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Theme of love and loss in the great gatsby essay
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“And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did now know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night”. F. Scott. Fitzgerald pg.180. The Great Gatsby is a novel about a wealthy, careless society with a brutal underside. In this society there are no morals, and the only goal is to achieve power no matter what the cost. Throughout this novel we see what the destruction of love can do. The destruction of love affects many characters throughout the story, such as George Wilson. Myrtle Wilson, George’s wife, is fooling around with Tom. After finding out what Myrtle was up to, George locked her in the upstairs bedroom. After a heated argument Myrtle dashes out into the street waving her hands at the oncoming car, Myrtle was struck, and died. “A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting, before he could move from his door the business was over.” pg. 137. Myrtle loved Tom, but the feeling was far from mutual. Myrtles love murdered her. Tom Buchannan, Daisy’s husband, has two mistresses throughout this story. He has Daisy, and Myrtle Wilson. Given the situation Tom is in he will not come out completely happy, he must lose one if not both of his women. When Myrtle was hit by the car Tom was in shock, he had just lost his mistress. After the bystanders at the scene describe the automobile that murdered Myrtle, Tom recognized that vehicle, as Gatsby’s. Little ... ... middle of paper ... ... that money Gatsby builds a house beyond belief, and throws extravagant parties frequently in hopes Daisy will show up. Gatsby is living in the past, he cannot come to terms with the fact that Daisy has indeed moved on, and whatever they had is long since gone. “Can’t Repeat the past? Why of course you can!” pg. 110. When Gatsby says this we know he will stop at nothing to achieve Daisy’s love. To Gatsby, Daisy’s love is to die for, and ultimately leads to his demise. Love, destroyed Gatsby, Love, Murdered him. Love has a crippling effect on every character in this novel, especially J. Gatsby. Love can indeed be a good thing at times. But F. Scott Fitzgerald shows us that love can sometimes do more harm than good. Love can complete your life, or, love can destroy it. Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1925. Print.
...s motivation to reach into Daisy’s heart is the downfall that lead to Gatsby’s persistent nature which concentrate solely the past, Also, emptiness of existence with realization to taint ideal, Gatsby’s heart fill with illusions. As a great man his death overflows with generosity and kindness that people did not notice. The good man Gatsby’s death is a tragic, but in the end it’s another meaningless loss that buried as a lonely hero.
Themes of hope, success, and wealth overpower The Great Gatsby, leaving the reader with a new way to look at the roaring twenties, showing that not everything was good in this era. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates the characters in this book to live and recreate past memories and relationships. This was evident with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, Tom and Daisy’s struggling marriage, and Gatsby expecting so much of Daisy and wanting her to be the person she once was. The theme of this novel is to acknowledge the past, but do not recreate and live in the past because then you will not be living in the present, taking advantage of new opportunities.
Nothing is more important, to most people, than friendships and family, thus, by breaking those bonds, it draws an emotional response from the readers. Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan had a relationship before he went off to fight in the war. When he returned home, he finds her with Tom Buchanan, which seems to make him jealous since he still has feelings for Daisy. He wanted Daisy “to go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you” (Fitzgerald 118) Gatsby eventually tells Tom that his “wife doesn’t love [him]” and that she only loves Gatsby (Fitzgerald 121). But the unpleasant truth is that Daisy never loved anyone, but she loved something: money. Daisy “wanted her life shaped and the decision made by some force of of money, of unquestionable practicality” (Fitzgerald 161). The Roaring Twenties were a time where economic growth swept the nation and Daisy was looking to capitalize on that opportunity. Her greed for material goods put her in a bind between two wealthy men, yet they are still foolish enough to believe that she loved them. Jay Gatsby is a man who has no relationships other than one with Nick Caraway, so he is trying to use his wealth to lure in a greedy individual to have love mend his
This is what happened, best we can tell by what the book says. Myrtle Wilson was killed in a hit and run with Gatsby’s yellow car but Daisy was driving. George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, was depressed and drunk after his wife’s death that lead him to confront his
As is well known, relationships can be complicated, but perhaps the most complicated of them all is marriage. We see this everyday: whether it might be with our relationships, others’ relationships, or relationships in books and movies. It is also strongly demonstrated through F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work from the Roaring 20s, The Great Gatsby. The two primary but thoroughly flawed marriages are the Buchanans’ (Tom and Daisy) and the Wilsons’ (George and Myrtle). The Buchanans, though not in a perfectly happy relationship, are brought together by their similar natures. The Wilsons, in contrast, have a far more distant relationship. Both Daisy and Myrtle find themselves to be unhappy in their relationships, and eventually get caught in affairs.
In The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald money, power, and the fulfillment of dreams is what the story’s about. On the surface the story is about love but underneath it is about the decay of society’s morals and how the American dream is a fantasy, only money and power matter. Money, power, and dreams relate to each other by way of three of the characters in the book, Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom. Gatsby is the dreamer, Daisy cares about money, and Tom desires and needs power. People who have no money dream of money. People who have money want to be powerful. People who have power have money to back them up. Fitzgerald writes this book with disgust towards the collapse of the American society. Also the purposeless existences that many people lived, when they should have been fulfilling their potential. American people lacked all important factors to make life worthwhile.
