Clothes, Consciousness, and Change in Orlando

This blog is written as part of a thinking activity assigned by Prakruti ma’am to explore Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf. It focuses on Woolf’s use of stream of consciousness, the idea of the New Biography, and her views on gender and identity, while connecting literary concepts with the text to develop a clearer understanding of Orlando as a modernist work.

Introduction

Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf is one of the most unconventional and experimental works of modernist literature. Written in the form of a mock biography, the novel follows the life of Orlando, a character who lives for several centuries and undergoes a change of gender from man to woman. Through this imaginative narrative, Woolf challenges traditional ideas of biography, fixed identity, and gender roles. The novel combines history, fantasy, and psychological depth, making it an important text for understanding Woolf’s literary techniques and philosophical concerns. This blog attempts to examine Orlando through the lens of stream of consciousness, the concept of the New Biography, and Woolf’s views on gender and social practices.

Virginia Woolf and Orlando: A Biography

Virginia Woolf is one of the most influential figures of modernist literature, known for breaking away from traditional storytelling and experimenting with form, time, and consciousness. Instead of focusing on external action, Woolf was deeply interested in the inner life of human beings, their thoughts, emotions, memories, and identities. Her writing often questions social norms, especially those related to gender, class, and the role of women in society.

Orlando: A Biography is one of Woolf’s most playful yet intellectually rich works. Although it is presented as a biography, the novel deliberately rejects the conventions of factual life-writing. Orlando is born as a young nobleman in the Elizabethan age, lives for more than three hundred years, and midway through the novel transforms into a woman. Despite these extraordinary changes, Orlando’s inner self remains largely continuous, suggesting that identity is fluid rather than fixed.

Through Orlando, Woolf questions how history records lives and whose stories are considered important. The novel moves across different literary periods, from the Renaissance to the modern age, allowing Woolf to comment on changes in literature, culture, and social values. Orlando’s experiences as both a man and a woman reveal how deeply social expectations shape personal freedom. As a man, Orlando enjoys power and independence; as a woman, she faces restrictions, legal limitations, and judgment, even though her personality remains the same.

The novel is also deeply personal. Orlando is often read as Woolf’s tribute to her close friend and lover Vita Sackville-West, which adds emotional depth to its exploration of love, identity, and creativity. By blending fantasy, biography, and philosophy, Woolf creates a text that is humorous on the surface but serious in its critique of rigid gender roles and traditional literary forms.

Overall, Orlando stands as a unique example of Woolf’s genius, combining imagination with critical insight—and reflects her belief that literature should capture the complexity and fluidity of human life, rather than reducing it to mere facts and dates.

Stream of Consciousness in Orlando

Understanding the Concept of Stream of Consciousness

Stream of Consciousness is a modern narrative technique that seeks to portray the continuous, unbroken flow of a character’s inner life. Instead of presenting thoughts in a neat or logical sequence, it imitates the way the human mind naturally functions, moving freely between ideas, memories, emotions, and sensory impressions. Thoughts may overlap, repeat, or shift suddenly, just as they do in real mental experience.

This technique moves away from traditional storytelling, where emphasis is placed on action and plot. Instead, stream of consciousness focuses on subjective reality, how individuals experience life internally rather than how events appear externally. Time in such narratives is often flexible; a single moment can expand into pages of reflection, while years may pass in a few lines. The goal is to capture psychological truth rather than factual accuracy.

Virginia Woolf and Psychological Realism

Virginia Woolf was deeply interested in the inner workings of the human mind. She believed that traditional Victorian novels failed to represent real life because they focused too heavily on material details and social events. Woolf argued that true reality lies in the inner moments of awareness, the fleeting thoughts and emotions that shape human consciousness.

Unlike some modernist writers who used stream of consciousness in a fragmented or chaotic manner, Woolf employed it with clarity and control. Her prose is rhythmic, reflective, and carefully structured, allowing readers to follow the movement of thought without losing coherence. For Woolf, this technique was not merely stylistic, it was a philosophical approach to understanding life and identity.

The Use of Stream of Consciousness in Orlando

In Orlando: A Biography, stream of consciousness plays a crucial role in shaping the narrative. Although the novel presents extraordinary events, such as Orlando living for over three centuries and changing gender, Woolf treats these changes as less important than Orlando’s inner continuity. The character’s thoughts, emotions, and creative impulses flow naturally across time, suggesting that the self is not confined to a single historical moment or physical body.

Woolf frequently interrupts the biographical narration to explore Orlando’s reflections on writing, love, solitude, and self-understanding. These passages often move freely between past and present, memory and imagination. Orlando’s consciousness becomes a space where different centuries coexist, reinforcing Woolf’s idea that time is a mental experience rather than a fixed structure.

Consciousness, Time, and Identity

One of the most striking uses of stream of consciousness in Orlando is its treatment of time. Traditional biographies rely on chronological order, but Woolf deliberately disrupts this structure. Orlando’s inner life does not age in the same way as the body or historical world around him/her. Through reflective passages and mental associations, Woolf shows that consciousness resists linear time.

Similarly, the technique helps Woolf explore gender identity. When Orlando transforms from man to woman, the narrative does not describe a psychological break. Instead, the flow of consciousness continues smoothly, indicating that inner identity remains stable despite external transformation. This challenges the idea that gender defines the core self and supports Woolf’s belief that identity is fluid and layered.

Significance of the Technique in the Novel

The use of stream of consciousness is central to Woolf’s purpose in Orlando. Since the novel questions fixed ideas of biography, history, and gender, a conventional narrative style would be inadequate. Stream of consciousness allows Woolf to portray life as complex, shifting, and deeply personal.

Through this technique, Orlando becomes more than a playful fantasy or experimental biography. It emerges as a profound exploration of how individuals experience existence from within. Woolf suggests that to truly understand a life, one must look beyond facts and dates and listen to the quiet, continuous movement of the mind.

The New Biography and Orlando

The Literary Movement of The New Biography

The New Biography emerged in the early twentieth century as a reaction against traditional biographical writing. Conventional biographies mainly focused on facts, dates, public achievements, and chronological events. Writers associated with the New Biography believed that such an approach failed to capture the true essence of a human life.

Instead, The New Biography emphasized:

• The inner life of the subject

• Psychological depth and emotional reality

• Personal memories and private experiences

• The use of imagination alongside facts

Biographers were encouraged to explore how a person felt and thought, not merely what they did. This movement argued that a life cannot be understood only through external records, as human identity is shaped by invisible mental and emotional experiences.

Virginia Woolf’s Idea of Biography

Virginia Woolf was a strong supporter of the New Biography. She openly criticized traditional biographies for being rigid and lifeless. Woolf believed that biography should represent “life as it is lived”, which includes contradictions, silences, and moments of inner reflection.

According to Woolf, facts alone produce a skeleton of a life, but imagination gives it flesh and meaning. She argued that the biographer must balance truth and creativity in order to present a fuller and more authentic portrait of an individual.

