The Great Gatsby: Theme & Key Quotes: Religion

Theme and Key Quotes: Religion

Exploration of Characters:

“Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch, she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.”: The religiously charged word ‘incarnation’ is used to express the intensity of Daisy and Gatsby’s love, aligning Gatsby’s passions to the divine.
“The settings of his eyes had changed to a profound melancholy. “God sees everything,” repeated Wilson.”: This quote shows Wilson’s religious beliefs impacting his understanding of his wife’s infidelity and death, using God as an implementation of justice.

Major Themes:

“His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. In his blue gardens, men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings…“: The fleeting and ethereal descriptions of Gatsby’s party-goers are symbolic of earthly pleasures. They are positioned against the idea of religious transcendence and the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment.
“I spoke to her…and it was…like being with an enchanting secret. ‘Please, Tom!’ I heard her beg him…“: This scene where Nick becomes the unwilling confidant of the adulterous couple has echoes of a confessional, again displaying the theme of religion. Yet, it is fraught with hypocrisy and moral alienation showing an erosion of religious values.

Employment of Symbolism:

“The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their retinas are one yard high…But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days…“: The omnipresent eyes of Eckleburg that brood over the desolate valley of ashes symbolise a forsaken god, watching over a spiritually barren land. It speaks to the theme of a decaying moral system in the era of materialism.
“The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river… Occasionally, a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track…“: The valley of ashes symbolically connects to religious concepts of hell and purgatory, being a place of moral decay and spiritual desolation. The industrial wasteland portrayed is a stark contrast to the prevailing material wealth and signifies human moral degradation.