Barchester Towers

Barchester Towers, the second in the Barsetshire series, is considered one of the most humorous Victorian novels. Humor is found in human follies and foibles and is magnified in a farcical manner, amusing the reader and giving a reason to think logically and leaving the opinion to the reader to decide whether the society is acting normally or not. It is not a comedy that would make one guffaw with laughter, but it does portray Trollope’s wit which surely makes one smile. The way Trollope portrays different characters and situations, all create comedy in the novel. Humor is created in the novel by incongruity between what is and what ought to be. Barchester Towers is filled with wry and sardonic humor, both in the dialogue of the characters and in Trollope's third person omniscient narration. The way Trollope interacts with his readers and comments on different characters and situations all serve the purpose of creating humor in the novel. 
Trollope arouses humor at many places in the novel. In chapter I,” Who will be the next Bishop?” when the ministry is about to fall and the bishop of Barchester is ill and about to die, the son of bishop is anxious about acquiring the seat of his father, which would be vacant when he dies. When the physicians predict that the bishop would live for another week, the archdeacon starts “to calculate his chances” of death. When the bishop finally dies, Mr. Harding goes to console the archdeacon but the archdeacon treats Mr. Harding more like an errand boy rather than his father in law. The archdeacon is more concerned with the vacant seat of bishop than his father’s death, a comic situation which shocks the reader and makes them laugh. Trollope has portrayed it in this way, “The archdeacon’s mind, however, had already travelled from the death chamber to closet of Prime Minister.” Trollope tries to make a travesty of the concept of death through his character of junior Grantly and his power hungry nature. 
Trollope also satirizes the ministry. The new prime minister should be busy in solving his country’s affairs but when Mr. Harding reaches him to tell the news of the bishop’s death; he is shown lounging in his chair engaged in a French novel. Humor originates when there is contradiction between what is being done and what should be done. 
When the newspaper, The Jupiter, praised the musical skills of Mr.Harding, Trollope says that “This was high praise and I will not deny that Mr.Harding was gratified by such flattery; for if Mr. Harding was vain on any subject it was on that of music.” Continuing the matter, Trollope says that after sometime the editors of the newspaper were occupied with other important issues and “the undying fame promised to our friend was clearly intended to be posthumous” meaning that the fame promised to Mr. Harding would never be given to him in his lifetime.  
Anthony Trollope criticizes the women wittily as is evident when he talks about Eleanor as “one of those feminine hearts which cling to a husband”. He compares Eleanor with “ivy” and her husband John Bold as a “tree”. Ivy covers the trunk of a tree and hides all defects so the trunk like wise Eleanor “clings to” and “loves the very faults” of her husband. The author has mocked women’s nature of relying on their father or husband and never admitting their faults, thus the author says that Eleanor “became ever ready to defend the worst failings of her lord and master.” Eleanor loves her baby and worships him as if he is a little god and Trollope mocks at her saying “let us hope the adoration offered over the cradle of the fatherless infant may not be imputed as a sin”.
At the introduction of the new bishop Dr. Proudie, the writer has used humor in characterization. Mr. Proudie, a haughty individual, is never satisfied by the praise he gets, he always wants more. Trollope is also making fun of his own misconceptions and misperceptions when he says that he would not describe about the ceremony because he didn’t understand the nature of that ceremony. Later on he introduces Dr.Proudie as someone whose own image is important to him and he knew that “exterior trappings held in proper esteem…” are necessary for “…due observance of rank”. Dr.Proudie himself thinks he is “born to move in high circles”, but Trollope thinks other wise.
The author in a whimsical way says Dr.Proudie “was friendly to those who were really in authority” and that if the doctor “didn’t do much active good, he never did any harm”. He is very worldly and avaricious as he only makes himself acquainted with those who are somehow in authority and could do him a favor at the time of need. 