Orlando as an Example of the New Biography

In Orlando: A Biography, Woolf takes the principles of the New Biography to an extreme and experimental level. The novel pretends to be a biography, yet it deliberately violates every rule of traditional life-writing. Orlando lives for over three centuries, changes gender, and moves freely across historical periods.

Through this exaggerated form, Woolf exposes the limitations of factual biography. The narrator frequently struggles to explain Orlando’s inner life using historical records, highlighting how facts fail to capture emotional and psychological truth. This reflects the New Biography’s belief that inner experience is more revealing than documented events.

Inner Truth Over Historical Accuracy

Orlando prioritizes inner continuity over historical accuracy. Despite changes in time, social roles, and gender, Orlando’s consciousness remains largely consistent. This suggests that a person’s true identity lies not in outward circumstances but in inner awareness and self-perception.

By blending fantasy, history, and introspection, Woolf shows that biography does not need to be strictly factual to be truthful. In fact, imagination may be necessary to express deeper realities that official records ignore.

Significance of the New Biography in Orlando

The New Biography allows Orlando to function both as a satire of traditional biography and as a serious literary experiment. Woolf challenges the reader to reconsider what it means to tell a life story. Through Orlando, she suggests that lives are not linear narratives but fluid experiences shaped by memory, consciousness, and social context.

Thus, Orlando stands as a powerful example of how the New Biography reshaped life-writing by moving beyond facts and embracing the complex inner world of human experience.

Gendered Experience in Orlando: Biology or Social Practice?

Woolf’s Understanding of Gender

Virginia Woolf did not accept the traditional belief that men and women are essentially different by nature. Instead, she believed that what society calls “feminine” or “masculine” behavior is largely shaped by social conditioning, cultural expectations, and historical traditions. Woolf viewed gender as something that is performed and learned, not something fixed by biology.

Through her fiction, Woolf consistently challenges rigid gender binaries and suggests that the human mind is capable of containing both masculine and feminine qualities. She believed that creativity and consciousness flourish when individuals are not limited by social labels.

Orlando as a Man: Power, Freedom, and Privilege

In Orlando: A Biography, Orlando’s life as a man reflects the privileges granted by a patriarchal society. As a male aristocrat, Orlando enjoys complete freedom of movement and expression. He inherits property without question, travels widely, and devotes himself to writing poetry without social interference.

Society treats his ambitions seriously, and his emotional expressions are interpreted as depth rather than weakness. His gender allows him authority, confidence, and social legitimacy, showing how male experience is reinforced and validated by external structures rather than by innate superiority.

Orlando as a Woman: Restriction and Social Surveillance

When Orlando transforms into a woman, her inner self remains continuous, but her social reality changes drastically. Woolf uses this shift to expose how women are constrained by social norms. Orlando becomes aware of how her clothing restricts her movement and how her appearance becomes the primary basis of judgment.

As a woman, Orlando faces legal disadvantages, limited independence, and pressure to conform to ideals of femininity such as obedience, modesty, and domesticity. Her intellectual abilities and creative desires are often overlooked, not because they have diminished, but because society refuses to recognize them in a female body.

Clothing, Behavior, and Gender Performance

One of Woolf’s most striking insights in Orlando is the role of clothing in shaping gendered experience. Woolf suggests that garments are not neutral; they actively shape behavior, posture, and social perception. Orlando learns that wearing skirts affects how she walks, speaks, and is treated by others.

Through this detail, Woolf highlights how gender is performed through social codes, not dictated by nature. Men and women behave differently because they are trained, rewarded, or punished for certain behaviors from a young age.

Consciousness and Continuity of the Self

A crucial argument Woolf makes is that consciousness remains stable despite gender transformation. Orlando’s emotions, memories, creativity, and desires do not disappear when her body changes. This continuity directly challenges biological determinism and supports Woolf’s belief that identity exists beyond physical sex.

By keeping Orlando’s inner voice consistent, Woolf demonstrates that the differences between men’s and women’s experiences arise from external treatment rather than internal essence.

Society as the Source of Difference

Woolf ultimately argues that the different ways men and women experience the world are the result of social practice, legal systems, and cultural traditions. Patriarchal structures grant men freedom and authority while placing limitations on women. These structures shape confidence, opportunity, and self-perception over time.

In Orlando, gender becomes a social position rather than a natural destiny. Woolf suggests that a more just society would allow individuals to exist beyond gendered expectations, enabling fuller creative and emotional lives.

Woolf’s Vision of Gender Fluidity

By allowing Orlando to live as both a man and a woman across centuries, Woolf imagines a world where identity is fluid and adaptable. She does not deny biological difference, but she insists that biology does not determine intellect, creativity, or worth.

Through Orlando, Woolf calls for a future where human experience is understood as complex, layered, and free from rigid social boundaries.

Seeing Orlando: A Visual Interpretation of Gender Transformation

Visual interpretation of Orlando in the eighteenth century, illustrating the social construction of gender through clothing and the continuity of the self despite changing roles.

This AI-generated image visually captures Orlando’s eighteenth-century transformation by bringing together Woolf’s key ideas about gender, clothing, and identity. At the center, Orlando appears in an elaborate aristocratic gown, symbolizing how femininity in English society is carefully constructed through dress, discipline, and social expectation. Surrounding scenes, such as the acts of dressing, writing, and moving between male and female clothing, highlight the tension between external performance and inner continuity. The repeated emphasis on skirts, lace, and posture reinforces Woolf’s argument that gender differences arise from social practice rather than biology. At the same time, the presence of The Oak Tree and Orlando’s thoughtful expression suggest that her intellectual and emotional self remains unchanged despite changing gender roles. Overall, the image successfully translates Woolf’s critique of gender norms into a visual form, showing how identity persists even as outward appearances shift.

This image visually represents Orlando’s transformation and highlights how clothing and gender influence social identity, reinforcing Virginia Woolf’s critique of fixed gender roles.

Conclusion

Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf stands as a bold literary experiment that challenges traditional ideas of biography, identity, gender, and historical truth. Through techniques such as stream of consciousness and the principles of the New Biography, Woolf moves away from factual life-writing and instead focuses on the inner life of her protagonist. Orlando’s journey across centuries and genders reveals that identity is not fixed but fluid, shaped by time, memory, and social practice rather than biology alone.

The contrast between Orlando’s experiences as a man and as a woman exposes the inequalities imposed by society and highlights how gender roles are constructed through clothing, behavior, and expectation. The use of an AI-generated image further extends this exploration by translating Woolf’s ideas into a visual form, showing how dress and appearance influence identity. Overall, Orlando remains a powerful modernist text that continues to question rigid social norms and encourages readers to rethink how lives, identities, and truths are represented in literature.

