Vanity Vs. Morality From Victorian England - 2183 Words

Vanity vs. Morality: From Victorian England to America’s Roaring ‘20s Love is the driving force behind many decisions made, but in previous times wealth was the driving force behind the concept of marriage. Emily Bronte discusses the power money has over individuals in her romantic/gothic novel Wuthering Heights, which is paralleled by Baz Luhrman’s 2013 recreation of the film The Great Gatsby. During the industrial revolution, Bronte depicts the story of a poor orphan who falls in love with a privileged girl. Although their romantic feelings are mutual, his lack of wealth deems him as an unsuitable suitor in her eyes. This conservative and vain thinking common in this era not only limits the youth’s abilities to act for their selves, but also limits the opportunities for true love despite one’s social class. However, the priorities of a woman in the Victorian era of England are known to be materialistic and vain, ruining any romantic freedom. Young Catherine realizes the selfishness of her thoughts too late as Heathcliff run s away to go create his own means of wealth. This plot is reintroduced in Baz Luhrman’s film The Great Gatsby, a movie set in the ‘Roaring ‘20’s’: a time of loose morals and economic opportunity; although, as the world develops and progresses towards women’s rights and a lesser social and economic divide, the expectation for an ‘appropriate’ suitor seems not to have changed. Luhrman also uses the same conflict as Emily Bronte to create obstacles