At first I found myself unsure about Gatsby’s true feelings for Daisy. I believed, or wanted to believe, that his insane obsession must warrant some true affection towards her. However, as I skimmed over what I’d read, my fairytale mentality melted away to realize a different side of Gatsby. I do agree with said “many critics” in that Gatsby believes he loves Daisy but she has become mostly a symbol to him—a symbol of the American dream, of everything rich and glittering. At one point he tells Nick that Daisy’s voice “is full of money” (120). Tied to this, I can see that maybe Gatsby doesn’t know who he is or who he wants to be. Nick later says that Gatsby talked about the past a lot, as if “he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy” (110). His illusion of grandeur, of the “Jay Gatsby” he’s created for himself will not be complete until he has erased the years and taken Daisy back as if he never lost her at all. “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” (109). He has created this dream for himself and even the scintillating reality he lives when Daisy comes back into his life cannot live up to his dream: “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” (95). Now I wonder if he ever even loved her at all, even when he first met her. We know from Jordan’s recount of the past that Daisy was “by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville” (74). Maybe the attention she gave to Gatsby then began his feverish obsession with Daisy. She was liked and desired by everyone. She was his link to fame, riches, power and success.
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I don't think Gatsby was always driven by money and class. In the beginning, when he was courting Daisy, it seems to me that he really did love her and want more than anything to be with her. The book talks about the way he looks at her. This could have been a look of his want for wealth and high class, or it just could have been his love for her and longing to be with her. It seems to me that the only reason why he sought for riches was in order to get Daisy. If his goal was to become rich only because he wanted to associate with a higher class(Daisy-like women) then why would his only desire and obsession be Daisy? It's because he really did love her and never let go of the way he felt. The reason why he seems so obsessed with the "idea" of her now is because this is the time he's been anticipating for the last 5 years. He's been working hard to achieve a higher class in order to impress Daisy because he loves her. I do think, however, that there is an obsession of money and class that overcomes Gatsby during his struggles to get Daisy back. This is clear when Gatsby shows Daisy his house, and when he shows Nick his car.
ReplyDeleteRemember though that Gatsby was already ambitious as a boy to reach a higer social status. He put off his family name, and left his parents when he was a boy to try to achieve something higher. He already had created a different past non associated with a family of poverty. He didn't all of a sudden on meeting Daisy want to work to get the same class as her becuase he "so called" loved Diasy... I don't buy that he loved Daisy.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see sense in both sides of the argument. When I began writing my answer to this prompt I agreed that Gatsby was truly head-over-heels in love with Daisy but I convinced myself otherwise as I went back through the book. I think I ended up taking the side that I could back up more with the text. These characters are so confusing and kind of complex in my opinion and I think it shows by the fact that we can each have a strong, completely opposite opinion about Gatsby.
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