When examined
in a Marxist light both of these novels highlight the negative aspects of
living a luxurious capitalist lifestyle which is inevitably consumed by waste
and corruption. Written a mere forty years apart each novel provides an image
of the destruction which is to come for those living in late nineteenth-century
England and 1920s America.
Firstly,
The Picture of Dorian Gray, published
in 1890, examines the lives of dandies who lives frivolous lives and wore
outlandish clothing in order to express themselves. The key character that
represents this mode of life is Dorian himself. His character development
throughout the novel reflects the superficiality of those engaged in capitalist
activities. Indeed, his whole character is utterly altered by a relatively
simple speech by Lord Henry in which he reveals to Dorian the fragility of
youth. Dorian then embarks on a path of destruction, much as leaders of
capitalist corporations do. Capitalist businesses exploit human labour, animals
and the environment for their personal gain of wealth and fame whilst ignoring
the negative impact they are having on the earth. In a similar way, Dorian
ruins everything he touches: Basil and Sybil Vane are killed as a result of his
direct or indirect actions; he destroys the reputation and therefore the social
lives of anyone associated with him; and he lays waste to a vast number of
material goods through his hedonistic pursuits. Lord Henry could be seen as a
symbol for advertising as he instigates young men to take up a capitalist ideal
in their lives and pursue this reckless, wasteful way of life. Lord Henry has
no job, but merely lives an idle life of aristocracy; it is in his interest to
persuade the younger generation to pursue this mode of life as it ensures that
he gets invited to events and can host events which are well attended and make
him feel as though he is doing something productive in his life. In this way he
can be likened to a capitalist business as he is ensuring that his product will
continue to be used in the future and thus ensures a continuation of the profit
he receives from his wasteful lifestyle.
Moreover,
the key protagonist of The Great Gatsby
has a life which is centred around hedonistic activities. His dream of
achieving the love of Daisy, who represents “old money” in 1920s America
corrupts him into creating a lifestyle which is utterly wasteful. He throws
extravagant parties every weekend to entice her into his home: the
superficiality of these parties is stressed repeatedly by Fitzgerald when he
mentions that, not only does the house need to be restored to its normal state
on the Monday by a whole team of labourers, but the people who attend the
parties do not care about this, nor do they care that they have not been
invited to the party but merely turn up because it is a glamorous party. As
well as living an extravagant, wasteful capitalist lifestyle in this way,
Gatsby is also a product of capitalism. He is a prime example of the “new
money” in America at this time which was attempting to achieve the prosperity
and reputation which the old money were able to inherit. He changes his name
from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby to do this as well as insisting that his family
is dead in an attempt to rid himself of his past. This is a key example of the
destruction that capitalism creates; James Gatz is killed because he is of the
working class. This is not the only point at which the working class and death
are connected in the novel. The Valley of Ashes is a symbol for the waste
produced by a capitalist society. It is an eyesore which reveals the fact that
capitalism both destroys the land of the earth and the people as Myrtle, also a
member of the working class, is killed there. Thus the novel highlights the way
in which capitalism destroys everything it touches in an attempt to profit from
it as the Valley of Ashes exists between two places which have prospered from
capitalism which have profited by destroying it.
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