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 Finding Meaning Where None Is Given: A Reflection on Existentialism

I am writing this blog as part of the Flipped Learning Activity on Existentialism: Ask Questions, assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip P. Barad. This activity encouraged me to engage with existentialist philosophy through self-directed learning by exploring video resources and related readings before reflecting critically in writing. Instead of passively receiving interpretations, the flipped learning approach prompted me to question, analyze, and connect key existentialist ideas such as absurdity, freedom, anxiety, and responsibility with human experience. Writing this blog allows me to articulate my understanding of existentialism as a lived philosophy rather than a purely theoretical system, while also responding thoughtfully to the questions that emerge from engaging with thinkers like Camus, Sartre, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.

Introduction

Existentialism emerges as a philosophical response to the problem of human meaning in a world no longer anchored by religious, metaphysical, or moral certainties. Rather than offering comforting answers, it confronts individuals with the unsettling realities of freedom, anxiety, and responsibility. Thinkers such as Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, and Albert Camus explore the human condition by emphasizing subjectivity, choice, finitude, and the tension between the desire for meaning and the indifference of the universe. Central to existentialist thought is the claim that “existence precedes essence,” which rejects any predetermined human nature and insists that individuals must create meaning through their actions. By engaging with concepts such as absurdity, angst, and revolt, existentialism challenges individuals to live authentically in an uncertain world, making it not only a philosophical movement but a profound inquiry into how one ought to live.

Video 1: What Is Existentialism?

Faith, Absurdity, and Philosophical Suicide

The video’s exploration of God and faith within existentialist thought strongly shaped my understanding of the philosophy. From Albert Camus’s viewpoint, seeking refuge in God as a final explanation for life’s suffering risks becoming philosophical suicide, a refusal to face the absurd condition of existence. Existentialist thinkers consistently emphasize that human life unfolds in a world without guaranteed meaning. In such a context, faith may operate as emotional reassurance rather than as an active confrontation with uncertainty, enabling individuals to distance themselves from the difficult task of accepting responsibility for their own lives.

Freedom, Responsibility, and Authentic Existence

The video further clarifies why existentialism approaches such reliance with skepticism. Belief in a predetermined divine order can reduce personal freedom by transferring responsibility to an external authority. When meaning is presumed to be fixed in advance, the individual is spared the anxiety of choice. Existentialism rejects this comfort and instead positions human beings directly before freedom, responsibility, and existence itself. Although this confrontation generates anxiety, it also makes authentic living possible. To live authentically is to recognize that one’s actions cannot be justified by fate or divine will. As Jean-Paul Sartre argues, human beings are “condemned to be free,” and it is this inescapable responsibility that ultimately gives human life its seriousness and value.

Video 2: The Myth of Sisyphus (The Absurd Reasoning)

Absurdity, Suicide, and the Question of Meaning

The problem of meaning has remained central to human thought, and Albert Camus directly addresses this concern in his philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus. The essay opens with a striking claim: the most serious philosophical problem is suicide, a response that arises when life appears fundamentally absurd. Camus examines how the human desire for clarity and purpose clashes with the world’s indifference, creating a condition in which individuals are tempted either to abandon life or to seek refuge in false hope. Rather than choosing despair or escape, Camus proposes an alternative response to the absurd—one that neither denies suffering nor evades reality.

Imagining Sisyphus Happy: Revolt Through Conscious Struggle

Camus’s concluding image, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy,” radically reshapes the idea of triumph. Condemned to push a stone endlessly uphill only to see it fall back again, Sisyphus represents the repetitive and often unrewarding routines of modern human life. People continue to work, struggle, and persist without any assurance of ultimate fulfillment. Yet Camus does not suggest ignoring the weight of the stone; instead, he insists on recognizing it fully. Sisyphus’s happiness lies in his awareness and acceptance of his fate. His continued effort becomes an act of rebellion against meaninglessness, demonstrating that value does not arise from final outcomes but from the conscious engagement with struggle itself. In this way, the act of pushing the stone becomes an assertion of human dignity and freedom within an indifferent universe.

Video 3: The Myth of Sisyphus (Philosophical Suicide)

Philosophical Suicide and the Refusal of Escape

Albert Camus argues that when individuals are unable to remain within the condition of the absurd, they often respond in one of two ways: either by sinking into despair or by committing what he terms philosophical suicide. This form of suicide does not involve physical death but the abandonment of reason through belief in transcendent meaning. Unlike Søren Kierkegaard, who resolves the absurd through faith, Camus maintains that the absurd admits no final solution. It can only be acknowledged and sustained. From this perspective, the concluding stance of The Myth of Sisyphus becomes clearer—not as a resolution to the absurd, but as a conscious refusal to escape from it.

Negation as Honesty Rather Than Despair

The notion of “negation” is central to Camus’s thought and must not be confused with hopelessness. Philosophical suicide occurs at the moment of the “leap,” when reason relinquishes itself to faith or illusion in search of comfort. By rejecting this leap, the existential individual chooses to remain within the tension of the absurd. Though uncomfortable, this position represents a radical form of intellectual honesty. It involves facing the world’s indifference without self-deception and resisting the temptation to fabricate meaning where none is given. By sustaining this negation, one accepts both the human longing for meaning and the silence of the universe, choosing to live consciously within that unresolved tension rather than dissolving it through false consolation.

Video 4: Dadaism, Nihilism, and Existentialism

Dadaism as a Reaction to War and Collapse of Meaning

The Dada movement emerged in the aftermath of the First World War as a radical response to the cultural, political, and intellectual systems that had led to unprecedented violence and destruction. Rather than promoting harmony or aesthetic beauty, Dada deliberately embraced chaos, absurdity, and irrationality to expose the emptiness of the so-called “civilized” values that justified war. Through its disruptive artistic practices, Dada questioned the credibility of nationalism, authority, and rational progress, revealing how these ideals had failed humanity. In this sense, Dadaism redirected attention from collective national glory to the fragmented experience of the individual. This shift is clearly visible in modern literature, particularly war poetry, which moves away from patriotic celebration toward an exploration of personal trauma, alienation, and disillusionment.

From Destruction to Reconstruction: Dadaism and Existentialism

The relationship between Dadaism and Existentialism can be understood as sequential and complementary. Dadaism operates as a force of destruction, dismantling inherited values and exposing their hollowness, while Existentialism assumes the task of reconstruction. By rejecting established systems of meaning, Dadaism creates a philosophical and cultural vacuum—a blank slate upon which new ways of thinking become possible. Existentialism enters this space not to restore old certainties but to ask a more urgent question: how should one live once traditional meanings have collapsed? Where Dadaism denies coherence and mocks authority, Existentialism turns inward, focusing on individual consciousness, freedom, and responsibility. In this way, Dadaism clears the ground of false meanings, allowing Existentialism to center human existence itself as the starting point for creating meaning in a fractured world.

Video 5: Existentialism – A Gloomy Philosophy?

