Evaluation of the Great Gatsby

Later in the chapter, Tom accompanies Daisy to one of Gatsby’s parties, apparently concerned about her recent activities.

He wants to be the perfect man for Daisy. “We both looked down at the grass –there was a sharp line where my ragged lawn ended and the darker, well-kept expanse of his began. I suspected he meant my grass” (p82). This shows the theme of appearance against reality and how Gatsby wants everything to look presentable and nice for his first meeting with Daisy after five years. He feels like having a lot of wealth, a flashy car and an enormous palace, he can reconquer her love, who is a materialistic woman. He spent years on end throwing parties, to get himself known as a rich man and so that he could attract Daisy.” He wants her to see his house … And your house is right next door” (p79). “I want you and Daisy to come over to my house… I’ d like to show her around” (p.89). Here he is planning on making his dream come true. By having Daisy at his house, he can show her that he is wealthy enough to provide for her what she wants.

Tom is incredibly insecure when it comes to Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, as he doesn’t feel like he has the same amount of influence over Daisy as Gatsby does to her. Jordan once said “If you’re a snob, why did you invite him to lunch?” when Tom wouldn’t stop criticizing Gatsby (Fitzgerald 122). The reason why he was making remarks about Gatsby is because he is afraid that Gatsby himself would take Daisy away from him and he’s very emotional at this point, doesn’t know what to do, probably can’t think straight either, so he turns to criticizing him as a way to let all the mixed emotions out of him. Tom might have it all, but so does Gatsby, the only difference is

Gatsby also experienced the feeling of embarrassment when he revealed to Tom that Daisy loved him instead, but as Tom revealed he knew a lot about Gatsby’s criminal underworld businesses it lead to him getting embarrassed and Daisy getting too excited and his false persona to be shattered in their eyes, “It passed , and he began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his name against accusations that had not been made, but with every word she was drawing further and further into herself.”(134) This shows us that Gatsby loved Daisy and was willing to do anything to reach

Gatsby is then reminded of his low status when Daisy’s mother“…had found her packing her bag one winter night to go to New York and say goodbye to a soldier who was going overseas. She was effectually prevented, but she wasn’t on speaking terms with her family for several weeks.” (75) From that moment Gatsby becomes motivated to become one of the wealthy elite in order to win Daisy and her family.

He has gone to great lengths to make himself appear as appealing to a girl who never proves herself to be worthy of sacrifice. Gatsby creates a facade for himself in order to appear as a man who- in his mind- would be worthy of Daisy’s affection.

We do also see Daisy portrayed as very boring character “Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it etc” (p.17). This also implies that Daisy might not be as bright as Tom and Nick and that she doesn’t shape her destiny or takes control of her life. E.g. she attempted to plan something with Nick. she said, “What'll we plan? What do people plan?” meaning she has never had to make decisions nor has she had much responsibility. Again unlike Tom who is very much in control and has got firm charge over his future (That he thinks). Daisy however does not have much loving feelings for Tom as when Jordan mentions to Nick that she knows Gatsby, it raises Daisy's interest momentarily “Gatsby? demanded Daisy. What Gatsby?”, but the conversation is quickly diverted by the announcement of dinner.

Jay Gatsby is renowned for throwing the biggest parties in New York to display his wealth. In reality, these parties are meant to impress one person, Daisy, the love of his life. Daisy’s friend, Jordan Baker, confirms this when she tells Nick, “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night, but she never did. Then he began asking people casually if they knew her, and I was the first one he found” (F, 80). Unfortunately, Gatsby lost his chance to marry Daisy because of his low social class. His hope to be reunited with Daisy is the ambition behind his wealth. However, the parties he throws fail to attract Daisy’s attention and results in his self-doubt; this is seen through his attempt to ask people about Daisy. His uncertainty makes him desperate, which conducts him to use his wealth to throw parties for their use value. Even though Gatsby is now accepted as a bourgeoisie, he remains unhappy because he cannot be with the person who makes him truly

Tom attends the party in many ways to try and ruin Gatsby he is critical about everything like also the decorations the people that are there, the way Gatsby behaves. Anything he can criticize of he does so also he attempts to make a rumor that Gatsby is a bootlegger. And decides after the party that he will really get into Gatsby’s past and try to harm him. And this starts to take a path of destruction. It starts becoming clear that Daisy’s love for Gatsby is false just like the love for Tom and there sadly Gatsby’s love that he thought to find when he asks Daisy to abandon Tom and be at his side. So Tom wants to ruin Gatsby and Gatsby wants Daisy which is a pretty big difference and he is not looking for any paypack like Tom is.