Comedy springs out in the way a character is portrayed, the countenance, the features, the settings and the acts they perform makes one feel part of a comic strip or scene. Dr.Proudie is below middle height, but “he makes up for the inches which he wants by the dignity with which he carries those which he has.” Trollope criticizes ecclesiastic class while describing the Misses. Proudies. They are “now all grown up and fit for fashionable life”. This shows that they are not following the religious convictions, values, principles and traditions. Similarly Mrs. Proudie is described to us as a religious woman in her own way. She is very strict in observance of Sabbatharian rule. Mrs.Proudie overlooks dissipation, low dresses and occasional drunkenness in other weekdays but the desecration of Sabbath cannot be overlooked. Trollope compares her eyes with “the eyes of Argus”, a creature in Greek mythology that had several eyes and if one of his eyes were closed all the others remained open. Mrs. Proudie likes to control whatever she can and in one such laughable situation, “Mrs. Proudie looked at her, but said nothing. The meaning of her look might have been thus translated: ‘If you ever find yourself within these walls again, I’ll give you leave to be as impudent and affected, and as mischievous as you please.” Transmitting subliminal messages through her eyes, she seems to live for these reasons alone; firstly, to prove her authority over everyone, secondly, to psychoanalyze the people in her reach and the situations she can exercise her authority on. Trollope uses tongue in cheek when saying it is not his intention to breathe a word against Mrs.Proudie. The author makes the reader realize the role of woman over man in a laughable manner when he talks about the control of Mrs.Proudie on her “titular lord”. Mrs. Proudie rules him “with a rod of iron”. She is not satisfied with her domestic rule and wants to stretch her dominion over all movements of her husband. The author calls Dr.Proudie a “hen-pecked husband” because he is controlled over by his wife in domestic as well as official matters.   
Mr.Slope, the chaplain of bishop, will “stoop to fawn” and stoop low indeed with the people who were in authority to carry out his own purposes. Mr.Slope, also like Mrs.Proudie, could not afford violation of Sabbath rule and the author says “Sunday, however, is a word which never pollutes his mouth”.  As far as his appearance is concerned we are told “his hair is lank and of a dull pale reddish hue. It is formed into three straight lumpy masses, each brushed with admirable precision, and cemented with much grease; two of them adhere closely to the sides of his face and the other lies at right angels above them.” And about his face the author writes that his face is a little redder than his hair and “it is not unlike beef-beef, however, one would say, of a bad quality”.
The bishop’s treatment at the hands of his wife and Mr. Slope creates much humor in the novel. He is like a puppet in their hands, sometimes the strings are pulled by Mrs. Proudie and sometimes by Mr. Slope. This becomes exceedingly evident in the power play between Mr. Slope and Mrs. Proudie, especially in the chapter, “Mrs. Proudie Wrestles and Gets a Fall”, when both of them are quarreling and the bishop is sitting there scratching his head and nervously “twiddling his thumbs. Turning his eyes now to his wife, and now to his chaplain”, and he wishes that they both “fight it out so that one should kill the other utterly.”   
When Dr. Grantly and Mr.Harding pay a visit to Dr.Proudie and then depart, many instances of hilarity are disclosed before the avid reader . Firstly, Dr.Proudie is playing “Venus to Juno” and is prepared for the war, which shows that they will become enemies of each other. They both depart after meeting the Proudies, but try “escaping from Mr.Slope in the best manner each could”. As soon as they depart, both are enraged. Trollope describes the wrath and anger of the archdeacon. When he lifts his cap, “a visible stream” is emitted thus “preventing positive explosion and probable apoplexy”. 
The sermon of Mr.Slope, at Barchester “ridiculed, abused and anathematized” the high-and-dry church and makes the people of Barchester angry. Trollope, through his word-play, creates humor while describing the anger of the people of Barchester. The sermon of Mr. Slope was heard with “angry eyes” and with “widespread nostrils” from which “burst forth fumes of indignation” which show the disturbed mind of the people. Mr. Slope, who is hated by Eleanor and Mary Bold, after the sermon, comes to meet them at their house. This news shocks them. They become defensive in the baby’s case as the widow snatches the baby out of the cradle in her lap and Mary Bold stands up to “die manfully in the baby’s behalf”. Mr. Slope, an uninvited guest, is received with hatred, anger and extreme wrath but when the conversation ends and he is about to leave, he is allowed by each lady to “take her hand” for farewell and he also touches the baby’s hand and blesses him.  
Humor arises out of the introduction of the Stanhope family. A letter is sent to the Stanhope family to be called back to Barchester. Four different points are written in that letter. Firstly, Dr.Proudie calls Dr.Stanhope for the assistance in the diocese. Secondly, the bishop wants to become acquainted with him. Thirdly, it is necessary for Dr.Stanhope’s own interest. And the fourth point is a threat to Dr. Stanhope that if he does not come back his name is to be given to “councils of nation” as an absentee clergy. In reality the Stanhope’s are very heartless and selfish people but they act as refined natured human beings that no one ever feels it. They visit their neighbors in sickness and bring them oranges but when they hear about their death, they still laugh without any concern.