Facing Discomfort Rather Than Escaping It

Existentialism often earns its reputation as a dark or pessimistic philosophy because it forces individuals to confront unsettling questions about life, meaning, and mortality. By foregrounding emotions such as anxiety, despair, confusion, and absurdity, it unsettles long-held belief systems that once provided comfort and certainty. This confrontation can feel threatening, leading many to associate existentialism with nihilism or self-absorption. The unease arises not because the philosophy invents despair, but because it refuses to soften or conceal the difficult realities of human existence. In this sense, existentialism can indeed appear gloomy, as it dismantles familiar frameworks and compels individuals to rethink how they understand themselves and the world.

Gloom as Awareness, Not Defeat

Yet, despite its somber tone, existentialism should not be mistaken for a philosophy of resignation. Its apparent bleakness can be understood as a form of intellectual courage rather than pessimism. By exposing the absence of inherent purpose and the inevitability of death, existentialism encourages a heightened awareness of life rather than indifference toward it. Avoiding these realities leads to what Sartre describes as bad faith, a condition in which individuals deceive themselves to escape responsibility. In contrast, confronting anxiety and finitude allows one to live more honestly and deliberately. Although existentialism strips away comforting illusions, it does so to restore human dignity—urging individuals to live consciously, choose responsibly, and engage fully with the reality of their existence.

Video 6: Existentialism and Nihilism

Between Meaninglessness and Revolt

At first, Camus’s treatment of Sisyphus appears to present two opposing responses to an absurd existence: resignation through imagined happiness or rebellion against a meaningless fate. From this surface view, life seems trapped between false comfort and impossible resistance, making the absurd appear overwhelming and inescapable. Such a reading risks aligning existentialism with nihilism, where meaning collapses entirely and human effort appears futile.

Happiness as Resistance, Not Escape

A closer engagement with Camus, however, reveals that imagining Sisyphus happy is not an act of philosophical suicide but its complete rejection. Philosophical suicide would occur if Sisyphus abandoned his task by seeking hope in transcendence, divine justice, or a promised future life. That would be an escape from the absurd. Instead, Sisyphus continues pushing the stone with full awareness of its futility, transforming his labor into an act of rebellion. His acceptance of fate does not signal surrender but defiance. By choosing to affirm his struggle, he deprives the absurd of its power to dominate him. The meaninglessness of the task remains, but it no longer determines his inner life. In this way, Camus shows that true revolt lies not in opposing God or destiny, but in refusing to let an indifferent universe dictate one’s capacity for dignity and affirmation.

Video 7: Let Us Introduce Existentialism Again!

Existentialism and the Question of the Human Condition

This video provides a clear and accessible reintroduction to existentialism, a philosophy often described as difficult precisely because it resists fixed definitions. Rather than presenting existentialism as a closed system, the video frames it as an ongoing inquiry into the human condition. It focuses on fundamental questions such as why human beings exist and how they ought to live in a world without absolute or predetermined answers. Central to this perspective is the existentialist insistence that meaning cannot be inherited from religion or tradition but must be actively confronted and constructed by the individual.

From the Absence of Meaning to the Creation of Meaning

A key concept explored in the video is Jean-Paul Sartre’s assertion that “existence precedes essence,” which challenges classical philosophical and religious views that assume a fixed human nature. Instead, human beings define themselves through their choices and actions. The video also carefully distinguishes existentialism from nihilism. While both reject the idea of objective, universal meaning, nihilism concludes that nothing matters, whereas existentialism treats this absence as a condition of freedom. Drawing on Nietzsche’s call to “become who you are,” existentialism transforms the loss of external meaning into an opportunity for self-creation. Meaning is not discovered ready-made but forged through engagement, responsibility, and conscious decision-making. In this sense, existentialism invites individuals to confront uncertainty directly and take ownership of their lives rather than surrendering to indifference or conformity.

Video 8: Explain Like I’m Five (Nietzsche)

Simplifying Philosophy for Accessibility

This video attempts to introduce Nietzschean ideas through a child-friendly framework, using familiar situations such as questioning parental authority and socially defined notions of “good” behavior. By translating abstract concepts into everyday experiences, the video succeeds in making difficult philosophical ideas more approachable. This method demonstrates how philosophy can be introduced at an early cognitive level by anchoring it in relatable human experiences rather than abstract theory.

The Risk of Oversimplification

Despite its accessibility, the video also reveals the limitations of extreme simplification. Presenting Nietzsche’s concept of the Übermensch as someone who simply does whatever they desire risks distorting the philosopher’s core argument. Nietzsche’s philosophy emphasizes self-overcoming, discipline, and the creative responsibility of forming one’s own values, rather than unrestrained freedom or moral chaos. From an academic standpoint, the video highlights the challenge of communicating complex philosophical ideas without sacrificing conceptual accuracy. While simplification can invite engagement, it must be handled carefully to avoid reducing nuanced thought to misleading generalizations. For me, this video underscores the importance of balancing clarity with intellectual responsibility when introducing philosophy to broader audiences.

Video 9: Why I Like Existentialism (Eric Dodson)

Existentialism as a Lived Philosophy

Eric Dodson’s personal reflection on existentialism strongly resonates with my understanding of the philosophy as something lived rather than merely studied. He presents existentialism not as an abstract intellectual exercise, but as a practical orientation toward life. His distinction between the philosophy’s intellectual appeal and its deeper emotional and existential impact effectively captures the spirit of the idea that existence precedes essence. Identity, in this sense, is not shaped by theoretical definitions but by lived experience, emotional engagement, and conscious participation in life.

Suffering, Honesty, and Personal Growth

What stands out most in Dodson’s account is his emphasis on existentialism’s uncompromising honesty about suffering and absurdity. The suggestion that suffering is not an enemy but a potential source of insight reframes discomfort as a necessary condition for growth. This perspective encourages resilience by teaching individuals to confront hardship instead of avoiding it. Dodson’s appreciation for existentialism’s rebellious spirit further highlights its transformative potential. By urging individuals to recognize the extent of their freedom and responsibility, existentialism invites active engagement with life rather than passive observation. This approach empowers individuals to create meaning through choice and commitment, ultimately leading to a more intense and conscious experience of life’s possibilities.

Video 10: Let Us Sum Up (Essentialism vs. Existentialism)

Understanding Essentialism through Contrast

This video offers a clear and effective summary of existentialism by first introducing the concept of essentialism. Essentialism is explained as the belief that all entities possess a fixed essence or purpose prior to their existence. The use of a simple analogy—such as a knife requiring a blade to fulfill its function—successfully illustrates how an object’s identity is defined by predetermined characteristics. This explanation makes it easier to understand how traditional philosophical and religious frameworks often extend this logic to human beings, assuming that individuals are born with an inherent nature or destiny.

From Predetermined Purpose to Self-Creation

By establishing essentialism as a point of departure, the video clarifies the radical break introduced by existentialism. The existentialist claim that “existence precedes essence” rejects the idea of a preassigned human purpose and instead places responsibility on individuals to define themselves through action and choice. This contrast highlights the shift from a worldview grounded in divine or metaphysical certainty to one centered on freedom and self-creation. The video’s comparative approach allows the core difference between essentialism and existentialism to emerge naturally, making complex philosophical ideas more accessible and reinforcing the existentialist emphasis on human responsibility and autonomy.

