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Motif
Explanation and Analysis—Passion:
Fitzgerald uses passion, as differently expressed by Anthony and Gloria, as a motif to show that passion is often fluctuating and fickle. First, Anthony has two impulses toward Gloria: to love her and to hurt her. The motif of passion features both of these tendencies. In Chapter 3, the narrator describes Anthony's mixed feelings:
However much his wild thoughts varied between a passionate desire for her kisses and an equally passionate craving to hurt and mar her, the residue of his mind craved in finer fashion to possess the triumphant soul that had shone through those three minutes.
Here, Anthony seems torn between his passions for Gloria. Does he want to kiss her? Or "mar" her? At this moment, it seems that he cannot decide between these two desires. But what ultimately determines the expression of this passion is whatever allows him to "possess" Gloria. As he gets to know her, he finds that her childish nature demands care, attention, and love. So it would make the most sense to follow his first impulse— to love. However, he often grows frustrated with her caprices and continually belittles and patronizes her, showing how passion gets distorted by greed.
Gloria has a slightly different view of passion. In Chapter 8, Gloria thinks of passion as one of a woman's chief powers:
From the first little boy in an Eton collar whose “girl” she had been [...] there was needed only that matchless candor she could throw into a look or clothe with an inconsequent clause—for she had talked always in broken clauses—to weave about her immeasurable illusions, immeasurable distances, immeasurable light. To create souls in men, to create fine happiness and fine despair she must remain deeply proud—proud to be inviolate, proud also to be melting, to be passionate and possessed.
Here, passion becomes an accessory, a gesture, a superficial facade. Anthony seems to feel passion, whereas Gloria cultivates it. She knows that beauty has made her an object of other men's passion, and she develops a passion for preserving her own beauty because it permits her to live a life of ease and comfort. She fears the loss of her looks because she knows that men will lose their attraction to her. In Gloria's case, passion functions as a shallow construct that is based entirely on physical beauty. The two facets of the motif of passion—Anthony's oscillation between love and violence, and Gloria's conversion of passion into a superficial gesture—suggest that passion is readily distorted and seldom lasts. Fitzgerald manipulates the term in order to show how it gets marred by materialism and greed.
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