Dr. Stanhope is a clergyman, supposed to follow religious convictions but this is not so. Instead he never obtrudes them even on his children. This is not because he thinks not of influencing their thoughts and actions but according to the author “he was habitually idle”. Skilton coolly demonstrates that while there is very little "poetic" in Trollope and little of religion (there's plenty of satirized religiosity), his work abounds in "mental life." - Margaret Markwick
Like wise, Mrs. Stanhope only knows how to dress and according to the author as for “other purposes in her life, she had none”. She is also very inactive, that is why her eldest daughter takes the charge of the house. Madeline Stanhope is very beautiful. She has been married and has a child, yet she is a flirt and always tries to attract men towards herself. Trollope says she “had destroyed the hearts of dozens cavaliers without once being touched in her own”. She is not at all religious. Trollope compares her eyes with that of Lucifer’s because they depict cruelty, mischief, cunning and courage. When they were called to Barchester, Trollope describes her as “the lady who had now come to wound the hearts of the men of Barchester”. She has changed her name to La Signora Madeline Neroni, which is humorous. Just to gain an air of importance in her circle she is willing to sacrifice her identity. In Barchester Towers we come to know about signora Neroni that “Her ambition was to create a sensation, to have parsons at her feet, seeing that the manhood of Barchester consisted mainly of parsons, and to send, if possible, every parson’s wife home with green fit of jealousy.” Trollope has made Neroni a pitiable character, especially the incident of her mysteriously returning home crippled.
The rector of the Perish has constantly been made fun of by the author as being fat and in one such situation “The rector’s weight was resting on the sofa, and unwittingly lent all its impetus to accelerate and increase the motion which Bertie intentionally originated. The sofa rushed from its moorings, and ran half-way into the middle of the room” concluding that rector is uninviting for the whole gathering and even a mere non-living object is not welcoming him. Trollope dissects the farcical values which the people of Barchester have built which have no care for human feelings and they continue to live by it.
In chapter, “The Widow’s Suitors” he lashes out at the writers as he writes “Our doctrine is that the author and the reader should move along together in full confidence with each other. Let the personages of the drama undergo ever so complete a comedy of errors among themselves, but let the spectator never mistake the Syracusan for the Ephesian; otherwise he is one of the dupes, and the part of a dupe is never dignified”. Trollope brings forward his complete message and explains to the reader that the way comedy should go is that the writer should always be in control of it.
One way that Trollope's humor unfolds before us is in wordplay and hyperbole as is evident when the unpleasant Mr. Slope tries to declare his love for Signora Neroni, he takes her hand and this is how Trollope portrays it, "Mr. Slope was big, awkward, cumbrous, and having his heart in his pursuit, was ill at ease. The lady was fair, as we have said, and delicate; everything about her was fine and refined; her hand in his looked like a rose lying among carrots, and when he kissed it he looked as a cow might do on finding such a flower among her food." The analogy of a woman’s hands lying in a man’s hand looking like a rose lying among carrots and Mr. Slope looking like a cow is simply hilarious. The whole episode of Mr. Slope declaring his love for Signora Neroni is mirthful. The way she makes an utter fool out of this chaplain is humorous. We are told that Mr. Slope for Signora Neroni was “the finest fly that Barchester had hitherto afforded to her web; and the signora was a powerful spider that made wondrous webs.” In the same way Mrs. Grantly’s comparison of Mr. Arabin to a goose and his not being able to prove “his qualifications in swanhood to her satisfaction” create humor as well. 
When a visit is paid to St. Ewold’s parsonage to establish proper lodging for Mr. Arabin, many instances of comedy are disclosed before us. When Eleanor points out a beautiful view from a window to Mr. Arabin, he turns it into a barrack in some battlefield from where he can have a clear view of his adversaries and he can “fire away at them at a very pleasant distance”. Similarly the way Mr. Grantly walks up and down the dinning-room with “ponderous steps”, the way he snubs Mr. Harding and argues about something as trivial as a round table in the dining- room and advocating to tear down the walls just to make the dinning-room larger, all serve to create humor. 
Trollope through his Novel tries to capture the snapshot of the past, he does not seem to be interested in just narrating the story, it looks as if he is interested in finding the comic nature of characters, situations, events and risibility of the want of acquiring power. Riffaterre explains that Trollope uses metonymies as comic devices, and that this comic and descriptive tool is reflective of Trollope's emphasis on contradiction, a hallmark of his literary style. 