The Video I Liked Personally

Among all the videos explored in this flipped learning activity, Video 3: The Myth of Sisyphus (Philosophical Suicide) left the strongest impression on me, particularly when read alongside Video 6: Existentialism and Nihilism. What draws me to these videos is not their promise of comfort but their refusal to offer one. The ideas of philosophical suicide, the inevitability of the absurd, and the temptation of the “leap” force us to confront an uncomfortable truth: that meaning is not guaranteed, and hope itself can sometimes function as an escape rather than a solution. While existentialism often feels relevant to modern life, these videos make it clear why it is so rarely practiced. Social structures encourage certainty, conformity, and emotional reassurance, whereas existentialism demands honesty, discomfort, and personal responsibility. When faced with this conflict, individuals often choose what is socially acceptable or emotionally easier rather than what aligns with their inner truth.

The distinction between existentialism and nihilism, clarified in the video on nihilism, further deepens this understanding. Nihilism acknowledges the absence of objective meaning but collapses into indifference, concluding that nothing truly matters. Existentialism begins at the same point yet moves in the opposite direction. The absurd individual recognizes that “seeking what is true is not the same as seeking what is desirable,” and still chooses to live consciously. Philosophical suicide—the leap toward faith, hope, or transcendence—becomes the easier option because it dissolves tension. The truly difficult path is to remain in the fragile moment before the leap, aware of absurdity without denying it. Even if life offers no ultimate meaning, these videos suggest that one can still live authentically by embracing absurdity without surrendering one’s personal vision. It is within this tension between nihilistic emptiness and existential revolt that human experience gains depth, intensity, and dignity.

Learning Outcomes

Has my comprehension of Existentialist philosophy improved?

This flipped learning activity has significantly enhanced my understanding of existentialist philosophy. Earlier, my familiarity with existentialism was largely limited to thinkers such as Nietzsche and Camus. Through this activity, I was introduced to a broader range of existentialist ideas and philosophers, along with key concepts such as philosophical suicide, the nature of the absurd, and Aristotle’s notion of essentialism. In addition, the activity expanded my intellectual scope by offering insights into related movements and ideas such as Dadaism, nihilism, and narcissism. These concepts helped me understand existentialism not in isolation, but as part of a wider philosophical and cultural response to modernity.

Do I feel more confident discussing or writing about Existentialism?

Yes, this activity has increased my confidence in both discussing and writing about existentialist philosophy. By engaging with video resources, reflections, and comparative ideas, I gained a clearer grasp of existentialism’s historical background, its central arguments, and its connections with other philosophical and artistic movements. This structured engagement has enabled me to articulate existentialist ideas with greater clarity and coherence, making me more comfortable responding to questions or developing critical arguments related to existentialism.

Has this exercise clarified previously unclear concepts?

This exercise has brought substantial clarity to concepts that were earlier confusing for me. I had previously struggled to clearly distinguish between philosophical movements such as Dadaism, nihilism, and existentialism, especially in terms of their aims and responses to modern life. Through this activity, these distinctions became much clearer. It also deepened my understanding of key existentialist thinkers such as Camus, Sartre, and Kierkegaard, helping me grasp their differing approaches to freedom, meaning, and faith. Overall, the activity not only clarified my earlier doubts but also introduced new perspectives that strengthened my conceptual foundation.

Questions for Further Reflection

1. If existentialism rejects external moral frameworks, how can ethical responsibility be justified without appealing to religion or tradition?

2. Does living authentically require withdrawing from social expectations, or can authenticity exist within conformity?

3. Can existential freedom become a burden so heavy that it limits action rather than enabling it?

4. In a world governed by chance and absurdity, what distinguishes existential courage from mere stubborn persistence?

5. If meaning is created through action, how should existentialism respond to failure, regret, or irreversible choices?

Conclusion

This flipped learning activity on existentialism has offered a meaningful opportunity to engage with philosophy as a lived and questioning practice rather than a fixed system of thought. Through the exploration of various video resources, the core existentialist concerns of absurdity, freedom, responsibility, and authenticity became clearer and more interconnected. Thinkers such as Camus, Sartre, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard reveal that the absence of predetermined meaning is not an endpoint of despair but a starting point for conscious living. Existentialism challenges individuals to confront uncertainty without retreating into comforting illusions, urging them instead to assume responsibility for their choices and values.

What emerges from this engagement is an understanding of existentialism not as a gloomy or nihilistic philosophy, but as one grounded in intellectual honesty and human dignity. By refusing easy answers and false consolations, existentialism affirms the seriousness of human existence and the courage required to live authentically. This activity has reinforced the idea that meaning is neither discovered nor inherited, but continuously created through action, awareness, and commitment. Ultimately, existentialism invites individuals to remain awake to the tensions of life, embracing both its absurdity and its potential for depth, freedom, and self-created purpose.

References

Barad, Dilip. “Existentialism: Video Resources.” Dilip Barad | Teacher Blog, 19 Sept. 2016,
blog.dilipbarad.com/2016/09/existentialism-video-resources.html. Accessed 23 Jan. 2026.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. Translated by Constance Garnett, Project Gutenberg,
28 Mar. 2006, www.gutenberg.org/files/2554/2554-h/2554-h.htm.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from the Underground. Translated by Constance Garnett, Project Gutenberg,
1 July 1996, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/600.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. Translated by Constance Garnett, Project Gutenberg,
12 Feb. 2009, www.gutenberg.org/files/28054/old/28054-pdf.pdf.

Gallagher, Shaun, et al. “Existentialism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
6 Jan. 2023, plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/. Accessed 23 Jan. 2026.

 Between Text and Spectacle: Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby as Cinematic Adaptation

I am writing this blog as part of an academic task assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad, based on a worksheet provided for the critical analysis of The Great Gatsby and its film adaptation The Great Gatsby. The aim of this exercise is to critically examine adaptation as a process by exploring how literary meaning is transformed when translated into a cinematic medium. This blog responds to the key questions and theoretical frameworks outlined in the worksheet and serves as both an academic engagement with adaptation studies and a reflective analysis of a canonical text in a contemporary context.

Introduction

The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the most significant literary representations of the American Dream and its disillusionment in the context of the Jazz Age. Set against the backdrop of wealth, excess, and social division, the novel critiques the moral emptiness underlying material success through the tragic figure of Jay Gatsby and the reflective narration of Nick Carraway. Nearly a century later, The Great Gatsby, directed by Baz Luhrmann, reimagines this canonical text for a contemporary audience using spectacle, 3D technology, and a modern soundtrack. Rather than offering a faithful reproduction of the novel, the film raises important questions about adaptation, fidelity, narrative perspective, and cultural translation. This blog undertakes a critical analysis of Luhrmann’s adaptation by examining how the film transforms Fitzgerald’s themes, characters, and symbols—particularly the American Dream—within a modern socio-economic and cinematic context.

