For me, chapter six drastically changed my perception of Gatsby. Until this chapter, I viewed Gatsby as almost a concept, less so a tangible character than a mysterious symbol. In learning the more personal details of his past life, I was able to better understand his present day character, and make sense of his feelings for Daisy. In revealing Gatsby's young character to have a wild and romantic imagination, his "heart in a constant, turbulent riot," Fitzgerald provides a reasonable background for the flighty emotions of present day Gatsby. His passionate and complex feelings for Daisy seem to be less a product of true romance, than the product of an unstable individual, who has never not harbored "grotesque and fantastic conceits [that] haunted him in his bed at night. Chapter six left me questioning whether Gatsby is truly in love with Daisy, or merely a passionate individual whose fancies and romantic ideas seldom correlate with reality. His surreal parties and luxary correlate with his romantic and dreamy passions; Gatsby seems to be a character always struggling to translate the fancies in his head into reality. His lack of stability must certainly stem from his inability to translate that which is in his imagination into his real life.
Evidence for this assertion can be found in the despair Gatsby feels following his party. Daisy is a married women, so it is only reasonable that she should bring her husband along with her to the party. Gatsby is the host, so it is only reasonable that he is not able to spend his entire night with one woman- and certainly not when her husband is there. Though he is able to entertain her, dance with her, and introduce her to his friends, Gatsby feels "far away" from daisy, come the end of the night. Again, reality falls short of his expectations, his extravagany luxary and grandeur even not able to be a vehicle by which he lives out his dreams. The chapter is as a whole, in my opinion, tragic, for it for me conveys the futility and irrelevence of Gatsby's dreams when measured against reality.
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I think that Gatsby is overcome by his imagination to the point where he cannot be happy with reality; he will always be able to imagine something more. When Nick is talking about Gatsby's past he says "[these reveries]were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy's wing." Gatsby has a constant need to believe in the fairy tale, and he has completely convinced himself that his future includes him and Daisy as a happy couple, which I agree is tragic when looked at with reality.
ReplyDeleteGood Morrow, Scholar. While I agree with you on the whole, I think that there is an important distinction to be made. To me, it seems that you describe Gatsby as failing to achieve his dreams in reality. I, however, would suggest that Gatsby consciously attempts not to bring his dreams to reality. Before kissing Daisy, and thereby realizing his dreams of love, Gatsby hesitates, “listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star.” (117). Gatsby does not want to live in reality. He prefers to live in his dreams, possibly because dreams can not be taken away whereas reality (Daisy) can be.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that Gatsby actually loves Daisy the person, and not just the idea and "dream" of her. He wants her to tangibly be with him, not jsut in his head. However, I agree with Liam that he is afraid of the consequences of having a real relationship, that his hopes of a perfect life with Daisy will be crushed when reality hits. It is this fear that causes him to get so dismayed over his lack of connection.
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