Trace the way in which Waiyaki and Nayambura’s in and later love for each other gradually develop and describe the way in which it ends so tragically

Ngugi is a Kenyan writer, famous for his post colonial work.  In regard to the question, it should be noted out that Nyambura seems like a symbol hope for Waiyaki. If people would somehow understand that both tribes men and Josha followers need to live together, he would become the happiest person there is. Waiyaki and Nyambura both seems to be in conflict with their selves; and this conflict revolves around the love that binds them together.

Nyambura and Waiyaki are the central love birds in the novel. Their love affair does not spring until the almost the very end of the novel. But a glimpses of their advances are seen in the novel. Muthoni being that link that drove them to each other. Waiyaki would have loved Muthoni if she had lived, but contrary to what happened, unfortunately or fortunately the love birds that were to rise were Nyambura and Waiyaki. One of Josha’s – the rebel, daughter and one from Chege, Kibiro, Wachirori and Kamiri, Gikiyu and Mumbi’s tribe; the magical and powerful forefathers of the tribe.
When Muthoni said “slowly and quietly: ‘Nyambura, I want to be circumcised’” (25) at that very moment that first stone of something grave had to happen was setup. And Muthoni, Nyambura (who would have the same feelings somehow as she extremely close to her sister) and Waiyaki was part of it. Waiyaki was intimate with Muthoni and when she died he was devasted by her loss. “Yearning. Yearning. Was life all a yearning and no satisfaction?” (73) engulfed him.
Waiyaki saw Nyambura at the bank of Honia river, Nyambura used to sit at the spot where she used to sit with her sister. When they had collided into each other as she was coming from Honia river, they stopped and “he felt awkward.”(74) This awkwardness was the beggninig of their love for each other. Even when Waiyaki was working in Marioshoni, the most popular school in his area, he occasionally thought about his purpose for making such an effort. His thoughts would go in the past when  Chege’s (his father’s) desire to let Waiyaki see that a savior would save his tribe from the white man will come and haunt him. At the same time, the daring act of going to church every now and then, church where the faith of Nyambura’s was practiced.
Clearly when Waiyaki watched the flames in the air and when “...he put out his little figner and tried to touch the flame…” (82) he knew that quiet well “It was not good to play with fire.” (82) This foretold him that the desires he had for Nyambura could be dangerous for him in the future. Flame symbolizing the desire for Nyambura and at the same time it is the fire that could burn the tribe’s culture and land. It is that enlightened of ruin which the white man was throwing on the illiterate people who indulged into to circumcision which Livingstone abhorred.
Waiyaki and Nyambura’s surprised meeting had made Waiyaki courageous and passionate enough to say one day “Nyambura, I love you…” (106) ,“… She wanted to say ‘Yes’” but ”… it was impossible to marry him. Unless she rebelled”. (107) Waiyaki’s love for Muthoni and now Nyambura seemed unreachable. Muhoni and Nyambura portended the desire for the people to change. The need for people to change. And this love between a Christened girl and Waiyaki, the follower of old customs need to made in order to induce change in the system.
