In The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald feels that money can’t buy happiness or relationships.
Daisy only married Tom because he provided her with stability and was rich, Gatsby was away at war and broke. “Take em down - stairs and give me back to whoever they belong to” (Fitzgerald 76). When Daisy got the letter from Gatsby a day before her wedding she broke down and almost didn’t marry Tom because Gatsby was the one she loved. Gatsby spent years getting rich just to get Daisy back. “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say. “I never loved you” (Fitzgerald 109). Just because Gatsby has money doesn’t mean Daisy is going to want to be with him and Gatsby can’t see that Daisy now loves Tom more than him. Gatsby had spent most of his life not moving on and waiting for Daisy even though she has moved on. “He has come a long way to this blue lawn, and his and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on
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“Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be across the bay” (Fitzgerald 78). Gatsby only brought his house so close to Daisy so he could feel closer to her. “I love you now - isn’t that enough? I can’t help the past” ( Fitzgerald 132). Even though Daisy is impressed that Gatsby did it all for her she can’t live up to his projection of her, what they had was a long time ago. Gatsby was a generous and nice person but no one knew the real Gatsby because he didn't have any friends. “The minister glanced several times at his watch, so I took him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasn’t any use, Nobody came” ( Fitzgerald 174). Gatsby threw big parties for everyone to come to and wasn’t a cruel person but nobody came to his funeral to pay their
Gatsby loved Daisy with all of his heart yet it was not the Daisy he met that captured his heart, but the illusion of Daisy. Daisy’s love for Gatsby is by far one of the grandest illusions that is mistaken for reality. For nearly five years, from the day he had left for WW1, Jay had his heart set on marrying Daisy upon his arrival. He returned to the United States, built up his million dollar fortune, and expected that he would be soon be with Daisy forever: “‘It was a strange coincidence,’ I said. ‘But it wasn 't a coincidence at all.’ 'Why not? ' 'Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay. ' Then it had not been just the stars to which
Throughout the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are many ways that love is purchased, three of these include, Daisy staying married to Tom because of his wealth and title, Gatsby trying to impress Daisy with the things his money has purchased, and Tom buying Myrtle the dog and apartment. Daisy loves Gatsby and prefers his company over anyone else's, in the novel it says, "I knew that except for the half hour she'd been alone with Gatsby Daisy wasn't having a good time" (112). Although Daisy cares for Gatsby, she has a strong title, lots of money, and a child with Tom. Daisy seems like the type of girl who would choose life-long wealth and class over her own heart's true desire.
”(Fitzgerald, p.140). He thinks that Daisy will stay with him because he has money. Tom sees marriage as a system of ownership, when Daisy and Tom got married, he would not let her do anything, Gatsby could only bring her groceries and driver her around, and that is all he could have. Tom sees
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby”, the character Jay Gatsby dedicated his life on becoming rich so he can finally pursue Daisy but as the story goes, there were many barriers that kept them apart from each other. Daisy was not just passionate about Gatsby, she also idolized Tom and they have a family together that they have made ever since Gatsby and Daisy separated . Also, he surrounded himself with a bunch of people that he wasn’t familiar and lavished them with the things that they loved but at the end, they all left him hanging by himself. But with all the love and things that Gatsby offered to Daisy, she didn’t return back the favor of loving him forever. In the novel, the Fitzgerald shows that with all the things that Jay Gatsby can buy with his money, it still didn’t bring him happiness because it
“He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you’ ” (Fitzgerald Chapter 6). This is when it is very clear what Gatsby is trying to accomplish, his goal is to get Daisy to abolish all the experiences she’s had with Tom. Gatsby wants Daisy to follow his ideals and to try and spark their past together. Although Daisy is stuck between choosing Tom and Gatsby, she realizes that the past cannot be relieved, because she has experienced too much with Tom, and that Tom also has a major influence in her
Romi Surut English 4, period 5 June 7, 2017 Ms. Zimmer Because Being Together is Enough F. Scott Fitzgerald throughout The Great Gatsby draws an inevitable connection between Daisy and Gatsby. Time is manipulated to stop everything and in place and has set up a recurring love, which has allowed for a love that is beyond inevitable. Gatsby is a very wealthy and well respected man that can get anything or anyone he wants, besides the one thing he’s always been passionate about and has loved more than anyone, Daisy. The connection between Gatsby and Daisy has always been something extraordinary.
Gatsby was so fixated on this woman that he was ready to do whatever he felt it took to get Daisy back. Without Daisy having to do or say anything, Gatsby changed his life from being a poor man in Louisville, to the richest man in West Egg, all in hopes of attaining Daisy. One thing I find funny about the pursued is that not only do they always get what they want, but they also get things they do not need. Gatsby noticed that Daisy was not the same person she was five years back in Louisville. “Her voice is full of money,” (120).
The book the Great Gatsby starts off, portraying Gatsby as some mysterious, wealthy businessman who is above all. As the story progresses, that mysterious feeling wouldn’t shake. He was desperate for money after Dan Cody’s death, but it always seemed that the money wasn't for himself. Every weekend, people would just show up to his house and just use him for his possessions. Class can be changed but it’s not always better, in the end Gatsby's wealthy didn’t help him achieve his desire to win over Daisy, and left him with Nick as his only real friend.
