Dysfunctional Romantic Relationships In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

The dysfunctional romantic relationships in the Great Gatsby.

Fitzgerald illustrates how romantic relationships in the Great Gatsby are corrupted by the social situation of 1920s America. He critiques people’s infatuation for status and power, through how it is achieved, maintained and abused through moral corruption, self-interest and privilege. Fitzgerald demonstrates each characters’ ambitions to status which ruins love relationships. It hence becomes impossible to fulfill the 1920s American dream as there will always be more status and more power to be achieved. Fitzgerald shows how higher status and power is used to maintain romantic relationships through Tom and Daisy’s marriage. They both adopt different techniques to maintain their

When Daisy announces that she “never loved him.” Tom dismisses her claim with a rhetorical question, “Not that day i carried you down from the Punch Bowl to keep your shoes dry?” This demonstrates Tom’s indifference, as if this is the only devoted act he has done for her. Suggesting, Tom only stays with Daisy to maintain his status gained from their old money marriage. Daisy too stays with him for the same reason, despite how much Tom has hurt her.

Despite their flaws, Tom and Daisy are the only couple that prevails in the end. But they prevail through corrupt means. Nick says they “smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” This emphasizes the flaws of their marriage, as it is only stabilized through the corrupt ways in which they abuse and maintain their status.

Fitzgerald disapproval of the ease in which the upper class can exert power over the lower class is evident here. The only way to achieve "The American Dream", according to the writer, is through moral corruption. Additionally, he comments on how many marriages are easily fueled by obsession to maintain status instead of a love, which leads to relationship founded on insincerity, disloyalty and unhappiness.

Maintaining and using versus achieving

Through the line “spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine”, Myrtle is associated with color and glamour. Nick says observes a “perceptible vitality about her”. Which suggests Myrtle is energized by the power through her appearance and control over husband and the hope in her affair with Tom. As for George, “A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity—except his wife, who moved close to Tom.” The use the dash exaggerates how different George is from his wife. Myrtle is hopeful to achieve more status. Whereas the analogy of how dust “veiled”, suggests George has succumbed to the misery of living in the Valley of Ashes. Finally, Fitzgerald shows how characters of higher classes lead to the collapse of their low-class marriage. Myrtle was deceived by Tom, thus her efforts to achieve status are in vain as Tom leaves her and she gets killed. George suffers the pain of losing his wife, which leads him to become a killer himself, as he murders Gatsby. Myrtle’s attempts to achieve status through her affair with Tom, is clearly