Kamau caught Waiyaki by surprise and he would never forget when Waiyaki insulted him in the plains. The feud between Waiyaki and Kamau began as Kamua declared through his action that he would not watch “…Waiyaki beat him in love”(108) because “Kamau loved Nyambura…Yet he had never had a good change to open his hear to her.”(108) Kamau and Waiyaki was of the same tribe but because Kamau wasn’t able to express his love for Nyambura “Waiyaki was his rival to death”(108)
When Kinuthia, his friend and follower, to
Waiyaki after school he looked embarrassed. When Waiyaki questioned him, he told him about the rumour which he called it (the rumour) as a joke, the rumour being, “You have become one of Joshua’s followers” (111) and this Waiyaki felt not as a joke but he knew that Kinuthia has told him as a warning not as a joke. Waiyaki had been called to the Kiama, where decicisons were made by the elders, and Waiyaki saw Kabonyi, who has been at the fore front of changing whatever was good between him and the tribe. And question rightfully arose in him, “Was Kabonyi determined to destroy all that stood against him and the tribe?” (113) and the answer seemed yes because nothing was going in Waiyaki’s favour. His reputation in Kiama was questionable, his love (Nyambura) was not sure whether to side with Waiyaki or his father. And his efforts to expands his educational institutions seemed necessary yet the lonely inside him dried him inside, his yearning for love grew in him.
The situation was becoming serious, for Waiyaki he soon had to make a decision. But as Nyambura was getting confused and “she did not want to follow (Josha and his father anymore) … now wished to rebel” (114) Waiyaki needed to a crucial choice between his people and Nyambura.
Kinuthia was convinced that “Waiyaki was the best man to lead people … through … areas of…self-expressions through political independence”(118) but as the forces of Kabonyi, Kamau and Kiama was against him, he was not going to be successful. To rid the Irigu, the impure, Kiama would not spare Waiyaki for he had broken the oath with the tribe.
When gave the ultimate challenge and said, “let him (Waiyaki) deny her (Nyambura)” (150) “Waiyaki knew that he could not deny her now,” (151). People were not able to see his desire to unite the people and start a “policical movement”(151) and thus, for not saying a word against Kabonyi now, Waiyaki stood with his arms aournd Nyambura and “would (then) be placed in the hands of Kiama”(152). Thus the tragedy befell not only on Waiyaki and Nyambura but also on the people of Kameno and Makuyu – they were not able to understand the beautiful purpose of uniting the people laid out by Waiyaki, the saviuor.

Critical Analysis of the “The Painter” by John Ashbery

Ashbery makes a genuine effort to portray the poetic vision of an artist’s mind by concentrating on the dictum "ut pictura poesis"--"as is painting, so is poetry". Through poetry he glorifies a mere painter’s struggle to find his true artistic form and inclination towards a specific way of being creative in "The Painter".

“For some people the fear of inner torment is such that the desire to create has to be repressed: ‘He does not embark on any serious pursuits commensurate with his gifts lest he fails to be a brilliant success. He would like to write or paint but does not dare to start’ (Horney 107). Or if the desire to create is not repressed, the creative process will be wracked with anxiety or hampered by self torment.” This quote from the book Therapeutic dimensions of autobiography in creative writing by Celia Hunt aptly captures to some extent the condition the painter in the poem goes through, who seems confused on whether to draw the painting of the sea or not. And how this feat of capturing the sea can be achieved.

