The love story was about the romance between poor Gatsby and well-off Daisy. The young soldier---Gatsby fell in love with Daisy during the war, however, he lacked money to marry Daisy. After the war, Gatsby found that Daisy had married Tom, a wealth playboy. Daisy’s marriage was unsatisfied because of Tom’s disloyalty. In order to regain Daisy, Gatsby made a fortune by smuggling and other illegal trade. He purchased a mansion opposite Daisy, and banqueted guests to attract Daisy’s attention. After Daisy’s cousin’s arrangements, Gatsby and Daisy came back into the game. Daisy was faced with a choice between Gatsby and Tom, but she was always ambiguous and ultimately refused to give up Tom. Driving crazily, she crushed her husband's mistress. To protect Daisy, Gatsby hindered the truth, but Daisy and Tom fabricated a charge against Gatsby, resulting in the death of Gatsby. On Gatsby’s funeral, Daisy even did not send a bouquet of flowers.文献综述
1.2 About The Butterfly Lovers
The Butterfly Lovers is one of the most excellent works of Chinese folk with highly thought and vivid content. This story is based on the Chinese folk tradition, which has been popular with the ordinary people for thousands of years. Why The Butterfly Lovers is enduring? As far as I am concerned, the main reason is that Zhu Yingtai is brave enough to pursue the equality of gender and has courage to sacrifice her life for the love. Most people hold the view that the male are the center of the feudal society and the female are attach to the man who have no right to design their lives including the marriage. People once suggested that men and women falling in love with each other did not conform to the Chinese, but it is clear that the Chinese people cherish sincere love. The theme of The Butterfly Lovers is aimed at criticizing the feudal ethics, requiring the equality of gender, calling for the feminism. The Butterfly Lovers occurred in Jin Dynasty, when the traditional feudal ideology enveloped all aspects of society, and deeply bound people's thoughts. People were eager for the pursuit of the freedom of marriage, but they doomed to end up with tragedy. They lived in the feudal society where men had completely dominated women and women’s status was quite low. Women in feudal society were described as “proletarians”. Even if she wanted to resist, there was without any possibilities. Confucianism was the orthodoxy of feudal society, which enlarged the power of men and strengthened patriarchy. Under the domination of this idea, men's power had been extremely swelling, and awareness of prejudice on women had also been exceedingly enhanced. Patriarchy was based on the gradual decay of the status of women.
It is a traditional love story. Zhu was a very unusual girl, and she was keen on study. Therefore, she eventually managed to convince her father to let her go to the school disguised in a man’s clothes. On her way to school, she was acquainted with Liang Shanbo. They had studied together for three years and they got well along with each other. Although Zhu Yingtai was attracted by Liang Shanbo, Liang did not know she was a girl. Three years later, Zhu came back home and Liang asked Zhu’s family to marry Zhu. However, Zhu’s family refused his request and asked Zhu to marry Ma Wencai whose family was rich and powerful. Finally, Liang died of melancholy. On the way to Ma’s home, Zhu threw herself into Liang’s tomb. The spirit of this young couple turned into a pair of beautiful butterflies.