Part I: The Frame Narrative and the “Writerly” Text

One of the most significant departures in The Great Gatsby from The Great Gatsby lies in its framing of the narrative. While Fitzgerald’s novel presents Nick Carraway as a reflective narrator looking back on past events from an unspecified point in time, Luhrmann introduces an explicit frame: Nick is shown in a sanitarium, diagnosed with “morbid alcoholism,” where he is encouraged by a doctor to write his memories as a form of therapy. This framing reshapes the act of narration itself and raises important questions about authorship, reliability, and moral authority.

1. The Sanitarium Device: Externalizing or Pathologizing the Narrator

In the novel, Nick Carraway’s narration functions as a quiet moral lens. His reflections emerge from ethical disillusionment rather than psychological collapse. He repeatedly positions himself as observant, restrained, and morally grounded, claiming that he is “inclined to reserve all judgments,” yet gradually arriving at a firm critique of the careless wealthy elite. His narration is introspective but never explicitly unstable.

Luhrmann’s sanitarium device, however, radically recontextualizes this narrative voice. By placing Nick in a clinical space and diagnosing him with “morbid alcoholism,” the film externalizes his internal monologue. What is internal reflection in the novel becomes visible action in the film: writing is no longer an abstract literary process but a therapeutic exercise with a clear cause-and-effect logic. This addition serves the demands of cinema, a medium that often struggles to convey prolonged interiority without visual motivation. The sanitarium provides a narrative justification for voice-over, flashbacks, and the act of writing itself.

At the same time, this device risks pathologizing Nick’s moral perspective. His condemnation of the Buchanans and the East Egg society can now be read not purely as ethical judgment but as the product of trauma, depression, or psychological breakdown. The implication is subtle but significant: Nick’s authority as a moral compass is destabilized. The audience may question whether Gatsby is remembered as he truly was or reconstructed through the fractured psyche of a damaged narrator.

While this framing effectively creates a cinematic structure of memory and recovery, it arguably reduces the novel’s complexity. Fitzgerald allows ambiguity to linger—Nick may be biased, but he is never medically defined. Luhrmann’s approach simplifies this ambiguity by assigning a psychological explanation to Nick’s disillusionment. Thus, the sanitarium device succeeds in translating interior narration into visual causality but does so at the cost of diminishing Nick’s philosophical agency.

2. The “Cinematic Poem” and Floating Text: Bridging or Trapping the Film

Luhrmann further attempts to preserve the novel’s “writerly” quality through the visual superimposition of text. During key moments—most notably the description of the Valley of Ashes—Fitzgerald’s words appear floating across the screen, merging written language with cinematic imagery. Luhrmann has described this technique as “poetic glue” or a “cinematic poem,” suggesting that the film seeks not to abandon literature but to visually honor it.

In the Valley of Ashes sequence, the floating words reinforce the bleakness of the landscape: ash, dust, decay, and spiritual emptiness. The technique momentarily bridges literature and film by reminding viewers that language itself is central to meaning. Instead of merely illustrating the setting, the film foregrounds Fitzgerald’s prose, insisting that the viewer read as well as watch. In this sense, the technique acknowledges the limits of cinema and compensates by borrowing the authority of the written word.

However, this strategy has also been criticized for producing a “noble literalism.” By directly displaying the text, the film risks reducing cinematic interpretation to visual quotation. Rather than allowing meaning to emerge through mise-en-scène, sound, and performance, the film leans on the novel’s language as a guarantee of depth. This creates a quotational quality, where the audience becomes acutely aware of the adaptation as an adaptation. The illusion of diegetic reality is momentarily interrupted, as viewers are pulled out of the narrative world and reminded of the literary source behind it.

As a result, the floating text both connects and confines the film. It bridges the gap between literature and cinema by preserving the novel’s poetic voice, yet it also traps the film within reverence, limiting its autonomy as a visual medium. Instead of fully reimagining Fitzgerald’s imagery, the film sometimes illustrates it, turning cinematic space into a curated exhibition of prose rather than an independent narrative language.

Taken together, the sanitarium frame and the floating text reveal Luhrmann’s central anxiety as an adaptor: how to translate a deeply interior, linguistic novel into a visual spectacle without losing its literary soul. While these techniques successfully externalize internal processes and foreground the importance of language, they also risk simplifying narrative ambiguity and distancing the viewer from the film’s diegetic reality. Part I thus demonstrates how Luhrmann’s adaptation oscillates between innovation and over-insistence, balancing cinematic necessity against literary reverence.

Part II: Adaptation Theory and “Fidelity”

One of the central debates in adaptation studies concerns the question of fidelity—whether a film should remain loyal to the source text or creatively transform it to suit a new medium and audience. Rather than treating fidelity as strict textual obedience, contemporary theorists argue that adaptation involves interpretation, selection, and re-contextualization. Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby provides a compelling case study for this debate, particularly in its handling of the film’s ending and its controversial use of a modern soundtrack.

3. Hutcheon’s “Knowing” vs. “Unknowing” Audience

Linda Hutcheon defines adaptation as “repetition without replication,” emphasizing that adaptations must function simultaneously for two audiences: the “knowing” audience, familiar with the source text, and the “unknowing” audience, encountering the story for the first time. Luhrmann’s treatment of the film’s ending highlights the difficulty of balancing these two groups.

In The Great Gatsby, the arrival of Henry Gatz at his son’s funeral is a deeply significant moment. Gatsby’s father grounds the myth of Jay Gatsby in the humble reality of James Gatz, revealing the distance between Gatsby’s grand dream and his modest origins. The near-empty funeral exposes the brutal indifference of the elite society that eagerly consumed Gatsby’s wealth but abandoned him in death. For the knowing reader, this scene powerfully reinforces the novel’s social critique, demonstrating how the American Dream ultimately isolates and discards those who attempt to transcend class boundaries.

Luhrmann’s film omits Henry Gatz entirely and eliminates the funeral procession, shifting the emotional focus solely onto Nick Carraway’s loyalty and grief. For the unknowing audience, this omission simplifies the narrative and sharpens its emotional impact. The story becomes more intimate, centering on friendship, betrayal, and lost ideals rather than social abandonment. Gatsby’s isolation appears personal rather than systemic, the result of misplaced love rather than class exploitation.

However, for the knowing audience, this alteration significantly reshapes the meaning of Gatsby’s isolation. Without his father’s presence, Gatsby remains an almost mythic figure, detached from his origins and social reality. The critique of class hypocrisy is softened, and the narrative moves away from social tragedy toward tragic romance. This shift suggests that Luhrmann prioritizes emotional accessibility and narrative clarity for unknowing viewers, even if it means diluting the novel’s broader socio-economic critique. In this sense, fidelity is redirected—from social realism to emotional immediacy.

