The Great Gatsby - Characters, modern society and the end of a dream

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Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. Characterization of the leading characters 2.1.1 Jay Gatsby: A romantic or a comic hero 2.1.2 Daisy's significance for Gatsby's dream 2.2.1 The l - Narrator: Nick Carraway 2.3.1 Characterization of Tom and Daisy 2.3.2 Relation between Tom, Daisy and Myrtle

3. The profile of a modern society 3.1 The settings and their figures

3.2 The features of this society and the reason for the tragic end

4. The end of a dream

5. Supplement

6. Literature

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1. Introduction

Reading the “The Great Gatsby”, I was very impressed about the style and the way the author let his actors behave or the description of the settings. At first sight it gives the impression of a lucid and meaningless novel, but it contains many disguise and metaphoric meanings. What impressed me most was the ascent and downfall of a kind and naive man by the cruel and wicked society. In the following pages, I try to explain and to analyse Gatsby’s sole dream: his obsession for his one-time love - Daisy. First of all, as a foundation, I will characterize the main actors, then analyse the important settings and their influence on the figures and finally try to explain why it ends in this way.

2. Characterisation of the leading actors 2.1.1 Jay Gatsby: a romantic or a comic hero?

Jay Gatsby represents the type of a romantic hero as his whole behaviour serves as a means to fight for a woman’s love which has become the sense of his life. Instead of living in reality, Gatsby desperately tries to catch the past and to transfer it to an illusory future. “`Can’t repeat the past?´ he cried incredulously. `Why of course you can!´ He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.” ¹ His present wealth and extravagant way of life are only a transitional stage that is to precede final fulfillment of his eternal dream, personified by Daisy, his one-time love. He is the prince or the knight in a fairy-tale without happy end since all his endeavours are in vain. Contrary to most of the superficial people surrounding him, Gatsby still believes in eternal and true love, a value he considers to be more important than money. “He was a son of God - a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that - and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty.” ² But as Daisy, “the golden girl” ³ , belongs to a world in which money rules people’s mind, Gatsby knows that the only way of regaining her love is to offer her the life style she is used to. His party-guests are ignorant extras that can’t look behind Gatsby’s facade. Nick, the observing narrator, is the only one who sees through Gatsby’s real motives, but being a member of the “unromantic” and realistic American society, he is not able to

¹ (p.117)

² (p.105)

³ (p.126)

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understand Gatsby or even to protect him from the destructive influence of Tom and Daisy. Gatsby’s enormous power is based on his imagination, which is the essential element that builds up his dream world. Similar to the atmosphere in a fairy tale, time sometimes seems to stand still in his life, especially the afternoon Gatsby and Daisy spend together at Nick’s house. But this scene also reveals the instability and transitoriness of Gatsby’s dream. Realizing that a repetition will be impossible because of Daisy’s lack of real emotions and her superficial character, Gatsby loses all his selfconscience and control over himself. He must accept that, for five years, he has struggled in vain. “He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock.” ⁴ His misjudgement on the situation, his lack of realistic farsightedness and his desperate way of fulfilling his dream let him appear in a comical or even ridiculous light. “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dream - not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion.” ⁵ There are too many discrepancies between Gatsby’s illusory world and the conventional and hardened society around him. A man like Gatsby, reaching for a higher aim than money, cannot be taken seriously. His comedown starts when he unveils his secret love for Daisy. “[…] his career as Trimalchio was over.” ⁶ He turns into a comic hero when he realizes his defeat and begins to fight with his last ounce of strength. His outward appearance, his nervousness and his exaggerated self-pity give the impression of a naive dreamer that cannot cope with reality. “Then I turned back at Gatsby - and was startled at his expression. He looked […] as if he has killed a man.” “[…] he began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his name against accusations that had not been made.” ⁷ It is a question of perspective if Gatsby should be considered as a romantic or a comic hero. Nick is definitely the only character concerned who is aware of Gatsby’s sincere motives and who knows that people like the Buchanans are to blame for Gatsby’s tragic death.

2.1.2 Daisy’s significance for Gatsby’s dream

The events of the night Gatsby spends with Daisy have a special significance concerning the hero’s dream. At that time, he is still working on his ascent from a poor

⁴ (p.99)

⁵ (p.102f)

⁶ (p.119)

⁷ (p.141)

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“nobody” to a wealthy and well-known personage, an almost divine creature, invented by his strong imagination and his dreams.

Being a beautiful daughter of a well-to-do Midwest family, Daisy personifies Gatsby’s naive conception of a “better” life. The atmosphere of the romantic moonlight scene reflects Gatsby’s feelings towards this decisive moment in his life. He is about to reach his aim, which is revealed by a metaphor that compares Gatsby’s spiritual destiny with “a secret place above the trees” ⁸ , where he can “suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder” ⁹ , symbolizing Daisy’s love for Gatsby. She represents the peak of his eternal dream and her kiss stands for the hero’s apparently final arrival at the top of his idealistic illusions. “He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of god.” ¹⁰ Daisy obviously serves as the decisive means to perfect Gatsby’s incarnation, the final step from dream to reality. “At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.” ¹¹ He wants to transform Daisy into a heavenly creature she will never be able to become in reality. The white colour of her dress and her face give the impression of an innocent and angelic girl, but these superficial attributes conceal her true self - “a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty”. Gatsby’s weakness is based on his lack of realism, his naive imagination and his permanent misjudgements. He is blinded by Daisy’s glamourous appearance, a mistake that is responsible for his tragic downfall and destruction of his dream.

2.2.1 The I - Narrator: Nick Carraway

The author assigns the description of New York and the modern society to an observing narrator ¹² . Concerning the fact that his statements are the basis of interpretation and analysis, it is necessary to examine his reliability and his point of view. Nick Carraway is no representative of the New York society and therefore no part of his account. He grows up in the Middle west, in a city “where dwellings are still called through decades by a family’s name” ¹³ . Living in a traditional and conservative family (“actual founder of my line” ¹⁴ ) he esteems tradition, order and decency.

⁸ (p.118)

⁹ (p.118)

¹⁰ (p.118)

¹¹ (p.118)

¹² (cf. Frausing, 1996 p.29ff)

¹³ (p.183)

¹⁴ (p.8)