Joyce's "Most Devoted" Admirer, J. D. Thomas notes
that A number of critics have discussed the joycean echoes in Fitzgerald's early works
and have made passing reference to the events that led to an acquaintance between
the two writer
● A portrait of the young artist as a young man - ten best books I have read
(Thomas)
● Fitzgerald told that he had learned a lot from Conrad and had consciously imitated him
in Great Gatsby
○ Style
○ Symbolism
○ Plot Narrator
○ Theme of Romantic illusion(Meyers)
● The Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness
Kurtz-Gatsby
Marlow-Nick(Cousineau)

The Great Gatsby
● Gatsby’s desire to be rich stands for American Dream
● His Desire to repeat the past to get his Love back
‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’
‘I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,’(Fitzgerald)
● Tries to Erase past
‘About Gatsby! No, I haven’t. I said I’d been making a small investigation of his past.’
‘And you found he was an Oxford man,’ said Jordan helpfully.(Fitzgerald)
● Gatsby purchases a mansion across the bay from Daisy Buchanan’s house
I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of
Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have
seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. (Fitzgerald)

● Reunion of Gatsby and Daisy- Culmination
‘Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now—
isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.’ She began to sob
helplessly. ‘I did love him once—but I loved you too.(Fitzgerald)
● Beginning-Ending
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly
into the past.(Fitzgerald)
● In Back West: Time and Place in "The Great Gatsby",
BARRY GROSS explains how a man living in the West Egg,
after so much endeavour to be rich and successful enough to
get his love back, tries to repeat the past, can never do it as he
says, “Not even the Great Gatsby can do that”.(BARRY )
● But at the end, Gatsby reaches at his past where there is no one
with him except his father and Nick- to his past

● Fitzgerald successfully repeats the literary
past by the influence of literary writers of the
past
● Jay Gatsby’s Desire to repeat the Past
leads him to his downfall in both the ways
● Desire to get love of Daisy and to be
reputed person
Conclusion
‘Can’t repeat the
past?’ he cried
incredulously.
‘Why of course
you can!’

Work Cited
BARRY, GROSS. “Back West: Time and Place in ‘The Great Gatsby.” Western American Literature, vol. 8, 1973. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43017685.
Cousineau, Tom. “Fixing Everything in The Great Gatsby | tom cousineau.” Academia.edu,
https://www.academia.edu/34431072/Fixing_Everything_in_The_Great_Gatsby. Accessed 11 March 2023.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby: The Only Authorized Edition. Scribner, 2003.
GOLDBLATT, LAURA. “‘Can’t Repeat the Past?’ ‘Gatsby’ and the American Dream at Mid-Century.” Journal of American Studies, vol. 50,
2016. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44162974.
Martinez, Julia. “The Great Gatsby I Summary, Context, Reception, & Analysis.” Encyclopedia Britannica,
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Great-Gatsby. Accessed 11 March 2023.
Meyers, Jeffrey. “Conrad's Influence on Modern Writers.” Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 36, 1990. JSTOR,
https://doi.org/10.2307/441821.
Thomas, J. D. “F. Scott Fitzgerald: James Joyce’s ‘Most Devoted’ Admirer.” The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, vol. 5, 2006. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41583113.