Love And Sex In The Great Gatsby

Love, desire, and sex are all fundamental aspects within the relationships portrayed in The Great Gatsby. However, true love nor stability are present between any of the married couples within the novel. Gatsby’s attraction towards Daisy is not love, but desire. The lack of true compassion beyond a sexual or physical interest shows that the relationships in the story are all very shallow. Comparing what is accepted as real love to what we see in the book, we know that none of the relationships are held together by love.

Tom and Daisy Buchanan show us the absence of love within the story on a surface level. It was said that Daisy had once loved Tom, but over the few years they have been married they drifted apart. Tom has had multiple affairs,

While Tom and Daisy at least try to appear happy and loving, Myrtle and George are hardly identifiable as married. Myrtle has lost complete interest in George and any life that she has with him, and runs off with Tom to live the extravagant life that she’s always wanted. Even before George and Myrtle were married, Myrtle’s understanding was that George was wealthy and powerful. Upon finding out that he didn’t have everything that she dreamed of, she stopped being in love with the idea of being with George, leading to an affair with Tom years later. “She smiled slowly and walking through her husband as if he were a ghost and shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye.” We can see the disinterest she has for George by comparing her attraction towards Tom. Even beyond George and Myrtle’s relationship, Tom and Myrtle’s relationship is just a shallow. Myrtle is attracted to wealth, which is why she married George to begin with. Although she might feel some deeper level of attraction towards Tom, perhaps even love, he has no intent of loving Myrtle. She is just another mistress to Tom, and he is willing to give her the lavish lifestyle that she so desperately wants so that he can get what he wants,