4. Alain Badiou and the “Truth Event”

The question of fidelity can also be approached philosophically through the work of Alain Badiou, who argues that truth emerges through radical rupture or “Truth Events” moments that disrupt established cultural and ideological structures. Scholar U. Vooght applies this framework to adaptation studies, suggesting that a film may be faithful not to the literal details of a text, but to the disruptive energy it once represented.

Luhrmann’s use of hip-hop music instead of period Jazz exemplifies this approach. In the 1920s, Jazz was considered dangerous, rebellious, and morally threatening. Over time, however, Jazz has been canonized and stripped of its subversive force. To rely solely on period music in a contemporary film risks aesthetic nostalgia rather than cultural shock.

By incorporating hip-hop, an equally disruptive and politically charged genre, Luhrmann attempts an act of intersemiotic translation, translating the cultural impact of Jazz into a modern sonic language. For contemporary audiences, hip-hop carries associations of excess, rebellion, ambition, and social mobility, echoing the emotional energy of Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age rather than its historical soundscape.

From this perspective, the anachronistic soundtrack can be read as an act of deeper fidelity to the novel’s Truth Event rather than its historical specificity. However, this strategy is not without consequence. While it successfully recreates cultural rupture, it simultaneously destabilizes the film’s historical realism, potentially alienating viewers seeking period authenticity. The soundtrack thus embodies the central paradox of adaptation: fidelity to spirit often requires betrayal of form.

Part II demonstrates that Luhrmann’s adaptation redefines fidelity as experiential equivalence rather than textual accuracy. By reshaping the ending to appeal to unknowing audiences and by translating Jazz into hip-hop as a modern Truth Event, the film prioritizes emotional resonance and cultural relevance over historical precision. These choices reveal adaptation not as a process of loss, but as one of strategic transformation—where meaning survives by changing form.

Part III: Characterization and Performance

Characterization is one of the most revealing areas in which the shift from novel to film becomes visible. While The Great Gatsby relies on gradual revelation and moral ambiguity, The Great Gatsby must condense, visualize, and emotionally anchor its characters for a contemporary audience. As a result, the film’s performances—especially those of Gatsby and Daisy—play a crucial role in reshaping the novel’s ethical framework.

5. Gatsby: Romantic Hero vs. Criminal

In Fitzgerald’s novel, Gatsby’s criminality is revealed slowly and indirectly. Rumors circulate at his parties, ambiguous phone calls interrupt his conversations, and only gradually does the reader learn that his fortune is built on bootlegging and bond fraud. This delayed disclosure is central to the novel’s critique: Gatsby’s dream is not merely idealistic but morally compromised. The “foul dust” that floats in the wake of his dreams is the result of his own choices, suggesting that his downfall is self-generated rather than imposed from outside.

Luhrmann’s film significantly softens this aspect of Gatsby’s character. Several moments that explicitly point to criminal activity—such as the call from Detroit or Philadelphia revealing bond fraud—are either deleted, delayed, or framed less ominously. Instead of emphasizing illegality, the film foregrounds Gatsby’s emotional vulnerability and romantic longing. This shift is reinforced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance, which presents Gatsby as intensely hopeful, emotionally transparent, and almost childlike in his devotion to Daisy.

The film’s visual splendor further amplifies this transformation. Luhrmann’s “Red Curtain” style—marked by fireworks, orchestral swells, sweeping crane shots, and saturated color—wraps Gatsby in an aura of mythic grandeur. This spectacle often overwhelms the novel’s critique of the “corrupted dream.” Rather than appearing as a man who willingly compromises ethics for illusion, Gatsby is framed as a tragic victim of circumstance: a self-made outsider destroyed by an unforgiving class system and an unattainable love.

As a result, the film shifts responsibility away from Gatsby’s delusions and toward external forces such as Tom Buchanan’s brutality and Daisy’s weakness. The tragic dimension remains, but its moral complexity is reduced. Gatsby’s dream no longer collapses under the weight of its own corruption; instead, it is crushed by social forces beyond his control.

6. Daisy Buchanan: Reconstructing Desire and Agency

In the novel, Daisy Buchanan is often interpreted as careless, shallow, and morally evasive. Her famous declaration that she hopes her daughter will be “a beautiful little fool” encapsulates both her awareness of patriarchal limitation and her emotional detachment. Fitzgerald presents Daisy as someone who chooses comfort and class security over emotional risk, making her complicit in Gatsby’s destruction.

Luhrmann’s adaptation reconstructs Daisy to align with contemporary expectations of romantic plausibility. One of the most telling changes is the removal of scenes emphasizing Daisy’s lack of maternal instinct. The child, who functions symbolically in the novel as evidence of Daisy’s emotional emptiness, is largely absent from the film. By eliminating this dimension, Daisy appears less careless and more emotionally constrained by circumstance.

The film also intensifies Tom Buchanan’s violence and dominance, positioning Daisy as trapped within an oppressive marriage. Carey Mulligan’s performance emphasizes fragility, hesitation, and emotional confusion. This portrayal invites sympathy but simultaneously diminishes Daisy’s agency. Her final decision to retreat into Tom’s wealth appears less like a calculated class choice and more like a fearful response to emotional pressure.

By softening Daisy’s moral responsibility, the film ensures that Gatsby remains the uncontested romantic hero. Daisy becomes less an autonomous moral actor and more a symbolic object of desire—an ideal onto which Gatsby projects meaning. This reconstruction makes Gatsby’s obsession emotionally credible for a 21st-century audience, but it also simplifies Fitzgerald’s critique of privilege, gender, and moral complicity.

Part III reveals how performance and visual style reshape the ethical balance of The Great Gatsby. By romanticizing Gatsby and softening Daisy, Luhrmann’s adaptation shifts the narrative away from moral ambiguity toward emotional identification. The film privileges pathos over critique, transforming a story about self-deception and social corruption into a tragic romance driven by innocence betrayed. While this strategy enhances emotional accessibility, it comes at the cost of the novel’s sharper moral edge.

Part IV: Visual Style and Socio-Political Context

One of the most distinctive aspects of The Great Gatsby is its highly stylized visual language. Drawing from his well-known “Red Curtain” aesthetic, Baz Luhrmann embraces theatricality, excess, and sensory overload as a means of storytelling. These stylistic choices are not merely decorative; they actively shape the film’s ideological engagement with wealth, class, and the American Dream. When read alongside the socio-economic context of the film’s post-2008 release, the visual style acquires renewed political resonance.

7. The “Red Curtain” Style and the Party Scene: Critique or Celebration ?

Luhrmann’s party scenes are the most explicit expressions of the Red Curtain style. Characterized by vortex-like camera movements, rapid montage editing, booming music, and immersive 3D visuals, these sequences overwhelm the spectator. The intent is to convey what Nick Carraway describes in the novel as “an orgastic future”—a world intoxicated by money, speed, and sensory pleasure.

