Love In The Great Gatsby

The power of love is such a strong force that acts as such a powerful driving force behind people’s actions. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is madly driven by love. For 5 years Gatsby chases a made up fantasy of his. All he wanted was to be in love with Daisy the way he was for the one month they spent together before he went off to the war. The problem with is that Daisy was not and never will be the girl that he envisioned. The Great Gatsby shows that Gatsby’s pathetic pursuit of love can be dangerous because what he is chasing is his own made up fantasy therefore making it an impossible desire.

Gatsby has a certain perspective of how he believes Daisy is, and for 5 years he pursues that fantasy. Gatsby spent a month with Daisy before he was

Throughout the entire novel Gatsby is unsightful to the fact that his dream with Daisy is a dead thought. He stays super hopeful that he can “fix everything just the way it was before," he said, nodding determinedly. "She'll see.’” (Chapter 6). This is a constant theme of Gatsby’s throughout the novel; the thought that he can turn back time and make everything like it was that month long ago. Gatsby continues to remain in a state of denial and fight the reality believing “I don't think she ever loved him [Tom]” (Chapter 8). He refuses to believe that Daisy would love anyone else besides himself and that she only did it because she had to. Towards the end of the novel there are signs of Gatsby’s pursuit of love becoming very pathetic. Right before his death he tells “the butler that if anyone phoned word was to be brought to him at the pool.” (Chapter 8). Even leading into his death he shows these signs of his hopeless pursuit. He clearly is expecting the phone call from Daisy, which the reader and every character in the book knows is not coming. Gatsby dies pathetically believing that Daisy would be coming back for him. There the lines that is crossed from the point which it is romantic to the point where it is pathetic. Gatsby’s “read a Chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy's name” (Chapter 4). When you dig deeper into the The Great Gatsby you discover that while some romantic values are surely there- there are definitely large proponents of creepiness and stalkerish traits in in Gatsby’s pursuit to