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Daisy's Dream In The Great Gatsby

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F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, explores the idea of the pursuit of dreams and the unattainable desire to recreate the past. People everywhere are motivated by similar dreams that give them meaning to the things they do. Gatsby builds his life around his dreams and they shape his identity while also holding him back from true greatness. He is obsessed with this dream and like many people, can only see that it won’t work out after he has already devoted so much to it. Jay Gatsby devotes his life to the pursuit of his dream of a perfect life with Daisy which ultimately leads to his downfall as struggles to face the reality of his tragic life until it is too late. From the first time they meet, Jay Gatsby is drawn to Daisy and quickly …show more content…

He becomes obsessed with recapturing their past relationship, leading him to building himself a new life centered around Daisy. Wanting Daisy to believe that he is “in the same strata as herself” Gatsby turns to a life of crime and deceit, illegally earning money and becoming the ostensible epitome of wealth and success (149). This new Gatsby buys a magnificent mansion in West Egg “so that Daisy would be just across the bay”, the green light on her dock an infinite reminder of his ever so close yet far away goal (78). Everyday, people flow in and out of his “road house”, constantly attending his extravagant parties that’s sole purpose are to catch Daisy’s eye and perhaps draw her back to him one day (64). After years of this intricate display that becomes his reality, Gatsby expresses a want for Nick to invite Daisy over for tea. He is tired of waiting and longs for Daisy to see his greatness and admire everything that he has built for her. This is when Nick realizes that all of Gatsby’s “purposeless splendor” was for a reason after all and actually reflects the extent of Gatsby’s tragic chase for a single dream …show more content…

When Gatsby first sees the green light on Daisy’s dock, he feels like his dream is “so close that he [can] hardly fail to grasp it” but he is unable to see that it “[is] already behind him” and impossible to reach (180). He lives a life of optimism “running faster and stretching his arms out further”, expending all his energy for a goal that only gets further away (180). Rather than sailing closer to the greatness of his goal, Gatsby is “borne back ceaselessly into the past,” drifting further and further away from his dream (180). Gatsby obsessively crafts an ideal image of a life with Daisy in his head, but the reality of the situation is much different. When Daisy comes over for tea Gatsby is a mess despite spending everyday preparing for her arrival. He is nervous to see Daisy and panics because when things don’t go exactly according to plan even down to the minute of her arrival. This tea marks a point where Gatsby finally sees the real Daisy again as opposed to the one he has imagined. Gatsby denies the juxtaposition of these two Daisies but Nick feels that it is inevitable that at some point Daisy will “tumble short of his dreams”, unable to live up to the “colossal vitality of his illusion” (95). He has built up his illusion of Daisy to an impossible standard, “adding to it all the time” and falling in love with the idea of Daisy

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First, Daisy and Nick join Gatsby at Gatsby’s house next door where her and Gatsby get some time to recollect themselves, “He hadn 't once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real. Once he nearly toppled down a flight of stairs,” (pg.112). First, in this part of the book is when Gatsby’s attitude throughout the rest of the story completely changes; therefore, the whole world seems to disappear causing him to fall for Daisy. Then, he doesn’t even compensate the rest of his house and how glorious it is due to Daisy taking over his whole entire attention span; this almost caused him to fall down his own stairs.

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After realizing he lost her love when he came back from war, he devoted his whole life to winning her back, and reviving the relationship and feelings they used to have for each other. For example he, committed himself to the sense of obtaining and having money, which used to be his real dream, before he met Daisy. The problem was Gatsby wanted a lot of money fast, so instead of being a true honest gentleman, Gatsby received his money through selling liquor illegally, and teaming up with the con, “Meyer Wolfshiem”. Gatsby's intense desire also drove him to acquire a house presently near Daisy and Tom’s home, a place where Gatsby can gaze and praise from. Then Gatsby starts to throw very popular parties in hopes that Daisy may notice and come to one, but she never does.

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As Gatsby gives a tour to Nick and Daisy of his house, Nick notices changes in Gatsby’s mannerisms in response to Daisy’s reactions. Saying that “[Gatsby] revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from [Daisy’s] well-loved eyes” (91). Gatsby’s revaluation of his material wealth in response to Daisy shows that his love is embedded in his material possessions. He values only what Daisy values and Daisy tends towards expensive and extravagant things. Nick depicts Gatsby, saying that “in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real” (91).

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Gatsby is obsessed with his own idea of who Daisy is and what he remembers her as, “Almost five years! 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” (page 95). Gatsby goes through great lengths in order to become who he thinks Daisy would want, “He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths--so he could 'come over' some afternoon to a stranger's garden” (page 63).