A similar theme is also tackled by the great American poet, Emily Dickinson. In her short poem she writes: “Artists wrestle here! /Lo, a tint Cashmere! /Lo, a Rose! /Student of the Year! /For the easel here/Say Repose!” This poem lays bare the fact that the artist always juggles with his tools and crafts in order to create what he wants. For him to relax is unthinkable likewise the painter in the poem faces a lot of troubles in making this special piece of art (the sea). The painter seems to self actualize himself by materializing the urge to paint a portrait of the sea which will give the chaos of his creative world a poetic and appeasing feeling.

Ashbery is known for his surrealist poetry and in "The Painter he uses his skill to masterfully create connections between varied images. Using the modified form of sestina (last words of the verses are mostly changed) he is able to make these images jump into a creative hotchpotch. But the irony of the poem is that the artist portrayed in the poem seems to go through a rough patch in his life yet the creativity by which the poet himself writes, speaks volume of about the work of art he produces; the poet is able to create with the painter in the poem a smooth imagery of an artist’s struggle towards his creative independence--a mere human’s effort to fight for what he deems right. In order to fulfill his creative vision he goes against all the odds set by the society. Ashbery was himself a painter and his surrealist automatic writing in the poem seems to give power to the automatic drawing the painter is trying to achieve in the poem, as the artist wishes: “he expected his subject / To rush up the sand, and, seizing a brush, / Plaster its own portrait on the canvas.

Interpretation of this poem is complicated. On the surface level one can judge what is happening but on a deeper level the reader may not be able to interpret the unfathomable depth. One reason quite evident is the surrealism employed. Just like the artist’s mind the poem is also free of conscious control. It takes on its own route and it paints with its own brush strokes with the artist’s creative vision.

Ashbery takes into account many aspects of syntax and rhyme in his poetry and one of it is the repetition of words. The reader may not notice immediately about it but after a careful examination it comes to light that, Ashbery repeats the word "canvas", "buildings", "brush", "subject", "prayer" seven times and "portrait" eight times in the poem. This repetition creates a surrealistic effect in the poem.

The painter in the poem is on the beach and contemplates his tempestuous subject. Sea here symbolizes the freedom, the chaos, the harmony of the waves and the creative space for the painter. The sea symbolizes freedom as it liberates the painter from the hustle bustle of the city life behind him (“the building”). The painter is like a child imagining a prayer. His innocent imagination muses over what to draw on his canvas. Though the painter loves to paint the sea but he is confused by the daunting question of how to draw and live in one’s own creative vision, how to capture the universe around us. Even though he has brush in his hand but his canvas seems empty, this paint-less canvas brings out the fact that the painter himself has lost his creative vision, or he is going through the phase of imagination blockage and he is unable to take a plunge into mind's eye where haphazard brushes could be waved like a magic wand and a beauty of its own kind would emerge into a classic piece of art. His lack of strength to take on a decision leads the people around him to take control of his mind. They ask him to make a portrait of “Something less angry and large”, that is to say; do not draw the sea due to its turbulent nature and gargantuan effect which is unfathomable by human mind to capture. The painter seemed unable to convey “his prayer” to the people that he wants “nature, not art, [to] usurp the canvas”.

The skillful painter then tries to paint his wife. He does that without really making a creative endeavour because she seemed a ruined building in the first place that is not something he would want to paint. He does make an attempt, though unwillingly. It is throttling to the painter as an artist is a free will creature and no matter what happens he has to go to his roots of desire that is he has to be a creative by not conforming to traditionalists. He has to fulfill his urge to create his own tradition. His desire to go back to the sea appears to be the only right thing to do.

