Examples Of Double Vision In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby: Double Vision

F. Scott Fitzgerald once stated that the test of a first rate intelligence was the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. This intelligence he describes is characterized by the principle of “double vision.” An understanding of this is essential to the understanding of many of Fitzgerald’s novels. “Double vision” denotes two ways of seeing. It suggests the tension involved when Fitzgerald sets two things in opposition such that the reader can, on one hand, sensually experience the event about which Fitzgerald is writing, The foundation of

This idea dealt with the ability to believe in the possibilities of several opposite ideas at different levels of abstraction. Fitzgerald’s wish was for the reader to believe that Gatsby would and would not win Daisy. He must believe that anyone in America, through hard work and perseverance, can and cannot gain access to the best that America has to offer. Until Daisy finally rejects Gatsby is the reader is able to believe in both alternates because he has seen them both from the perspective of Gatsby (who believes) and Nick (who wants to believe but intellectually

The previous chapters are preparing the reader to reach this point. The image of Daisy’s desirability is followed with an image of Gatsby staring across the bay at a green light across from Daisy’s dock; The image of the emptiness of the Buchanans’ world followed by the valley of ashes, a huge dumping ground where Tom’s mistress lives; the open public gathering of Gatsby’s lavish parties set against the mysterious privacy of Gatsby’s life. The reader is yet to realize what Gatsby, Jordan, and Nick already know: Gatsby wants to turn time backwards and renew his relationship with Daisy as if nothing