In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald denounces unconditional love because it causes one to value a singular person which ultimately leads to a distorted perception of the person adored towards idealization, by doing so one relinquishes control over their happiness to the object of affection.
Fitzgerald emphasizes the consequences of unconditional love as leads Gatsby to value nothing in his life besides Daisy. Hence, why Gatsby is found “standing alone on the marble steps” and why when Nick tried to find Gatsby everyone “denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements.” Gatsby and is reclusive at his own parties simply because he has no interest or concern for his party guests. He only wants the love and companionship of Daisy
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Gatsby “paid a high price for living too long with a single dream” because the longer he held onto his unconditional love for Daisy the more distorted his perception of her became. The more Gatsby longed and was apart from Daisy the more idealized his perception became of her to the point that Daisy’s identity in Gatsby’s mind transcended who she is as a person: “it had gone beyond her, beyond everything.” Thus, Gatsby sets himself up for utter disappointment as he destines Daisy to “tumbled short of his dreams” because of the “colossal vitality of his illusion”of her. Nevertheless, Gatsby still attempts to preserve his illusion of her because by insisting that she claim she never loved Tom, however, this does not come to pass. Thus, Fitzgerald expresses why idealization is the most deleterious aspect of unconditional love because “it is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own power of adjustment.” Illusions can be broken so easily, and so the joy and importance they once exuded dissipates just as easily. Fitzgerald also conveys this belief through the existence of the green light. The green light is also idealized by Gatsby, as for a long extent it was the only thing that connected him to Daisy. Gatsby assigned considerable meaning to the light to feel closer to Daisy. Through the green light