Changes In The Great Gatsby

George Bernard Shaw once said, “There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it”. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays James Gatsby as a man who tries to control love. Eventually Gatsby’s realizes that he cannot control love, and he experiences the desire for his love diminished. James Gatsby, a complicated man with many traits, completely changes his life to appeal to a woman from his past.

The main character, Gatsby, changes drastically throughout the novel by trying to impress Daisy. The first change he encounters is coming to wealth. Once he came to wealth, he went far enough to change his name to “James Gatz—that was really, or at least legally, his name ” (Fitzgerald 104). Gatsby wants

Gatsby has many traits, but to sum him up he comes to wealth, mystery, and obsession. Gatsby’s trait of wealth was established through his extraneous infatuation of money. Gatsby has a huge mansion, and threw expensive parties, until Daisy falsely loves him again. Daisy reluctantly fell in love with Gatsby, but moves on because she has a family. Gatsby lives a life of mystery. At Gatsby’s party Nick hears rumors that Gatsby’s a murder, a bootlegger, a German spy, and an oxford student, “ ‘Somebody, told me they thought he killed a man once.’ A thrill passed over all of us. The three Mr. Mumbles bent forward and listened eagerly.‘I don’t think it’s so much THAT,’ argued Lucille skeptically; ‘it’s more that he was a German spy during the war.’ “ (Fitzgerald 48). The trait that would eventually lead to Gatsby’s death is obsession. Gatsby desperately wants to relive his teenage love with Daisy, but reliving love is not possible. Gatsby tried to tear Daisy’s family apart because him and Daisy dangerously fell in love again. Gatsby could not stand that daisy had a child with Tom because he reluctantly realizes that he could not relive his past love. Another example of Gatsby’s obsession is that Gatsby moves across the lake to get closer to Daisy, “ You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock. “ (Fitzgerald 99). At this moment Gatsby realizes that he can’t duplicate the love he

One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it”. This is shown through the relentless effort that Gatsby pours into duplicating their love. Gatsby starts with a firing love for Daisy before he leaves for war, but when he returns things were not as he wanted them to be. The event that killed Gatsby’s dream is when Daisy introduces her child to Gatsby, “Gatsby and I in turn leaned down and took the small reluctant hand. Afterward he kept looking at the child with surprise. I don’t think he had ever really believed in its existence before” (Fitzgerald 124). The shock of Gatsby in this event shows Gatsby’s realization that he couldn’t relive the love he had, and his love disintegrates.

Love cannot be controlled, or replicated. Fitzgerald makes this obvious through out the novel. Gatsby’s attempt to control love relinquishes because he realizes that he could never facsimile the love him and Daisy had once had. James Gatsby, a complicated man with many traits, changes his life to appeal to a woman from his