Examples Of Dissatisfaction In The Great Gatsby

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Rank Doesn’t Matter In The Great Gatsby, the reader sees a handsome young man, a wealthy husband, and a pretty lady. The theme of dissatisfaction is demonstrated through Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby. They are all unhappy with their lives and they destroy the lives of others in order to satisfy themselves. None of these characters are happy, instead they are dissatisfied with their marriage, love, life and themselves. The first unhappiness to appear is dislike of one’s class and position within society. Early in the book Daisy, a beautiful young woman from Louisville, Kentucky gives birth to a baby girl and says of her that “I hope she’ll be a fool. That’s the best thing a girl can be in the world. A beautiful little fool” (21). …show more content…

In chapter 2 Tom starts to care less about his status as a wealthy man and gets himself a mistress with which he flaunts with “wherever he was known.” (_) Tom lets the whole world see his mistress unconcerned with his wife knowing and with what others think. He uses his power to try to make his life different, fun, pleasurable. Yet, like others before him it is not enough. So if he cannot have peace and joy why not bring others down lower than his inward state. Furthermore, George Wilson soon finds out about his wife’s affair “He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick.” (-) George cannot deal with the fact that Myrtle has a lover. But the sexual affair does not bother him so much, as the fact that she has some sort of independent existence from him. He holds true to the importance of marriage joining two people together and having a separate life is a total betrayal to him. In addition, Daisy sees marriage and love as a way to get thing, for when talking to Gatsby she says “Oh, you want too much!” […] “I love you now – isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.” […] “I did love him once – but I loved you too.” (--) To Daisy, marriage does not mean much of anything; the feeling of it matters more to her. It has only brought her pain and no happiness so she chooses to do as she pleases with it and not decide. She plays around with it almost as if in search for