Gatsby wanted more and more of Daisy and he will not rest until she tells Tom that she never loved him. Gatsby goes as far as to plan a dinner party so that Daisy can tell Tom in front of everyone and this dinner party ends up being his down bringing. At the party even Daisy goes as far as to say ““Oh, you want too much!"-"I love you now – isn't that enough? I can't help what's past."-"I did love him once – but I loved you too."” (Fitzgerald 261). Gatsby’s greed and obsession with wanting more and more sees to it that Gatsby will never fully achieve his dream. Fitzgerald also uses his character Tom, the husband of Daisy, to show that the American Dream cannot be achieved. Tom seems to have everything, a big house, a beautiful wife, lots of money from a successful sports career, and the freedom to spend it as he pleases. However, he too wants more, “[Tom] nodded sagely. “And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time."” (Fitzgerald 251). Tom knows that what he is doing is wrong but he makes excuses for his affair and acts as if what he did was justified. Even though he has a beautiful wife he still wants more and this drives him to having an affair with Myrtle. Fitzgerald uses these characters to show the false reality that is the
Daisy stuck with Tom through years of his cheating, and when Nick invited her and Gatsby over so they could meet again, she had another chance. Gatsby did everything he could to become rich and to find Daisy. This meant that Daisy had everything she could have wanted. She had a man who loved her, who was wealthy, and all she had to do was end her marriage with Tom. What Gatsby had was new money, and Tom had old money. “What Daisy requires is not only money but old money. Old money is better than new, not because it can somehow buy more or because they will be more of it, but because it has fashioned the tastes, values, attitudes, matters, and intellects others possessors.”(Lathbury 59). Something about the old money was more valuable and appealing to Daisy, so she gave up Gatsby to be with Tom.
Even though The Great Gatsby was about money and fame Happiness still was not achieved. “I want to wait here till Daisy goes to bed. Good nights, old sport. He put his hands in his coat pockets and turned back eagerly to his scrutiny of the house, as though my presence marred the sacredness of the vigil. So I walked and left him standing there in the moonlight--watching over nothing.” This quote makes it clear that all of Gatsby’s wealth will not give him the one thing he wants most: Daisy. She remains with Tom, by choice, while Gatsby stands outside alone in the dark. His money will not buy his way into her life. The Great Gatsby Shows many ways in which money does not buy happiness.
By implying that Gatsby would have to steal a ring for Daisy, Tom displays his view that Gatsby is significantly lower than himself. In the end, Daisy chooses to stay with Tom and through assembling the pieces that Fitzgerald provided his readers with, we can infer that it was largely due to Tom’s ‘top of the pyramid’ social status. While both Gatsby and Tom were very wealthy, Tom’s money was the more fashionable ‘old money’ and Gatsby’s was ‘new money’. Even more, Gatsby’s money was acquired through less than respectable ways. Tom informs us “’I picked [Gatsby] for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong’” (133). Instead of joining Gatsby, with whom she would possibly be happier with, Daisy decides to stay with Tom and continue to reside at the top of the social pyramid.
When a person’s greatest hope does not come true, it can not only leave them stuck and unsure what to do with their lives, but cause emotional damage as well. Putting all the eggs in one basket means that if the person loses the basket, he or she loses everything they essentially live for as well. Obviously, this leaves him or her in the lowest depths of despair. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald once again uses the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy, this time to demonstrate how much hurt a broken dream can cause. Within the first hours of being reunited with his former love, Gatsby begins to suspect that the situation will not fall perfectly into place the way he imagined. Nick, after attending this awkward reunion, reflects, “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... No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart” (103). Although Daisy still appears as beautiful and charming as ever, Gatsby’s false image of her after several lonely years expands so much larger than life that the real Daisy plainly disappoints Gatsby. Fitzgerald strongly warns against the pitfalls of hope - once a person fixates on an idea, such as Gatsby did, reality cannot compete with the power the idea has over the person, leading to a delusional and unsatisfactory life in actuality.
Both had their significant others leave them because they weren’t wealthy, and then wanted them back once they've made a name for themselves. Daisy reveals subtly how she wishes she would’ve waited for Gatsby before she married Tom. “It makes me sad I’ve never seen such-such beautiful shirts before”(Fitzgerald 92). When Daisy pauses in saying this it can be inferred she is not really sad about the shirts but rather sad at the fact that she believed she made the wrong decision in not waiting for Gatsby. This is similar in the way that Fitzgerald's wife left because he wasn’t making much money and came back after he was an established writer and was doing well for
He returns and has little money, and he does whatever is needed to get rich and move near Daisy because, as Gatsby says, “her voice is full of money” (7). He says this because she is rich, and he idolizes being rich because all he wants is to be with her and she only wants to be with someone who is rich. The only thing in life that makes Gatsby happy during the story is Daisy. He comes home from the war and realizes she has married someone who is rich, and he goes out and becomes rich himself to make her come back to him so they can be happy together. He still cares about her even after he is told there isn't a chance, “He couldn't possibly leave Daisy until he knew what she was going to do” (8). Daisy, on the other hand, isn’t worried about anything other than public appearance and having money. She won’t divorce Tom because she is a catholic, and even though he has cheated on her, she doesn’t want to look bad to her friends and family. The other reason she stays with him is because he is rich and she can live however she wants to. While Gatsby is rich as well, Tom is who she married and even though she loves both of them her choice to stay with Tom reflects greed and self-preservation, because she shouldn’t even be in the situation in the first place. Had she cared more about other people than money, she wouldn’t have had an affair with Gatsby and