In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the characters Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan are said to be in love, but in reality, this seems to be a misconception. In this novel, Fitzgerald portrays the themes of love, lust, and obsession through the characters of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, who confuse lust and obsession with love. By the end of the novel however, Jay Gatsby is denied his “love” and sacrifices his life for a woman who never gives him a second thought.
In The Great Gatsby, the characters demonstrate that love has no relevant meaning in a relationship without the security that wealth provides. Gatsby and Wilson present Daisy and Myrtle with much of love; however, they both are stunned when Tom’s wealth and security win over the two ladies’ hearts A similar situation occurred with the author Francis Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. She broke off their engagement due to Fitzgerald’s menial job. After publishing his books, Fitzgerald acquired a great deal of wealth and fame, then he was allowed to marry Zelda. Wealth is the key to a happy life along with love, however, love alone cannot provide happiness in marriage.
Their reactions to this betrayal have some similarities and differences. Both husbands reacted simile in the way they tried to keep their wives anyway from the person they were cheating with. After learning about their wives discrepancies both men become more willing to fight for their wives affection. The two of them would do anything necessary to get their wives back. But Tom and George had different methods in separating their wives from that other person who they were cheating with. Tom did so by learning incriminating evidence about Gatsby just to exploit his false persona to Daisy. During his exploitation, Tom, “...picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him and wasn’t far wrong.”(133) These facts freighted Daisy and made her believe that she didn’t actually really know of Gatsby was. This lead to Daisy returning to her husband, Tom. Myrtle, his wife, by literally separating her from returning to the other man. He locks her in their upstairs bedroom and began preparing the couple to move west anyway from the man she was having an affair
In the same way that Daisy was the reason for Gatsby to acquire everything he had, she was the reason he lost it all. He based his whole life into the dream and expectancy of Daisy coming back to his arms, living only on a dream. Gatsby’s love for Daisy was pure and real, it was a self-giving love which ultimately lead him to his death. It is clear that he gave up everything for the girl he loved; he tried everything he could to win her back, and unfortunately, died trying.
Scott Fitzgerald creates a character that isn’t corrupted by his wealth, but by the idea of his exuberant love that existed in the past. A “...green light that burns all night at the end of [Daisy’s] dock” symbolizes the unreachable perception of how Daisy will forever stay unobtainable by Gatsby, and his denial over this inadmissible fact (Fitzgerald 92). Gatsby, as an alienated individual, is too caught up in his past to come to the realization that time and the people around him are moving forward, while he becomes further alienated living his life in the past. Gatsby begins to “...[revalue] everything in his house...” when Daisy enters for the first time, scrutinizing “...the measure of response it [draws] from her well-loved eyes” and anticipating her approval (Fitzgerald 91). The reevaluation of his belongings demonstrates how materialistic objects interest Daisy more than their relationship, while Gatsby is drawn to Daisy’s happiness and their prior love; this comparison is significant to display their contrasting values of love that will further degrade their relationship. Feeling pressured to make both men happy, Daisy “helplessly” admits that Gatsby “[wants] too much” and “even alone [she] can’t say [she] never loved Tom” (Fitzgerald 132). Gatsby’s recollection of their love induces Daisy to feel the constraint to match his imaginable expectations of her since she does not understand why love is so substantial to Gatsby. Gatsby’s inability to let go caused
Tom is married to Daisy but has a side woman named Myrtle. Myrtle is married to George Wilson but wants to run away with Tom. Tom loves Myrtle based on what he does for her throughout the book, but he knows that he can not simply be with her or run away with her. He buys her things and has affairs with her, but he has a child with Daisy and could lose money, so when she dies he just patches everything up and keeps living his life he has with Daisy. He cried after Myrtle’s death and was upset, which shows he did have feelings for her because people usually don’t cry over things they don’t have emotional attachments for. Also, Tom told George that Gatsby hit her with his yellow car because he assumed it was Gatsby driving. Their love did not get to continue with a happy ending because she was
When it came time where he published The Great Gatsby and got his wife, Zelda,
True love can be defined in many different ways and is different for all people. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, love is explored in many different ways and with many relationships. When reading the novel, the reader is encouraged to wonder what motivates the characters to do what they do. Love is always an underlying theme when dealing with any subject in the book: whether it be an affair, a rekindling romance, or a broken relationship. As the plot of the book unfolds and relationships blossom and end, Fitzgerald addresses the topics of love and sexuality and how they apply to the characters and their relationships in the novel.
Gatsby’s life was forever changed once they met, he recalls, “I can’t describe to you how surprised I was to find out I loved her.... I was, way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute, and all of a sudden I didn’t care. What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?”(Fitzgerald 160). Gatsby life would now and forever be focused on his love for Daisy; sadly that’s what he died trying to do. The memories of Daisy kept Gatsby’s mind filled with possibility of a life with love and passion; however Gatsby was blinded by the fact that Daisy had created a life without him. Gatsby had tunnel vision and never seemed to get his eyes off the prize- Daisy. All Gatsby ever wanted was her love, and when he felt her slipping away he began to close in, until it was too