"Imagine the painter crucified by his subject." signifies a powerful figure that could draw faultlessly the things he see, and be astonished and spiritualized by the creative vision he has with the drawing. The painter in the poem proves his creative vision and creative authority when “He provoked some artists leaning from the buildings”; suggesting their eagerness to stick to the roots; the traditional way of painting. The poet clearly implies that the traditional painters are bent towards following an authority by which they could judge the painter and his work.

The people, the critics and the painters of traditional sort did not appreciate the effort of the painter and thus life’s way of taking the unconventional approach irrationally by not getting accepted by his own people fell upon the painter as they threw the portrait of the sea from the tallest building. This "portrait" symbolizes something that the people, the critics and the painters of his age were not able to handle the pressure posit on them by the painter or his creative vision of the sea. Such non-conformist and cavalier attitude is also visible in Ashbery’s life, as he nonchalantly says that his goal is "to produce a poem that the critic cannot even talk about.”

In the end of the poem “the sea devoured the canvas and the brush”. It signifies that the portrait drawn by a mere artist cannot be fathomed by man himself because chaos of the sea is unfathomable and it was as if “his subject had decided to remain a prayer”. Thus the freedom and turbulence the sea entails with it consumes man’s creation as well. The chaos of the world cannot be painted in a canvas, at least people around them would not let the painter do that, yet his creative drive would urge him to create what he instinctively desires. Neither the painter would stop nor would the chaos around him end. The cycle of life would go on like this.

Application of Marxism on The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald

Marxist literary critics tend to look for tensions and contradictions within literary works. This is appropriate because Marxism was originally formulated to analyze just such tensions and contradictions within society. Marxist literary critics also see literature as intimately linked to social power, and thus their analysis of literature is linked to larger social questions. Since Marxism is a belief system which can be used to analyze society at the grandest or most detailed level, Marxist literary criticism is ultimately part of a much larger effort to uncover the inner workings of society

1.      Title of the Book – The Great Gatsby:  Gatsby became rich because, most probably Cody – the owner of the yatch, left him money but at the same time he is was committed to earning money at an early stage in his life. And the adjective Great added to the word noun, accounts for Fitzgerald reason why a man could be called a great that is he struggled hard to achieve the love of his life by trying to raise his stature. The word “Great” is added to emphasize the fact that he rose from rags to riches, and this fact should be respected and valued.

Nick: “I suppose he'd had the name ready for a long time, even then. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people--his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth 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. So he invented  just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.”

2.     Inner workings of elite class: Jonathan Wolff says in his article on “Karl Marx" in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition) “Capitalism's dirty secret is that it is not a realm of harmony and mutual benefit but a system in which one class systematically extracts profit from another.”

Tom makes Nick see his girl friend Myrtle (Myrtle is married to the man who own the gas station – thus poor as compared to Tom). Tom has an apartment where he sees Myrtle. It the inner workings of society whereby Nick is Daisy’s cousin yet won’t reveal to Daisy that Tom is having an affair. Instead he himself uses Tom’s party to homosexual experience with Mr. McKee, although he had a girl friend in New Jersey and had an affair with Jordan. Thus the morals build around Tom and Nick are build around thin thread broking down by desires.

Gatsby, because he had struggled hard enough, foolishly tries to understand the workings of the rich elite. But it turns out he did not make up, himself with as a master conman’s character for the elite class, as a consequence struggles to come across as an member of an elite class. As Nick had suspicions that whether Gatsby belonged to the rich class or not and at the same time, Gatsby using a term like “old sport” doesn’t fit well with the elite Tom. And finally, Gatsby’s revelation that he only went Oxford for five months and “can't really call myself (himself) an Oxford man." Takes him out of elite class.

3.      Class difference gives power to Tom and takes power away from Myrtle:

Myrtle: "That dog? That dog's a boy."

Tom: "It's a bitch," said Tom decisively. "Here's your money. Go and buy ten

more dogs with it."

