Author Archives: Michael Jemal

https://www.pinterest.com/mjjemal/final-project-english-2800/

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a great work of literature that reminded me a lot of the Jacobean era drama. The book includes tons of the similar characteristics that a Jacobean play would have. There is adultery, violence, and most of all revenge. The revenge and violence take place in the final scene, where Wilson murders the books main character, Jay Gatsby. The only reason why Wilson murders Gatsby was because he blames the death of his wife Myrtle on Gatsby. All of the events leading up to the murder of Gatsby had an extreme Jacobean style to it.

One can see a major comparison between Nick Caraway, and Bosola from the Duchess of Malfi. Both characters are in the middle of all the action. Nick knows about the affairs between weather between Daisy and Gatsby and Tom and Myrtle. It comes to the point where he doesn’t know what to share and what to hide any more. Bosola also knows about all the characters actions. Since he acts as a spy for the Cardinal and Ferdinand, he finds out about the Duchess and Antonio. He has to make decisions about how to manage all of the information he knows.

Just like in the play we originally would think that royalty in the palace can get you everything, as well as wealth in the Great Gatsby. We find out in both works of literature that this is not the case; it only leads to tragedies at the end.

Here is the trailer to the film remake of The Great Gatsby.

Reading Li Bo’s “Summer Day in the Mountains” Reminded me a lot of Nelly’s 2002 Pop hit “Hot in Herre.” Here are the words of the poem

Lazily 
waving 
a 
fan
 of
 white 
feathers,

Stripped
 naked 
here
 in 
the
 green
 woods,

I 
take
 off 
my
 head band, 
hang
 it 
on 
a
 cliff,

My 
bare 
head
s pattered 
by 
wind 
through 
pines.

Here’s an excerpt from Nelly’s song as well.

“Check it, got it locked at the top of the four seasons
Penthouse, roof top, birds I feedin
No deceivin, nothin up my sleeve, no teasin
I need you to get up up on the dance floor”

Nelly describes in his song as he being hot on a rooftop, and penthouse at the very tall Four Seasons Hotel. In the poem the author is on top of a mountain, with his headband hanging on a cliff. Many would say that skyscrapers are the mountains of today. Nelly is “locked at the top,” he’s is stuck up their or has no plans of leaving. Just as we can see from the poem that he is implying that he is stuck on the top of the mountain, suffering from the heat.

We also see both authors referencing birds. In Li Bo’s poem he tried getting over the heat by “waving a fan of white feathers.” Part of Nelly’s attempt to getting over the heat (other than stripping) was to go on the roof and feed the birds. “roof top birds I feedin”

Nelly than goes on in his song to describe how he is feeling on the rooftop.

“It’s getting hot in here so take of all your clothes.”

This compares to when Li Bo is “stripped naked in the green woods.” Suffering from the heat both artists have no choice but to take of their cloths. We can see from the song he was suffering from the heat just like Li Bo, especially when he says “I am gettin so hot, I wanna take my clothes off.” But instead of wanting to be naked in the green woods, Nelly wants everyone to get naked on the dance floor.

I wasn’t sure if the music video is appropriate for class so I just attached this awesome lyric video. Enjoy