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Gatsby makes an impulsive decision to buy an elegant mansion in hopes that he and Daisy would meet some time again. In his favor, Gatsby and Daisy meet again, but that only makes Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy skyrocket. While Nick and Gatsby are talking about the Daisy situation, Nick explains that Gatsby should no longer live in the past because it is taking away from his present time. Gatsby is too consumed in his fantasies about Daisy to the point where he thinks they are truly real. Though Gatsby's past has been good with Daisy, he needs to be able to live in the moment and not be caught up with past

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We see that Gatsby is very close to realizing his desire of being with Daisy is getting closer, but the foreshadowing suggests that his dream might not come true. Even before Daisy arrives, Gatsby is in a frenzy. When she arrives Gatsby and Nick talk in the kitchen because Gatsby is so uneasy, he says “This is a terrible mistake, a terrible, terrible mistake. ”(Fitzgerald 68). In this scene, Gatsby reveals his genuine self.

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The wealth and status that radiate from Daisy initially pull Gatsby in during his youth; growing up impoverished, Gatsby sees Daisy as the status symbol for success that he’s always longed for. Moreover, when the two finally reconcile, Gatsby constantly tries to impress Daisy in an attempt to win her over and repeat the past. Nick goes into great detail about Daisy’s reaction to Gatsby’s new life when they first reunite: “Daisy came out of the house and two rows of brass buttons on her dress gleamed in the sunlight. ‘That huge place THERE?...

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Gatsby wants his relationship with Daisy to be “just as if it were five years ago”(109), so when he meets her daughter “he [keeps] looking at the child with surprise”, Nick describes that he doesn’t think that “[Gatsby] had ever really believed in its existence before”(117). Gatsby has no conception of Daisy’s current life, only the one he has in his mind, so when he sees her real life, it tarnishes his idea of his forthcoming life with Daisy. In a like manner, Gatsby’s “hell of the mind” culminates when Daisy can’t say that she never loved Tom and tells Gatsby “I love you now--isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past” and consequently “the words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby”(132). Gatsby’s dream is built upon the belief that Daisy has been equally in love with him for the past five years, so this information takes a cruel blow at his entire purpose.

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At the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick reflects upon Gatsby’s life and pursuit on the beach where “the green light” at the end of Daisy’s dock can be seen. As a significant metaphor, “the green light” represents Gatsby’s dream which guides him to keep pursuing wealth and social status, while the position of the light, the distant and inaccessible Daisy’s dock, indicates the close connection between Gatsby’s unreal dream and Daisy, and as well the disillusionment of the dream. In the last three paragraphs, Nick explains the disillusionment of Gatsby’s dream, “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (162). Gatsby has always strived for his ambition and dream.

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His image of Daisy five years ago illudes Gatsby into thinking that person remains his dream but in reality, she is not the same girl of his dreams. When reuniting with Daisy after five years, Gatsby was very eager and nervous as he then accidentally knocked over Nick’s ‘defunct clock’. Although he did catch it before it hit the ground, they “all believed for a moment that it had smashed in pieces on the floor” (Fitzgerald 87). The defunct clock symbolizes Gatsby’s desire to resurrect the past. He had been in love with Daisy and hasn't stopped thinking about her for all these years.

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Introduction: In The Great Gatsby Gatsby demonstrates the consequence of obsession upon one’s self-perception. This is seen in Gatsby’s longing to become somebody great due to his impoverished past where he had nothing except his poor parents, how he mixes love with limerence for Daisy as he tries to achieve the perception he has created for himself, and his obsession with achieving his dream, which leads him to a path of destruction day by day, killing the young boy inside of him and creating a false idealization of the boy he dreams of becoming. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, illustrates the dangers of deluding oneself with unattainable goals with a distorted perception of reality. This eventually leads to Jay Gatsby's death

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Gatsby’s absorption in the pursuit of Daisy [fantasy] does not end here; he continually focuses on the past so much so that he does not acknowledge the time in which he and Daisy were not together. Fitzgerald illustrates this detachment from reality through the first moment Gatsby saw Daisy’s child. From Nick’s point of view, Gatsby “...kept looking at the child with surprise. I don’t think he had ever really believed in its existence before”(117). Gatsby was so wrapped up in his goal to obtain Daisy’s love that he never even recognized the time they spent apart as real.

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This hinders Gatsby from moving on and focusing on his own life and happiness. In the beginning to gain Daisy's affections, Gatsby accumulates extortionate wealth and displays extravagant gestures, such as organizing luxurious parties every Friday and showing her his grandiose mansion after the Tea Party with Nick. To Gatsby the memories of the past with Daisy are everything that he wants. Therefore winning Daisy back becomes his primary goal in life. When Nick tells Gatsby, “You cannot repeat the past,” Gatsby replies incredulously,“Why of course you can.”

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