From a critical perspective, these techniques can be read as a visual critique of excess. The relentless motion of the camera mirrors the moral chaos of the Jazz Age elite. The absence of stillness suggests a society incapable of reflection or ethical restraint. The parties feel less like celebrations and more like spectacles on the verge of collapse, reinforcing Fitzgerald’s portrayal of wealth as hollow and unsustainable.

However, the same techniques also risk celebrating the very consumerism they seek to critique. The 3D technology immerses viewers directly into the spectacle, inviting participation rather than distance. The lavish costumes, champagne fountains, and choreographed chaos are visually intoxicating. Instead of alienating the audience from excess, the film often seduces them. Viewers are encouraged to marvel at the luxury rather than recoil from it, becoming spectators—and participants—in Gatsby’s fantasy.

This ambiguity reveals a tension at the heart of Luhrmann’s adaptation. While the Red Curtain style aims to expose the grotesque nature of wealth, its aesthetic pleasure risks undermining its moral critique. The film thus mirrors the contradiction of the American Dream itself: dazzling in appearance, destructive in consequence.

8. The American Dream in Crisis: 1925 vs. Post-2008

The release of The Great Gatsby in 2013—five years after the global financial crisis—inevitably reframes Fitzgerald’s critique of the American Dream. Luhrmann has described the relevance of the story in terms of the “moral rubberiness” of Wall Street, drawing an implicit parallel between the speculative excess of the 1920s and the financial recklessness that led to the 2008 collapse.

In this context, the film’s depiction of the Green Light takes on renewed significance. In the novel, the Green Light symbolizes hope, aspiration, and the possibility of self-reinvention. In the film, however, it is visually emphasized as distant, faint, and perpetually receding. The repeated imagery suggests not just the difficulty of achieving the dream, but its fundamental impossibility. The dream is visible but structurally unattainable—an illusion sustained by belief rather than reality.

Similarly, the Valley of Ashes functions as a powerful visual metaphor for post-2008 economic inequality. No longer merely an industrial wasteland, it evokes the social consequences of unchecked capitalism: abandoned labour, environmental decay, and invisible suffering. The stark contrast between Gatsby’s glowing mansion and the grey desolation of the Ashes reflects a world divided between excess and exclusion—the “1%” and the forgotten masses.

Together, these symbols suggest that the film emphasizes the impossibility of the dream more than the glamour of its pursuit. While Luhrmann’s visuals continue to romanticize aspiration, the narrative ultimately exposes the dream as hollow and rigged. The American Dream in 2013 is not simply failed; it is revealed as a spectacle that sustains itself by obscuring the cost paid by those left behind.

Part IV demonstrates how Luhrmann’s visual style and historical context reshape the ideological core of The Great Gatsby. The Red Curtain aesthetic both critiques and indulges in excess, reflecting the contradictions of consumer capitalism. When read against the backdrop of the post-2008 financial crisis, the film reframes the American Dream as an alluring but unattainable fantasy—one that dazzles the eye while concealing its structural injustices. In doing so, Luhrmann’s adaptation transforms Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age warning into a modern parable of economic illusion.

Part V: Creative Response – The Plaza Hotel Confrontation

As the scriptwriter adapting the Plaza Hotel confrontation scene, the central challenge lies in translating one of the novel’s most psychologically charged moments into a visually compelling cinematic sequence. In The Great Gatsby, this confrontation is largely verbal and psychological, exposing the fragile foundations of Gatsby’s dream without overt physical violence. The question is whether Baz Luhrmann’s addition—Gatsby losing his temper and nearly striking Tom—should be retained.

Decision: I Would Keep the Film’s Addition

I would retain Gatsby’s loss of temper and near-violent outburst, prioritizing fidelity to the medium over strict fidelity to the book’s character consistency.

Justification: Fidelity to the Medium (Dramatic Tension)

In the novel, the Plaza Hotel scene unfolds as a battle of words and revelations. Gatsby’s composure cracks subtly; Fitzgerald writes that he looks “as if he had killed a man,” suggesting an internal collapse rather than an external explosion. This restraint aligns with Gatsby’s character as a man who lives through illusion, control, and performance. However, what works effectively in prose does not always translate with equal force to cinema.

Film is a visual and kinetic medium that relies on externalized emotion. Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby builds Gatsby as a tightly controlled figure—polite, hopeful, and obsessively disciplined in maintaining his persona. For the dramatic arc to reach a climax, this carefully constructed façade must visibly fracture. Gatsby’s near-violent outburst functions as that rupture.

This moment marks the symbolic death of the “Great” Gatsby. When he loses control, the fantasy collapses in front of Daisy, Tom, and the audience. The gesture visually confirms Tom’s accusations that Gatsby is a fraud and terrifies Daisy, pushing her back toward the security of old money. In cinematic terms, this is the point of no return—the dream can no longer sustain itself.

Balancing Character and Spectacle

While this addition deviates from Fitzgerald’s subtle characterization, it does not entirely betray Gatsby’s inner truth. The outburst can be read as the inevitable consequence of prolonged repression—class anxiety, emotional desperation, and the unbearable pressure of sustaining illusion. Rather than transforming Gatsby into a violent man, the scene exposes the emotional volatility beneath his romantic idealism.

Thus, the change shifts the scene from psychological dismantling to visual catastrophe, aligning with Luhrmann’s broader aesthetic strategy. The Plaza confrontation becomes not just a turning point in the narrative, but a cinematic spectacle that signals the irreversible collapse of Gatsby’s dream.

By retaining Gatsby’s near-violent outburst, the adaptation prioritizes dramatic clarity and emotional immediacy over textual subtlety. This choice reflects a conscious fidelity to the cinematic medium, where inner collapse must be made visible. While it simplifies the novel’s ambiguity, it provides a powerful visual articulation of Gatsby’s downfall, ensuring that the emotional stakes of the scene resonate forcefully with a contemporary audience. In this moment, fidelity to the medium becomes a means of preserving the tragic core of the story, even at the cost of literary restraint.

Conclusion

Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is a visually extravagant and interpretative adaptation of The Great Gatsby that prioritizes cinematic spectacle and emotional immediacy over strict textual fidelity. By reframing the narrative through the sanitarium, employing a modern soundtrack, and embracing the theatrical “Red Curtain” style, the film redefines fidelity as experiential rather than literal. Although these choices soften Fitzgerald’s sharp social critique and moral ambiguity, they successfully translate the restless energy, excess, and eventual collapse of the American Dream for a post-2008 audience. Ultimately, the film functions not as a replication of the novel but as a cultural reinterpretation—one that reveals both the creative potential and the inevitable limitations of adapting a canonical literary text for a contemporary visual medium.

References

• Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925.
• Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. Routledge, 2006.
• Luhrmann, Baz, director. The Great Gatsby. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2013.
• Perdikaki, Katerina. “Film Adaptation as the Interface between Creative Translation and Cultural Transformation.” The Journal of Specialised Translation, no. 29, 2018, pp. 1–18.
• Vooght, U. “The Great Gatsby Meets Alain Badiou: The Truth Event in Adaptation.” Adaptation Studies Review, 2023.