Joseph Tutora Elizabeth Harris English 5-6 10 December 2015 The Insatiable Gatsby In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Gatsby's insatiable need to relive and perfect the past he had with Daisy is the cause of his demise and eventual death. Gatsby longed for wealth and the elegant lifestyle that accompanies it since his youth. When he met Daisy he saw everything that the wealth he is trying to obtain represents in her. He thinks Daisy is the key to fulfilling the luxurious lifestyle he craves. Gatsby created the vision he wanted for his life and would not stop until it was fulfilled exactly how he imagined. Gatsby is obsessed with Daisy because he thinks she represents money and everything Gatsby aspired to be in his past. “Can’t …show more content…
repeat the past?…Why of course you can!” (81). Gatsby scoffs at the notion that you cannot repeat the past. He can't accept the idea of the past being just a memory because his life's motivation is to revive and perfect the memory of Daisy. But unfortunately Gatsby is in love with what Daisy represents and not with her. She is just the vessel that carries Gatsby's aspirations. "It was a strange coincidence," I said. But it wasn't a coincidence at all. "Why not?" "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay." (147). Gatsby missed his opportunity to be with Daisy. Since then he has been fixated on getting her back and has gone so far as to buy a mansion just so he can be close to her and impress her. "If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay . . . You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock."(49). Gatsby is so wrapped up by the idea of Daisy that everyday he stares across the bay at her house. He stares and daydreams about what they could have been if he had been born with money. Gatsby loves money and knows it's a crucial tool he needs to recreate his past.
“I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”(37). Gatsby throws massive lavish parties sparing no expense, all in the hopes of enticing Daisy. Gatsby doesn't even know the people at his parties he just wants to show Daisy his wealth. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such — such beautiful shirts before."(132). Gatsby is successful in using his money to lure and impress Daisy. She is so blown away by the quality and magnitude of his clothes that she is overcome with emotion. "Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly. That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money – that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it… high in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl”(163). The reason Gatsby is so drawn to Daisy is because she had the life story (being born wealthy to an upper class family) he was trying to pretend he had. You can hear Daisy’s elegance and wealth it in the way she talks. Gatsby believed Daisy's love is the key to reliving the perfect past because she has everything he wished he had in his poor
youth. Gatsby is infatuated by recreating the past. “Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!” (81). Everything Gatsby has done was motivated by recreating his past. Therefor he believes you can recreate the past. “As I went over to say goodbye I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby's face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. Almost five years! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams – not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.”(173). Gatsby had imagined his past with such gusto that his idea of Daisy is one she can never live up to. He placed too much meaning on his past with Daisy. "Oh, 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."(169). Gatsby needs to relive the past exactly how he imagined it and can't settle for less. It's not enough for Daisy to love Gatsby she has to meet his exact specifications. Even Daisy realizes she can never be what she was in the past for Gatsby. Gatsby is obsessed with making the past he recreates absolutely perfect fitting the exact plan for his life. He feels that he must write his past chapters before he can proceed to live in the present chapter. “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: "I never loved you." After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, after she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house—just as if it were five years ago.”(152). It's not enough for Daisy to love Gatsby she has to say she never loved tom also. But that's still not enough for Gatsby he has to go back and marry her where they first fell in love a if time had frozen for five years. Gatsby insatiable need to fulfill his past exactly as he imagined it leads to his demise and eventual death.
Initially, Gatsby stirs up sympathetic feelings because of his obsession with wealth. Ever since meeting Dan Cody, his fascination for wealth has increased dramatically. He even uses illegal unmoral methods to obtain hefty amounts of wealth to spend on buying a house with “ Marie Antoinette music-rooms, Restoration Salons, dressing rooms and poolrooms, and bath rooms with sunken baths.” (88) His wardrobe is just as sensational with “ shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine fennel.” (89) Gatsby buys such posh items to impress Daisy but to him, Daisy herself is a symbol of wealth. Jay remarks, “[Daisy’s] voice is full of money.” (115). For him, Daisy is the one who is “ High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden gir...
In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby functions under the illusion that Daisy is perfect and is living in such distress because she was forced to marry Tom due to Gatsby being away at war and being poor. This illusion leads Gatsby to spend his entire adult life pining after Daisy and cheating his way up the social and economic ladder in order to win her over. Gatsby believes that Daisy will someday come back to him because she loves him so much and they will live happily ever after together.
Gatsby is unrealistic. He believes he can relive the past and rekindle the flame he and Daisy once had. He is lost in his dream and accepts that anything can be repeated, "Can't repeat the past…Why of course you can!" (116, Fitzgerald). For Gatsby, failure to realize this resurrection of love is utterly appalling. His whole career, his conception of himself and his life is totally shattered. Gatsby's death when it comes is almost insignificant, for with the collapse of his dream, he is spiritually dead.
Because of his wealth, everything in Gatsby’s life hints at having power through status and money, but he is not happy because all he wants to do is be with hard to reach Daisy; she is the reason why he acquires the materialistic things he does in the first place.
There are many instances in which you can see how fixated Gatsby is on not only Daisy herself, but what she represents. Jay Gatsby has always wanted to be well-off, but the thought of Daisy’s reciprocated love is what motivated him. “Gatsby reinvented his identity and fortunes all to win back the girl he loved from afar in his youth-Daisy Buchanan” (Stevens). He had completely turned his
“Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor”(150). Daisy is described as valuing wealth and hearing her voice symbolizes materialism and wealth. Gatsby is aware that he has to use money to manipulate Daisy into loving him. F.Gerald chose the word “clothes” to imply materialism and Daisy is a symbol of wealth throughout the novel. She is "safe and proud," she is safe from poverty, and proud, because she is materialistic in her ways, thinks she is better.
