Juxtaposition In The Great Gatsby

Elissa Moody
Lemersal
American Literature
7 May 2015
Bohemian Rhapsody The Novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a grand story about love, despair, and tragedy. The title character Jay Gatsby is hopelessly in love with Daisy, a girl he knew from five years prior, who happens to be married to a rich man named Tom. Throughout the novel they rekindle their love, much to Tom’s despair, even though Tom is also cheating on Daisy with a woman named Myrtle. Myrtle is married to a man named Wilson, who has such love for her that her infidelity tears him up inside. The novel ends with tragedy, and with three of the main characters dead. Through the juxtaposition of the characters Gatsby and Wilson, it is shown that when living in an idealized

For example, once Gatsby and Daisy reconnect at tea, Gatsby invites Daisy and Tom to one of his extravagant parties. After sneaking moments away with Daisy, all he wants is to go back in time as if it were “five years” earlier. In Gatsby’s mind, it was possible to “repeat the past” just as it happened. Loving Daisy and their life together was an idea in his head, so extravagant that he believed it was reality (Fitzgerald 110). Furthermore, even after the altercation with Tom at the hotel and the accident, Gatsby still refused to let go of the idea of his life with Daisy. He “wouldn’t consider” leaving his house to protect himself from any possible consequence because of his “hope” that Daisy would give up her reality to live with him in his fantasy. He “clutched” on to this little bit of hope like a life line, as it was the only thing he had left to connect him to his one true desire (148). Gatsby is unable to separate what in his life is real and what in his life is not real. He seems to be perfect, but his only “flaw was naive idealism” making it even harder for him to accept the truth of the situation between himself and Daisy. There was no real love between them , just the vision that Gatsby had in his mind. He wasn't in love with Daisy at all; he was only in love with the idea of her and what they could be together (Themes

For example, when Wilson discovered Myrtles alternate life he became physically “sick”. His face is described as “green” and he had to use the “support” of the doorway to even stand up. Wilson was unable to see what was happening right in front of him because of his love for his wife. He is the only character to truly love the physical being of another, which is shown through this act of despair and his weakened state (123-124). Furthermore, once Myrtle was run over and killed, Wilson completely shut down. Tom “picked up” Wilson as if he were a “doll” to sit him up in a chair. Wilson was so upset that he was unable to function at even the most basic level. So much of his being was wrapped up in his love for Myrtle that without her, he was unable to function in reality (144). Finally, at the end of the novel, Wilson is so absorbed in his sorrow and anger about Myrtle’s death that he does the unthinkable. He travels “on foot” from his home in the Valley of Ashes to West Egg, and kills Gatsby out of anger. He placed all of his emotions outward onto Gatsby, because without Myrtle to be there as a receptacle, there was no where else for them to go. With his anger gone to Gatsby and his love gone with Myrtle, Wilson had nothing left to live for and killed himself as well