These dialogues shows the class difference and stature of mistress like Myrtle who get’s no credit for being in a relationship instead becomes an object to be used whenever Tom wishes. Myrtle says that the dog is a boy, because he saw in Tom a man who should follow his command. Myrtle through engaging in a relationship with Tom, sees herself powerful. But she had to come into contact with reality when Tom decisively says, and aggressively persues his point that the dogs’s not a boy, so to suggest that he is in command and not in control. Simply, because he can through away money not only for one dog but ten dogs. Clearly putting forward the point that, money can buy her emotions and she can have “more” only because he controls her, and not she. Myrtle is having a secret affair with Tom, and in class driving society, Myrtle becomes a product to be sold. Myrtle couldn’t bear to live with George, as he had rented the coat and gave it back after their marriage which devastated her. George is as much of an exploiter as Myrtle is because he never tells Myrtle that is poor enough not to buy a new coat even for his marriage. For Myrtle, George is like Clym Yeobright of Hardy’s in Return of the Native; a loving husband yes, but incapable of changing the scene, incapable of causing change. Change in terms of money and place. George couldn’t satisfy Myrtle need for change for the better and likewise for Eustacia, the Wildeve cannot produce change for her and ultimately she plans to flee with Wildeve, her only hope for change and a man wanting to uphold and raise his stature. George says to Myrtle “You may fool me but you can't fool God!” as to suggest that the class he belongs needs to be justified in someone eyes and God is there to catch you. George is helpless like Clym but at the same time blameworthy because when a relationship starts to build one should be able to understand each other needs, and if they cannot comprise even after they are married, as in the case of Myrtle and Eustacia – they must be given a choice to do the necessary bit, that is, raise their stature the way they want.

4.     Application of Marxism in the light of characters of Daisy and Gatsby: Daisy is also an opportunist, seeing Gatsby after a long time, her love did spark but at the same time her emotions boils down to her stragem-of-living, “the best thing a girl can be in this world, [is to be] a beautiful little fool." And that’s what she projects through his image and wants her child to be, because Tom had left after an hour when he heard it was a baby girl. Underlying view Daisy projects through her dialogues is that a female is powerless. And looking back as Daisy’s life.

5.      Exercise of Dominance through intellectual superiority: In Schooling and capitalism: a sociological reader by Madeleine MacDonald

“The intellectuals are the dominant group's 'deputies' exercising the subaltern functions of social hegemony and political ... confidence … and “this consent is “historically” caused by the prestige which the dominant group enjoys because of its position and function in the world of production.” Gatsby with his will power turned upside down his economic state, and most important he wanted a change because he knew where he came from, he knew his roots therefore to adjust himself in the world of New York elite was just another business deal, he successfully wanted to pursue – and Tom on the other hand being the former Yale football player cannot believe that how a name like Oxford could be attached with Gatsby. Thus, he constantly tries to project his thought over to Gatsby that he is not from the wealthy class, in a way, trying to exercise his hegemony. Economically powerful class, and in Tom’s case, an age-old aristocrat tries to push Gatsby’s stature down, trying to make a distinction between his higher class and his newly rich behaviour. Conveying the underlying meaning that elite class is jack of all trades, being physically powerful, a noble by birth and having the courage to inquire about Gatsby’s academic background, reveals that he is shallow and behaving in a such a way because he has to maintain his standing in society.

6.     Class conflict invokes Tom’s anger to the extent that he triggers George to kill the owner of the car:

Tom invokes Wilson to kill Gatsby when he tells who the owner of the car is.

In conclusion, Gatsby tried to prove the struggle to prove he belonged to the upper class. And through this stature, he could win Daisy. This notion of American Dream ‘every poor man can become rich or anything he wants, has been rejected in the novel because though he struggled to get his position from a teenage, making his life mechanically scheduled, yet he had to resort to crime in order to achieve his rich stature. And in the pursuit of it all, he was murdered by George.