Neuroticism In The Great Gatsby

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (p.180). The closing quote of “The Great Gatsby”, what F. Scott Fitzgerald published in 1925, conveys nostalgia and the concept of self-awareness, particularly present within the psychological literary critique of the modernist novel. The author, appeals to the apathetic reader to strengthen a continuous condemnation of the American attitudes and values after the Great War in a liberal and dependent America. Adhering to a psychoanalytical perspective, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays privileged American inhabitants through symbolism of omnipresence, characterization through apotheosis, and the contextual recurring theme of failure, to criticize the existential

The author portrays failure through a critique of the American idiosyncrasy through social configuration, behavior, and hypocrisy. Tom Buchanan personifies a neurotic alteration of behavior that raises significance to the consolidation of a failed white aristocracy. The author depicts the aforementioned disorder in the phrase, “The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, (...) and it was because of this that I first met Tom Buchanan’s mistress.” (p.24). According to Christian Nordqvist (2016), “Neuroticism is a long-term tendency to be in a negative emotional state.” A psychoanalysis causes the understanding of conducts that relate to the disorder, such as the possession of a mistress as a sign of paranoia, unconformity, insecurity, and the inference of a status of constant surveillance of external agencies. The character is therefore associated to negative concepts such as that of poverty through the reference to the “valley of ashes” and the implicit prejudice of the narrator´s perspective. Fitzgerald constructs Daisy Buchanan as the archetype of a sociopath, the author 's pursuit to criticize a manipulative hegemonic class. Likewise, the novel focuses on quotes such as, “Gatsby?” demanded Daisy. “What Gatsby?” (p.11), to consolidate criticism. The definition of sociopathy, bases on, “Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a lack of regard for the moral or legal standards in the local culture.” (McAfee, 2003). Also encompassing behaviors such as their manipulative nature, lack of participation in illicit matters, reduced or no emotions attached to actions, recurring guilt, promiscuity, and parasitic conducts, develop an understanding of the character. (Valverde, G., 2017). The quote, associated to her denial of her knowledge of who Gatsby is, with whom she maintains an otiose sexual relationship, serves to depict the manipulation present and to further depict hypocritical attitudes in a critique to aristocratic