Andreea Vilceanu Faculty of Letters, 3rd year, group 5

Main themes in Scott Fitzgeralds novel The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a very important novel that reveals us how richness can influence people, how could romanticism resist in a world where dreams were broken by the rough reality and especially the authors perception on the American Dream. First of all we should analyse the style of the novel: the 3rd person narration is significant because it means that the events are filtred through Nicks personal thinking, who is telling us how things went and who is responsible for what it had been done. He also presents us his impressions, he puts labels on characters no matter the fact that one of them, Daisy, was also related to him. The novel also illustrates how the moral values of a human being can resist in a world where everyone is looking for money and entertaining, how the relationships based on respect and love can be less appreciated than a marriage based on interest. We can notice than the perception of the American Dream is one of the novels themes that is not any longer the one we were used to know. The American dream was originally all about discovery, the pursuit of happiness, independence, individualism. In the 1920s presented in the novel, everything is about easy money, fun, luxury and the leisure class. No one is trying to impress by their moral values, their intelligence, their capacity to solve things and make business thank to their quick thinking. Now, what is important is prosperity, cynicism and material excess. The protagonist of the novel is searching for the Americam Dream, because we find out that he wants to get rich in order to conquer the love of his life, Daisy. On the surface, we can see this is as a romantic love story, where he- a poor boy- falls in love with a beautiful rich girl and then he is trying to do whatever it takes to get even more rich than her. In the end, instead of getting together and live happily ever after, everything is turned upside down.

It is obvious that the author makes a visible diference between the New Aristocracy ( East Wegg) and the Old Aristocracy ( West Egg). People representing the New aristocracy are ostentatious, vulgar, and lacks in social grace and taste. On the contrary, the Old Aristocracy still possess grace, taste, elegance, and good manners. Gatsby is somewhere in the middle, because despide his richness, his mansion, his Rolls Royce and expensive suites, deep inside his heart he is the same poor boy waiting for his great love to get back to him and all that he does has as purpose to take her back in his arms. As the title says, Gatsby has a sort of grateness, elegance and we can see it in the way that he moves, acts and, in the end, in his sacrifice. But, at a second look, we can see that he had done a lot of things that he is not proud about. For example, the way in which he got rich: only after a serious number of pages we find out that he got rich by making trade with alcohol in an era of prohibition. The author hides this information in order to maintain an atmosphere of romanticism and mistery. In one sense one may tell that Gatsbys travel to success is the embodiment of the American dream because his motivation to get rich is only because he wants to be with Daisy, the love of his life. From the moment he fell in love with her, she was his only goal in life; his life without her had no meaning. Thats wh y he threw all those luxurious parties: so that she could hear about him, and maybe, with a little bit of luck, once she may come in his house. As the time has passed all that Gatsby succeded was to feed a childish illusion because he really believed that she still feelt the same way as he did. He starts living in a fantasy world where the image of her love was everytime with him. His incapacity to face reality leads in the end to his death. Moreover, Gatsbys friendship with Nick starts only after he finds out that he is Daisys cousin and he realizes that he might help him a lot. Nick admires Gatsbys strength and power to rezist and after he is aware of the love he still have for his cousin, after all the years that have passed, he decides to help him. What is more sensitive is Gatsbys romanticism and idealism. He cannot leave the past behind and lives his adult life trying to recapture his past with Daisy. Thats why he represent s a really unique case in the world depicted in the novel, because romanticism does not survive in a world where money and social class come first.

It is very sad the fact that he doesnt realize that his Daisy is not the one he thought she would be; his mind idealized her so much that the real and image and the ideal one doesnt match at all. He is in love with the idea of Daisy, but not with the real Daisy. He loves the idea of beauty and especially that beautiful feeling when you know that somebody loves you, that is capable to do everything for you and to be there when you need him. This is the perception of love in Gatsbys mind: the power to sacrifice youself for the person you love, to be able to follow your dream even a life time if its necessary only to be with her in the end. The way the narrator portrays Daisy is made in contrary with Gatsby. While he appreciates the moral values and money are just a way of getting him near her, Daisy is superficial, has no values and no purpose in life. She has no clue what to do the next day and she focuses only on her social relationships and even her daughter, Pammy, does not give a meaning to her life. She floats from one day to another without appreciating what she has. Even when she finds out about his husbands affair, she is not trying to save her marriage, is quite indifferent and thinks only about herself. Because she needed entertaining in her life, she had an affair with Gatsby when she was eighteen, not because she was deeply in love with him. Despite the fact she was married to Tom, started a new affair with Gatsby not because her old feelling came to surface, but only because she was pleased by Gatsbys richness, luxurious parties and more luxurious house. In her mind, love was not a pure feeling and she had no idea about how Gatsby felt about her. Under a wall of shallowness, nothing had the same meaning not even her consciousness could survive to her habits. Her spirit wasnt as feed as her body was. The theme of love is represented in the novel through two love triangles: the first one is made between Gatsby, Tom and Daisy and the second one between Tom, his mistress, Myrtle, and her husband George. Tom was having an affair with Myrtle from a long time ago and treats her like she were his toy. George has no idea about this affair and thinks that they are just friends. On the other side, Daisy completes Gatsbys social status, who is trying to convince her to leave his husband and to run away with him. Also, in those two love triangles, starts a chain of deaths. The theme of death is very powerful represented, having serious consequences. Daisy hits and kills Myrtle Wilson and she doesnt even stop, which certifies again her selfishness and then, George Wilson shots Gasby while standing in his pool. Daisy and Tom are made for eachother because both does not

appreciate the feelings of others or even human life. When Gatsby is shot, she doesnt even send flowers, even though she knew that she was responsible for his death. Because of her incapacity to take responsibility a noble man has died. Daisy is worried only about protecting and entertaining herself, exactly how she acted her entire life. Another significant aspect to analyse are The Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg which represent a powerful image in the novel; it may stand by God, who is always there, observing how people act and judging their behavior or it may be represented the concept of panopticon. Always there, even when you dont know, those two eyes are watching everybody non stop, making you feel uncomfortable. Out of all the aristocratic characters presented in the novel, Gatsby is the only one who is not corrupted by his money. Although he has a very large and ostentatious mansion, expensive cars and threws amazing parties, his entire life was chasing to made his dream true: to prove Daisy that he is worthy for her. Nick, who has thought the entire novel that Gatsby was the one vulgar and materialistic, realizes in the end that his neighbour had moral values and principles more that all the East Eggers put together. The Jazz age is also represented in the novel, the music is entertaining the great parties Gatsby throws. Fitzgerald wants to sign the fact that the American dream had gone away with the wind because everybody but Gatsby are corrupted, they want to be rich without doing any work, to party all day long and to enjoy life, without taking into account the real values of life. The characters make use one of another in order to fulfill their own desires and they dont accept to be losers. Moreover, they think that if they have enough money, they can manipulate time and will be forever young and could buy their happiness. Fitzgeralds key theme in the novel is that wealth corrupts: one that people know that they have money, they think that they have it all: power, love, happiness, hope, moral values, principles. But, the truth is that they dont have anything. Gatsby is the only one who stands for the complex image which rejoins his capacity of dreaming about his love, and also his efforts made in order to get rich using the possibilities of his epoch.