Gatsby’s devotion to Daisy motivates him to earn more riches and be successful. In addition, when he invites Daisy over to his house he starts to “[revalue] everything in his house according to the measure it drew from her well loved eyes” (Fitzgerald 91). Gatsby’s observation of how Daisy examines his house, his luxurious objects, and wealthy lifestyle makes him obsessed with impressing her with his lavish items. In an attempt to impress Daisy, Gatsby throws expensive silk shirts onto Daisy and hopes that she is amazed at his ability to afford such objects. For this reason, Daisy responds, “They’re such beautiful shirts...It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-- such beautiful shirts before” (92). Daisy’s intense feelings to these high-priced shirts indicates she is not sad about regretting her marriage to Tom or missing being with Gatsby, but rather feels deprived of not possessing these well-made shirts. Daisy’s actions towards these shirts demonstrate her personality of being

It’s almost as if these people use Gatsby for his amenities, without ever meeting the gracious host. However, behind this curtain there seems to being a very lost and lonely man. It is learned in Chapter Eight that Gatsby’s and Daisy had once loved each other, but while Gatsby was away Daisy had started losing hope in their relationship and developed feelings for someone else, Tom Buchanan. Gatsby explain, “I can’t describe to you how surprised I was to find out I loved her, old sport. I even hoped for a while that she’d throw me over, but she didn’t, because she was in love with me too. She thought I knew a lot because I knew different things from her… Well, there I was, way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute, and all of a sudden I didn’t care. What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?” It’s clearly shown throughout the novel that Gatsby loves Daisy very much, and has been heartbroken ever since she’d left him. The first time Nick ever sees Gatsby he describes, “…he stretched out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he

He wants to marry Daisy and he is so determined that not even her husband can stop him. Winning her love is the only thing Gatsby cares about. He tries many times to win her over but fails. However, he is so determined that he never gives up. “‘She’ll be alright tomorrow,’ he said presently. ‘I’m just going to wait here and see if he tries to bother her about that unpleasantness this afternoon.’” Gatsby wouldn’t leave her alone even after he knew he had lost her. Both men have immense determination to get through their struggles.

“In his blue gardens men and women came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (Fitzgerald 39). In his character, his relationships, and his gatherings, Jay Gatsby epitomized the illusion of a perfect romance. When Gatsby and Daisy met in 1917, he was searching for money, but ended up profoundly falling in love with her. “[H]e set out for gold and stumbled upon a dream” (Ornstein 37). Only a few weeks after meeting one another, Gatsby had to leave for war, which led to a separation between the two for nearly five years. As “war-torn lovers” Gatsby and Daisy reach the quintessential ideal of archetypical romance. When Gatsby returned from the war, his goal was to rekindle the relationship he once had with Daisy. In order to do this, he believed he would have to work hard to gain new wealth and a new persona. “Jay Gatsby loses his life even though he makes his millions because they are not the kind of safe, respectable money that echoes in Daisy’s lovely voice” (Ornstein 36). Gatsby then meets Daisy’s cousin, Nick Carraway, who helps to reunite the pair. Finally being brought together after years of separation, Gatsby stops throwing the extravagant parties at his home, and “to preserve [Daisy’s] reputation, [he] empties his mansion of lights and servants” (Ornstein 37). Subsequent to their reconciliation, Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, begins to reveal sordid information about Gatsby’s career which causes Daisy to

By throwing these high-class parties, Gatsby is surrounded by other high-class people. Their relationships are social standings based on labels of society rather than love between two people. A woman named Catherine attends Jay Gatsby's parties and notices the unhappiness of the couples around her. She is a friend of Daisy's and comments on Daisy's marriage, "Neither of them can stand the person they're married to" (37). She married for convenience and for money rather for love. Their marriage has become very weak and Gatsby sees it when "Daisy had told Gatsby that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw" (125). Gatsby sees the way that Daisy doesn't love Tom anymore. Yet, while he feels he has been in that position before, he accepts the fact that marriage rarely represents true love. He ignores true happiness because his wealth has become his family, and he now relies on money rather than family to bring comfort and security to

Daisy grew up spoiled due to the vast wealth she obtained from being ‘old money’, which caused her to become selfish and self-centred. Daisy had become selfish to the point that she has an expensive and materialistic desire or want. When Gatsby shows Daisy his mansion, she gazed in awe as “she admired […] the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils […] and the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate.”(Fitzgerald,97) Daisy, all along, does not have feelings for Gatsby, but more for his money and expensive possessions, as she revealed her true self during Tom and Gatsby’s argument. Daisy is selfish even if money was not involved, as she does not feel grateful for Gatsby taking the blame for her killing Myrtle Wilson. For instance, when Nick tells Gatsby about Mrytle dying, Gatsby replies “’Yes,’ he said after the moment, ‘but of course I’ll say I was.’” (Fitzgerald, 154) When Daisy cried in Gatsby’s mansion, she was crying about her actions in killing Myrtle, meanwhile she does not care about Gatsby’s act of chivalry. Furthermore, Daisy takes advantage of Gatsby by taking Tom along to Gatsby’s party, when Daisy was personally invited to essentially go alone. When Gatsby saw Tom appearing to his party, Gastby with a light temper has a conversation with Tom. He says “I know your wife’, continued Gatsby, almost aggressively.”