Superficiality Of The Upper Class In The Great Gatsby

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The blinding aspect of appearance that is ingrained into the upper class is also satirized in “The Rape of the Lock” where Pope uses physical appearance of the to expose the façade that the upper class has created. Pope’s implementation of the Sylphs into the poem exaggerates how prevalent the blinding appearance is amongst the upper class, with the Sylphs’ words and actions revealing a different image to the one that Pope initially presents. The Sylphs with their "airy Garments" and “glitt 'ring textures” are described as having the appearance of a spirt, which links strongly to the gods and Angels found in epics of this era. Pope, through his mock epic structure, likens the Sylphs to the powerful gods and the women of the upper class entrust their protection of their chastity to the Sylphs based solely on the appearance. However, Pope …show more content…

The tricolon of “puffs, powders, patches” (line 138) Belinda requires to achieve this image is highlighted by Pope through the alliteration of P to exaggerate the length a person of the upper class needs to reach in order to deceive others through their blinding outward appearance. Fitzgerald in “The Great Gatsby” highlights the extent to which appearance can deceive with his description of Daisy and Jordan who are dressed; “both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering” giving the image that both are pure. Yet the true demeanour of these characters is revealed when Daisy proclaims that her “white girlhood was passed together there our beautiful white” (pg 24), implying that Daisy has the lost the innocence of her childhood and is now guilty of living in a class based on a blinding appearance. Whilst the fact that Jordan Baker has “fingers, powdered white over their tan.” Allows Fitzgerald to symbolize her corruption from the pure state that is associated with the colour

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