“Everything is not what it seems when you can get all you wanted in your wildest dreams,You might run into trouble if you go to extremes because everything is not what it seems,Everything is not what it seems when you can have what you want by the simplest of means be careful not to mess with the balance of things
Because everything is not what it seems,”- Selena Gomez the art of illusions paints itself in many story’s and movies but the four texts that have extremely illusion polished characters that I will be going into detail about is Lego House by Ed Sheeran, The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald, Arrow directed by David Nutter and The Sniper By Liam O’Flaherty for the characters in these texts everything isn’t what it seems. they tried to get everything they wanted in there wildest dreams by creating personas but pushed to far and ran into trouble as they went to extremes because everything is not what it seems.

The song ‘Lego House’ by Ed Sheeran displays an illusion is the form of hiding a difficult and frustrating relationship into something slightly difficult yet very fun and beautiful . Ed sings about a hard and difficult relationship that is beyond his reach. he wants to be in the relationship but his partner is hesitant of the commitment. Ed wants to win back his hesitant partner so he tries to make their negative and grotesque future seem fun and easy saying “I’m gonna pick up the pieces and build a Lego house “. Ed uses lego as a way of trying to hide the hard times in a fun childish object being lego. Lego is a fun but sometimes challenging toy that people play with to have fun and make amazing lego artwork. Ed Smartly compares lego to his relationship to convince his lover that although they’re going through a hard time just like difficult parts of creating lego artwork it will become a beautiful masterpiece once the hard times are over.  People also associate lego with children playing and having fun. this means that he’s trying to make the relationship seem entertaining and simple like childhood was. Ed also compares the relationship to Lego but in a different way saying “if things go wrong we can knock it down”. Post break up People usually feel hurt, angry, sad and confused just to name a few emotions, but Ed claims that “If things go wrong we can knock it down” free of hurt and sorrow. this makes the break up seem more intriguing as you get the fun and love that comes with it without the heartbreak and hurt that comes with a devastating breakup. Ed effectively hides the dangerous relationship under the illusion of that it will be fun like lego and a fun and Painless lego like knocking lego artwork over. this is how Ed effectivly uses illusion in his song Lego house.

The Character Gatsby from the book “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald created and lived a illusion so much that he become it and lived till the day he died. he reinvented himself for 5 years becoming someone, something else. Gatsby claimed to have come from a very happy and rich family being schooled at oxford and inherited his wealth from his rich parents who have recently died. when in reality none of this is actually true. his name isn’t even Jay Gatsby its James jimmy Gatz. he comes from a poor family based in North Dakota and was schooled at St.Olaf east of North Dakota in Minnesota. Gatz created Gatsby as his one love, Daisy Buchanan couldn’t date a nobody. she needed a man with fame fame and money. This illusion even made him run a dodgy bootlegging business inside drug stores to cover the money aspect needed for daisy’s love. Gatsby does everything to be with daisy but she still cant come to him, she still wont come to him. this meant as “Their eyes met, and they stared together at each other, alone in space. With an effort she glanced down at the table.” it proves that she cant look at him in the tease romantic moments out of fear that she will go back to him. At the last step of Gatsby’s plan and to end the illusion  Gatsby tells daisy to tell her husband thats she’s leaving him but she cant because “you want too much!” she cried to Gatsby. “I love you now – isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.” She began to sob helplessly. “I did love him once – but I loved you too.”. Daisy cant forget the past with her husband and refuses to forget it. this proves that Gatbsy’s illusion has failed and her husband Tom has won the war. Just like Ed Sherran in his song Lego house Gatsby is trying to win his loves heart by creating a double life illusion. Similar to Ed trying to win his girls heart by hiding the tough parts of their relation ship into fun and easy lyrics. Even though they both make sacrifices to win the hearts of their partners they fall short.

Oliver Queen the main character of the Hit Show “The Arrow” by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg lives the ultimate illusion, by Day he is the mayor of Star City Enforcing laws and being a role model by day but by night he becomes someone else and breaks all laws to be a vigilante and bring those “who have failed this city,” to justice. Oliver’s boat has sabotaged throwing himself out of the boat. on a life boat with himself, his father Robert queen and the captain of the boat his father tells oliver  ‘ i’m not the man you think I am, Oliver. I didn’t save our city, I failed it. I did something terrible, and in my efforts to make it right, I ignored my conscience and made alliances with terrible people. There’s a book. A book with a list of all their names. And with these people, I always told myself that everything I did, I did for my family. That’s a lie. Because what good is a family without a soul? You can right my wrongs. You can be better than I was. You can save this city. I love you.” he sadly then killed the captain and committed suicide via a shot to the head. oliver then spent the next five years reinventing himself into someone and something else that he believed people wanted and needed, the arrow. he did this for a loved one, his father. Oliver thought that to do this would make his loved one love him more and let his legacy rest easy. Oliver relates to James Gatz (Jay Gatsby) from the book the great Gatsby in many ways. The biggest similarity that Gatsby and Oliver share is that they both spent five years away from their loved ones where they contemplated there lives and created a way to get closer with they’re chosen one. this occurred with Oliver as he created the Arrow to clear his father legacy while on a island for 5 years. this also occurred for Gatsby as he reinvented himself to win over his dream girl Daisy. They both then applied this in there lives back at home olivers being Starling City and Gatsby being New York. They then found that hiding behind this illusion had serious consequences Gatsby losing his life and Oliver losing many friends and family.

The republican sniper from the Text “The Sniper,” by Liam O’Flaherty lives and participates in a illusion filled war. he being with the republicans opposing the free staters. he believes that he needs to fight this war for his country, for the republicans. The sniper fights what he believes is the wrong and the evil being the free staters. The free staters didn’t want to follow and obey by the rules and laws and instead supported the anglo-irish treaty. they were plotting against the government and sicking the city. he believes that because of this all of the free staters are evil minded people. As he gets in a snipe of with a free stater he only had one objective and that was to kill him, he didn’t care about his family, friends, identity nothing. the free state sniper was just seen as  evil not a human. when the republican sees he has a free shot on his enemy “The Republican sniper smiled and lifted his revolver above the edge of the parapet,”. As the republican sniper is smiling the emotive language shows that he’s happy to rid the world of the evil. The republican sniper has many similarities with Oliver Queen from the TV show “The Arrow,” by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg. firstly they live in a deep and dark illusion where they believe that its there right and responsibility to cure there city’s of the darkness that attacks it themselves. For the sniper this occurs being a sniper for the republican army and oliver becoming a vigilante. Both oliver and the republican sniper are both blinded by illusions seeing only darkness until a point where they realise that the evil they are fighting are all around them even in there family. this occurs for the sniper when “the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face”. this occurred for oliver as he realised that his mother Moira Queen was the one who was behind the sinking of his yacht leading to oliver being stuck on and island for 5 years and his dad dead.

Throughout these four texts there is many different forms of illusion from Ed Sheeran hiding the hard journey that is love inside fun and childish objects such as lego,  Gatsby creating and becoming someone else to try win over a his loved one daisy buchanan, Oliver Becoming someone else, something else to try rid the people who had poisoned his city and the republican sniper becoming so emerged in the illusion covered war seeing all of the free staters as bad he kills his brother. As Selena Gomez stated at the start of the essay “you might run into trouble if you go to extremes because everything is not what it seems,” and this occurred in all four texts. in there “quest to get all you wanted in your wildest dreams,” they were not “careful not to mess with the balance of things,” and all eventually ran into trouble as they went to extremes.

By Fletcher Cavanagh