Gatsby is a very rich young man who lives in the West egg and always throws big huge expensive parties. Gatsby is the main character of the story. Gatsby only cares about having Daisy and having money and material things. In the book Gatsby how Daisy his beautiful shirts Daisy cries of how beautiful they are she states that she has not seen nothing more beautiful than that ¨There are such beautiful shirts,¨ she sobbed, ¨It makes me sad because I've never seen such- such beautiful shirts before” (Great Gatsby 92).
"'Her voice is full of money,' [Gatsby] said suddenly. That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money- that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it...High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl" ( The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 127 ). In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy Buchanan’s powerful allure hypnotizes Jay Gatsby into believing she is his “dream girl”. At first read, one would assume the novel to convey a passionate love story, however Fitzgerald proves otherwise as he writes about a materialistic desire between the two. Gatsby, throughout the novel, is infatuated with Daisy in a narcissistic way, because he is so in love with her glamour, sophistication, social status, and all the benefits given to the wealthy. Daisy’s voice reflects upon her personality and symbolizes her indecisiveness, her selfishness, and her demand for money. The narrator and only friend of Gatsby, Nick Caraway, acts as a credible eyewitness to Daisy’s cruelty. As the novel progresses, Gatsby further becomes a hopeless romantic and falls for Daisy’s unattainable love.
Apparently being wealthy is not all Gatsby wants, but also wants love from Daisy. He loves her so much he wants her to break Tom’s heart and come with him. This man is clever and cold hearted like Lord Voldemort and Sauron. Jordan glanced at Nick and told him in a calm tone, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 78). Gatsby’s way of being in love with Daisy is to be a creepy stalker, never giving her space and always spying on her.
The only things money could not buy were love and happiness. It could even buy a person’s attention, but not their feelings, which is what happened with Daisy and her husband. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” (Fitzgerald 179) Money was more important than family or friends, explaining why Gatsby’s only friend was Nick Carraway. The parties were great distractions and social events, and the people who attended them often just wanted a break from their everyday lives, or they wanted to flaunt their money, often coming to the parties without knowing or meeting Gatsby. Gatsby himself was not interested in the parties he threw and only became a garish person after he knew where Daisy lived, vying for her attention with all his possessions. For example, in The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby had extravagant parties, just hoping Daisy would see the lights and hear the music from across the water and stop by, as well as driving gaudy cars and wearing flamboyant
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald conveys how Jay Gatsby’s ambition is the root of his success and death. When Gatsby, a man of humble beginnings, meets Daisy, her wealth and high status allures him. They fall in love, but due to Gatsby’s low financial and social position, Daisy feels insecure and leaves him. Gatsby’s optimism and obsession to win Daisy prompts the ambition that ultimately drives him to his noble yet tragic ending.
He isolated himself from the connection to the world. His only best friend was money, which only provide short term happiness. Gatsby one the short term happiness is his parties. We can see the vast amount of unknown people coming to his party ever so often(39). These people come and go. They are not his friends, in fact, they are fake friends who also on the other hand, are looking to have the feel of high standard life. For instance,"Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came to the party with simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission"(41). This proves Gatsby isolated himself from the world of relationships. Gatsby can buy the parties with money, but not the friendship. They come to Gatsby parties for his money. After attaining all the wealth, Gatsby 's ultimate dream is to attain his long lost love who he thinks can be won with wealth. Daisy is also no different than the others as she fake loves Gatsby for him money. For example, Gatsby states "Her voice is full of money" because she can be bought and sold like money (120). Her voice ' tone goes up and down which emphasize that she is fake just like the sound of coins on someone 's pocket. She is for sale, so she can enjoy the wealth of Gatsby luxurious life. Daisy sees only wealth on Gatsby while he is searching for real
Daisy’s character is built with association of innocence and purity. Narrator in the novel mentions, “They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house” (18). In this passage, the narrator talks about Daisy and Daisy’s friend, Jordan. They both were dressed in white, which represents the purity and innocence. Daisy’s exterior beauty is pure and innocence, but her interior self represents false purity and innocence in the novel. When Daisy and Gatsby reunites after five years, they seem to have found their love for each other, although Daisy loves the attention. Daisy is aware of her husband’s affair but still does nothing about it. Daisy’s response to Gatsby’s wealth proves the love Daisy has for money, especially the shirts. Narrator mentions in the novel, “Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shorts and began to cry stormily” (92). This describes that’s for Daisy the shirts represents wealth. Daisy bows her head into the shirts representing her interest in wealthy materialism. Daisy doesn’t cry because of the pure affection unlike Gatsby.
Gatsby is a dreamer, he dreams that one day he and Daisy will be able to be together once again. To achieve this dream, Gatsby has made himself a rich man. He knows that in order to win Daisy back, he must be wealthy and of high social stature. Gatsby is rich, has a beautiful mansion, nice things, things like shirts “They’re such beautiful shirts. . . It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-such beautiful clothes” (pg.98).Gatsby believes his dream will come true because of all the money and nice things he has.
Daisy comes to represent a treasured and sought possession for both Tom and Gatsby. Although on the surface it appears that Gatsby has an ever-lasting love for Daisy, I feel that his longing for Daisy stems from his need to recapture a possession which he lost during his youth. Nick comments "He talked a lot about the past and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy". Furthermore by possessing Daisy's love, Gatsby can reject defeat and feel successful as a man.