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Examples Of Repetition Compulsion In The Great Gatsby

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"You can't repeat the past", as Nick Carraway, the narrator of "The Great Gatsby" says. Nick told Jay Gatsby that he could not make Daisy Fay, his former paramour, go with him back to five years ago when they once loved each other. Gatsby is stuck in the past and wants Daisy to help him achieve his American dream. Gatsby feels he can only achieve this by marrying Daisy and moving back to their old home. Gatsby suffers from repetition compulsion, and Gatsby like Langston Hughes has "a dream deferred weighing heavy on his mind". Although, some may argue that Gatsby had everything, friends, a mansion, a car, and was always smiling. The readers can not see past the smile and realize that he was hurting for Daisy. Gatsby hurting for Daisy and still …show more content…

Gatsby was unaware of what he was going through and unconsciously doing a foolish thing. "Repetition compulsion is an inherent, primordial tendency in the unconscious that impels the individuals to repeat certain actions, in particular, the most painful or destructive ones... Repetition compulsion is thus initially a defensive, an attempt to bind, assimilate, and integrate undesirable experiences that are incompatible with other experiences". Gatsby does not know that he is throwing his time away for a woman that has moved on. Gatsby is trying to bind or assimilate the present Daisy Fay with the past Daisy to fill in the hole he has in his heart. Repetition compulsion may take a toll on a person mentally, and that is what it did to Gatsby. So, repetition compulsion is what Gatsby is suffering from and is why he is going through a painful point in time. Gatsby is in fact going through an unhealthy phase and repetition compulsion is causing catastrophic damage to …show more content…

Gatsby acquired a mansion, a car, a pool, and could afford a party every weekend. None of these things helped Gatsby win over Daisy, therefore making it all worthless for him. "I think he half expected her to wonder into one of his parties, some night," went on Jordan, "but she never did." Gatsby set up lots of parties expecting Daisy to walk into one just so that he could see her again. This proves that Gatsby went out of his way to even get Daisy's attention. So once he failed, the reader knows much this would impact Gatsby's mind and

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