Even though they have been together in the past, the fact that they are not together at the time of the story shows how their relationship must have failed and therefore love is seen as unobtainable. He seems to place Daisy so high on a pedestal that she is in a way already unreachable. He loves her so much, with so much passion, worked so hard to be up to her standards (bought the house, throws all these parties…). However, she has never turned up to any of his parties or shown any interest in a certain Gatsby showing that love is unobtainable. Jordan mentions to Nick that “he half expected her to wander into one of his parties but she never did, then he began asking people casually if they knew her”.
Before their family tragedy occurs, none of them could ever think about changing mentality or lifestyle, therefore all characters are psychologically unready to survive their loss. Moreover, this event makes some of the characters starting to think differently. Nandana is one of the main characters who can also be considered a hero. She initially lives an illusion when she refuses to accept that her parents died. As she refuses to talk to anybody, the child created her own imaginary world being unwilling to look at the reality: “Why couldn't he understand that if he kept quiet, if all of them kept quiet, her parents would hear her and come to take her home?” (47).
She wants Tom to attend college and make something of himself, but he lacks ambition. Amanda refuses to see Laura as a cripple with eccentric behavior; instead, she dreams of marrying her daughter to a gentleman caller who will take care of her forever. Both of Amanda's children also escape from reality. Tom hates his boring and depressing existence and escapes by going to the movies and dreaming of his own real life adventures. He thinks about sailing to South Sea islands and going on safaris; he even admits that "I seem dreamy."
Orual never feels that she is loved by anyone, that is, until Psyche enters her life after Psyche’s mother dies giving birth to her. Orual takes it upon herself to become Psyche's guardian and to raise her. Orual loves Psyche more than anything, but her love is selfish and very possessive. Orual is tormented by the thought of having to ever give Psyche from her possession and she does everything in her power to prevent it. After first being separated from Psyche then becoming bitter from not seeing the same things as Psyche once reunited, I realized the tragedy was that not only did Orual never found the “love of the Gods,” she also never learned to love her life and accept herself as the person she was.
Myrtle wishes she was in the place of Daisy and wishes to escape to the ‘Egg’. She breaks down and cries when she finds out George borrowed the suit he wore to the wedding, which shows her wish to be married to a rich man. This is one of the reasons she has an affair with Tom Buchanan, the other being that she just wanted to have fun “ You can’t live for ever” is the way she puts it. Myrtle doesn’t treat George with any respect, when Tom is with them she is “walking through her husband as if he were a ghost”. She also states that she “made a mistake when she married him”.
Who knows does not even show the slightest care for her husband’s feelings and plans, as she spent the day in bed chatting endlessly with a friend she met while on the trip to Washington. To add salt to injury, she confessed to him that all the money that he has been pouring on her was nothing but wastage of his resources. She also confessed to him that she did not love him at all. Lack of love or any feelings towards another person leads to disrespect, lack of care and even deprivation of
Tom doesn’t seem to care that his affair hurts Daisy, he proves this by take Nick (Daisy cousin) to meet his mistress “I want you to meet my girl” (pg24). He seems to ignore Daisy throughout the book until he suspects Daisy is having an affair with Gatsby, and then he seems to come unglued. “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” (pg130). Tom’s ego takes a hit when he finds out Gatsby wants something that is
I think he realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over.” * This quote emphasizes how the upper crust 1920’s society of NY has substituted materialism with spirituality (or I guess you could say they could worship money..). Tom easily forgives Daisy for her infidelity because he doesn’t care about her or his marriage, he simply cares about the illusion of a marriage they put up together. In contrast to this, Gatsby cannot forgive Daisy for loving Tom rather than him because he wants their love to be flawless, the way he sees it in his dream – the American Dream. Chapter 8 #1 - “I jumped out of bed and began to dress-I felt that I had something to tell him, something to warn him about and morning would be too
With nothing to do to pass the time, he begins to observe his neighbors private lives through his rear window. The first hint at socialization appears when Jeffrie's girlfriend (Lisa Freemont) comes to visit him in his apartment. The cultural reversal here is that instead of the man having the higher social status, Lisa is a wealthy high society woman. Jeffrie's is in love with her, but will not commit to marrying her because he feels that he is not good enough for her. He becomes very argumentative with her as she first tries to get him to change his career to become a fashion magazine photographer.
From a psychoanalytic critic point of view Gatsby represents Fitzgerald, and Genevra King represents Daisy. Gatsby represents Fitzgerald’s courage and failure to progress if Fitzgerald never stopped loving King then The Great Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s story. Gatsby’s id is shown throughout the novel during his reunion with Daisy, Gatsby “leaned back so far that it rested against the face of a defunct mantelpiece clock, and from this position his distraught eyes stared down at Daisy” (Fitzgerald 84) unconsciously he rested his body against the broken clock which signifies unconsciously that Gatsby wants to stop time because he has achieved everything by obtaining money and status, represented by his clothes “white flannel suit, silver shirt, gold-coloured tie” (Fitzgerald 81) and is together with Daisy. Before Gatsby met Daisy he already wanted to be rich and sophisticated so Gatsby is chasing after material wealth and not Daisy. Daisy is the figure of material wealth “‘Her voice is full of money...