An Obsession with Wealth

Good afternoon! Today I am going to be discussing the similarities between female characters in two works by F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby and "Winter Dreams."
I'd like to point out a few striking resemblances between Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby and Judy Jones from "Winter Dreams."

http://ggcaenglish.weebly.com/f-scott-fitzgerald.html

First off, both of these woman have physical attributes that make them absolutely irresistible to the men who adore them. Here is a passage from The Great Gatsby which describes Daisy's captivating voice:
"Daisy began to sing with the music in a husky, rhythmic whisper, bringing out a meaning in each word that it had never had before and would never have again. When the melody rose her voice broke up sweetly, following it, in a way contralto voices have, and each change tipped out a little of her warm human magic upon the air" (Fitzgerald 99).

 Judy Jones, on the other hand, has a face whose beauty is almost unearthly:
"There was a general ungodliness in the way her lips twisted down at the corners when she smiles and in the -Heaven help us! -in the almost passionate quality of her eyes. Vitality is born early in such women. It was utterly in evidence now, shining through her thin frame in a sort of glow" (Fitzgerald, 1011).


Secondly, both of these women have homes that possess their male counterparts with absolute awe and fascination. The intriguing part here, however, is the fact these men (Gatsby and Dexter, respectively) are in such awe because these homes represent the women that they love and their wealth makes them even more valuable.
Consider this passage from The Great Gatsby:
"It amazed him -he had never been in such a beautiful house before. But what gave it an air of breathless intensity was that Daisy lived there -it was a s casual a thing to her as his tent out at camp was to him" (Fitzgerald, 130).

A very similar line can be found in "Winter Dreams":
"He received, however, an enduring impression that the house was the most elaborate he had ever seen. He had known for a long time that it was the finest on Lake Erminie, with a Pompeiian swimming pool and twelve acres of lawn and garden. But what gave it an air of breathless intensity was the sense that it was inhabited by Judy Jones -that it was as casual a thing to her as the little house in the village had once been to Dexter" (Fitzgerald, 1016).
I found it utterly amazing that Fitzgerald uses what is nearly an exact quote in these sections! It is pretty clear now that the story of Gatsby and Daisy is essentially the same story of Dexter and Judy.


My final point is the fact that Both Daisy and Judy represent high class in the eyes of their male counterparts, so much so that they sacrifice large portions of their life to attain these women and their wealthy lifestyle. The moment that these men commit to their sacrifice or "journey" is finalized with a kiss.
The kiss between Gatsby and Daisy is described here:
"Her porch was bright with the bought luxury of star-shine; the wicker of the settee squeaked fashionably as she turned toward him and he kissed her curious and lovely mouth. She had caught a cold and it made her voice huskier and more charming than ever and Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor" (Fitzgerald 131).

The kiss between Dexter and Judy:
"Suddenly she turned her dark eyes directly upon him and the corners of her mouth drooped until her face seemed to open like a flower. He dared scarcely to breathe, he had the sense that she was exerting some force upon him; making him overwhelmingly conscious of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, the freshness of many clothes, of cool rooms and gleaming things, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.
The porch was bright with the bought luxury of starshine. The wicker of the settee squeaked fashionably when he put his arm around her, commanded by her eyes. He kissed her curious and lovely mouth and committed himself to the following of a grail" (Fitzgerald, 1017-1018).

Again, I have highlighted the portions that are of nearly the exact same wording. I read The Great Gatsby before I had read "Winter Dreams," and initially I did not notice the fact that Fitzgerald essentially copies text from "Winter Dreams" and, after changing the wording to fit the new characters, uses it in The Great Gatsby. I had to look at both of these works a second time in detail before I noticed the striking similarities between these passages. Of course, there is nothing wrong with Fitzgerald doing this, as it is all his own work, and does not count as plagiarism. However, this has spurred some questions in my mind.

What caused Fitzgerald to tell essentially the same story twice? Are Daisy and Judy basically Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, who came from a prominent family? How much of these two tales is autobiographical? Why was Fitzgerald seemingly obsessed with the wealthy life? I will leave you with a quote from Ernest Hemingway's story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" which comments on an interaction with Fitzgerald, whom is referred to as "Julian" in this piece:

http://ggcaenglish.weebly.com/f-scott-fitzgerald.html

"The rich were dull and they drank too much, or they played too much backgammon. They were dull and they were repetitious. He remembered poor Julian and his romantic awe of them and how he had started a story once that began, "The very rich are different from you and me." And how some one had said to Julian, Yes, they have more money. But that was not humorous to Julian. He thought they were a special glamorous race and when he found they weren't it wrecked him just as much as any other thing that wrecked him" (Hemingway, 1080).


Source for quotations from The Great Gatsby:

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925. Print.

Source for quotations from "Winter Dreams" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro":

The Norton Anthology: American Literature 1865 to the Present. Shorter seventh edition. Volume 2.