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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Book 1, Chapter 1: Amory, Son of Beatrice
Explanation and Analysis—Love of the Performance:
Fitzgerald excoriates the upper class for their intensely manipulative social mores throughout This Side of Paradise. One motif that relates to Fitzgerald's exploration of money and class is that of theatrical performance and opera. In Book 1, Chapter 1, Fitzgerald uses a metaphor to explain Amory's social struggles at St. Regis:
With a dread of being alone he attached a few friends, but since they were not among the elite of the school he used them simply as mirrors of himself, audiences before which he might do that posing absolutely essential to him. He was unbearably lonely, desperately unhappy.
Even in his youth, Amory feels the importance of performance as a survival mechanism. He makes friends in order to find an audience, searching for people for whom he can perform as an elitist, snobbish young man—the way he has seen his mother perform and the way he is used to performing at home.
Later, in Book 1, Chapter 2, the reader meets Isabelle—the first woman in whom Amory maintains an all-consuming romantic interest. Though Amory, at this point, thinks of himself as a master of charm, Isabelle is also a highly cunning socialite—which Fitzgerald makes clear in a set of similes that cast Isabelle's own charm in terms of theatrical performance:
As an actress even in the full of her own conscious magnetism gets a deep impression of most of the people in the front row, so Isabelle sized up her antagonist.
In this first simile, Fitzgerald suggests that Isabelle's ability to command her friends and lovers is similar to how an actress commands an audience—a self-aware performance that also enables Isabelle to scrutinize her company. In this case, Amory becomes the antagonist in Isabelle's play, a distinction that foreshadows his eventual cruelty toward her.
Later in their first interaction, Fitzgerald returns to his depiction of Isabelle as a performer:
But Isabelle strung the names into a fabrication of gaiety that would have dazzled a Viennese nobleman. Such is the power of young contralto voices on sink-down sofas.
As Isabelle name-drops the young men in her life to Amory, Fitzgerald's simile makes clear the captivating power of her act. She has the voice of a "young contralto," a reference to an operatic singing range, and she employs it like an opera singer of such skill as to "dazzle" even the Viennese gentry, a group famous for its patronage of the opera. The invocation of such an elite performance further cements the elitism of Amory and Isabelle's world and the incredible calculation and manipulation of their behavior.
Related Themes:
Book 1, Chapter 2: Spires and Gargoyles
Explanation and Analysis—Love of the Performance:
Fitzgerald excoriates the upper class for their intensely manipulative social mores throughout This Side of Paradise. One motif that relates to Fitzgerald's exploration of money and class is that of theatrical performance and opera. In Book 1, Chapter 1, Fitzgerald uses a metaphor to explain Amory's social struggles at St. Regis:
With a dread of being alone he attached a few friends, but since they were not among the elite of the school he used them simply as mirrors of himself, audiences before which he might do that posing absolutely essential to him. He was unbearably lonely, desperately unhappy.
Even in his youth, Amory feels the importance of performance as a survival mechanism. He makes friends in order to find an audience, searching for people for whom he can perform as an elitist, snobbish young man—the way he has seen his mother perform and the way he is used to performing at home.
Later, in Book 1, Chapter 2, the reader meets Isabelle—the first woman in whom Amory maintains an all-consuming romantic interest. Though Amory, at this point, thinks of himself as a master of charm, Isabelle is also a highly cunning socialite—which Fitzgerald makes clear in a set of similes that cast Isabelle's own charm in terms of theatrical performance:
As an actress even in the full of her own conscious magnetism gets a deep impression of most of the people in the front row, so Isabelle sized up her antagonist.
In this first simile, Fitzgerald suggests that Isabelle's ability to command her friends and lovers is similar to how an actress commands an audience—a self-aware performance that also enables Isabelle to scrutinize her company. In this case, Amory becomes the antagonist in Isabelle's play, a distinction that foreshadows his eventual cruelty toward her.
Later in their first interaction, Fitzgerald returns to his depiction of Isabelle as a performer:
But Isabelle strung the names into a fabrication of gaiety that would have dazzled a Viennese nobleman. Such is the power of young contralto voices on sink-down sofas.
As Isabelle name-drops the young men in her life to Amory, Fitzgerald's simile makes clear the captivating power of her act. She has the voice of a "young contralto," a reference to an operatic singing range, and she employs it like an opera singer of such skill as to "dazzle" even the Viennese gentry, a group famous for its patronage of the opera. The invocation of such an elite performance further cements the elitism of Amory and Isabelle's world and the incredible calculation and manipulation of their behavior.
Related Themes:
