Gatsby Essay - There IS NO Example OF A Loving Relationship IN THE Great Gatsby PDF

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There is no real example of a loving relationship in “The Great Gatsby.” To what extent do you agree with this view of the novel? Aisha Khan Year 12 In The Great Gatsby there is no real example of a loving relationship which emerges through three unhappy and incompatible marriages as well as shallow and superficial friendships which are especially prevalent at Gatsby’s parties. Moreover, there is no real example of a loving relationship due to the non-existent traditional family structure that used to exist and the fact that relationships are often a source of conflict and despair. Fitzgerald portrays love and relationships in a tainted light due to his own experiences of loving relationships, having initially been rejected by his wife Zelda. In The Great Gatsby the Buchanans’ marriage is unsuccessful due to Tom Buchanan’s persistent adultery and frequent “sprees” and Daisy’s resigned acceptance of it as well as her own affair with Jay Gatsby. In Chapter 1 the introduction of Tom’s concubine is revealed through the “shrill metallic urgency” of the telephone, this initially indicates that the Buchanan’s have an unhappy marriage as Tom indulges in infidelity and Daisy has to “cry” with “tense gaiety” that everything is well, the oxymoron “tense gaiety,” suggests Daisy is more concerned about outward appearances of their marriage and wants it to look perfectly respectable by ensuring she has a brave face on during her humiliation; the fact that Tom answers the phone call during their dinner, when guests are able to hear him, is an example of his blatant disrespect to Daisy and her feelings, suggesting again that their marriage is unhappy as he does not attempt to hide his behaviour. Moreover, the verb choice of “cry” alludes to the sad feeling of misery, reinforcing that their marriage is flawed. Daisy Buchanan also declares that the “best” thing for a female to be is a “beautiful little fool,” her comment, which are actually Zelda Fitzgerald’s words subtly suggests that although she ignores Tom’s promiscuous behaviour, she is hurt by it and would prefer to be a “fool,” who did not realise Tom was engaging in affairs, rather than be an intelligent and educated woman. Moreover, the use of light imagery mirrors their unfortunate marriage as when Myrtle phones, the light in the room changes from natural light to artificial light and in the room “the glow faded,” which suggests their affair is having a seriously detrimental effect on the Buchanan’s marriage with Daisy later revealing that “she’s had a very bad time,” which confirms that Tom’s affairs have been on-going and continuous and as “very” is an adverb used for emphasis here, the reader can ascertain that their marriage has always been unloving and ill-fated. To an extent, the Buchanan’s marriage is bonded by material love, wealth and class, their marriage increases their respectability in society and Daisy is a status symbol for Tom, whereas Tom offers stability and financial security in return, it is not founded on love, hence, this is why she chooses Tom over Gatsby on two occasions and returns as a “captive prisoner” to quote Callahan, as Daisy values wealth over love. Their unloving and unhappy marriage is potentially a reflection of Fitzgerald’s own marriage to Zelda as there was immense conflict between the two as their marriage was littered with infidelity and a lot of conflict stemmed from the boredom Zelda felt when Fitzgerald was writing, therefore, he depicts relationships as predominantly unloving as he uses his own experience in the novel. Within Chapter Two, the Wilsons’ unloving relationship is highlighted as is the McKee’s poor union. Myrtle and George Wilson have a relationship which involves unreciprocated love, George Wilson, the “blond, spiritless, anaemic and faintly handsome” man is clearly besotted with Myrtle Wilson which is exemplified by the fact that when he discovers her death in Chapter 7 he begins to act “sort of crazy,” with the adjective “crazy” connoting intense madness and lunacy which reveals the extent to which he loved her and the extent he was hurt by her death. Moreover, upon discovering her affair he appears “physically sick,” but he still loves her and is desperate to keep her, George Wilson was even willing to commit murder, a heinous sin and criminal act, which demonstrates the profound impact of her death. However, their relationship is unloving and there is no example of a loving relationship in The Great Gatsby. This is because Myrtle Wilson regards her husband as a failure due to her strong materialism, a creation of the Jazz Age and Post- World War One Economic boom and increased advertising, which therefore makes Myrtle unable to “stand” Wilson because he is poor, despite her being from a workingclass background herself. Their marriage is unhappy and unloving due to Myrtle’s feelings being strongly associated to wealth as her response to the fact that Wilson “borrowed somebody’s best suit” to get married in, was to “lay down and cry,” which demonstrates that their marriage is unloving and was doomed from the beginning due to Myrtle’s staunch and deluded belief that she married below her class, which is exacerbated by their lack of business from their garage. Moreover, their relationship is not loving as her response to Wilson’s name is “violent and obscene,” which connotes strong emotions and passionate feelings of hatred and detestation and her inability to accept that it was her choice to marry him, suggests that the marriage is deeply unhappy as she claims she mistook him for a “gentleman.” Ergo, Fitzgerald presents no real example of a loving relationship in The Great Gatsby. Moreover, during the impromptu party in Chapter 2 the McKee’s do not seem to have a loving relationship either. This is presented by the fact that Mr McKee has photographed his wife “a hundred and twenty-seven times,” which alludes to the fact that he sees his wife as a possession, and a sex or visual object instead of an animate, sentient being like himself. Moreover, their sparse communication during the party hints that their marriage is indeed unsuccessful and unloving as he “shushes” her at one point and only makes the effort to acknowledge her presence and existence by “nod [ding] in a bored way,” this hints at a lack of communication and the adjective “bored” suggests Mr McKee is disinterested in her, which intimates that their relationship is unsuccessful, and consequently unloving. Ronald Berman, a critic, wrote in his book “The Great Gatsby and Modern Times” that characters in “The Great Gatsby,” are able to form closer relationships with “published, advertised and perceived images,” than they do with each other, this quote is highly applicable to the McKee’s and Wilson’s situation as perhaps the prevalent consumerism and materialism has forced Mr McKee to view his wife as an object or transform her into the women he would see in magazines, instead of a real person, causing the marriage to be unloving and Myrtle loves the things she sees in “magazines” more than she loves

George Wilson. Fitzgerald was pessimistic about the 1920s being a decade of consumption and materialistic ventures as before becoming a novelist, Fitzgerald worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency in New York which made him realize the control advertising had over people’s lives and hence, he depicts Myrtle’s consumerist nature as detrimental as it is the root of the failure of the Wilson’s marriage. Hence, in The Great Gatsby there is no real example of a loving relationship, partly due to infidelity but also due to the widespread materialism and consumerism which is detrimental in people’s lives as not having materialistic objects is a serious source of discontent. Furthermore, there is no real example of a loving relationship due to them often being a source of struggle and due to there being no apparent loving friendship, or even a loving maternal relationship between mother and child. In the novel, Daisy seems to be highly apathetic and unbothered about her daughter, Pammy, this is evident in Chapter 1 as when Nick inquires about her daughter, Daisy looks at him “absently,” with the adverb connoting distraction and inattentiveness, which suggests Daisy is uncaring about her daughter and Daisy would much rather tell Nick “what [she] said when she was born,” as opposed to talk about her child, which implies they do not have a truly loving relationship as for Daisy, Pammy is just an object on display, to be paraded about, furthermore, Tom was “God knows where” at the birth of Pammy and does not enter a discussion about her, suggesting that they do not have a loving relationship, which emphasises the fact that there are no real loving relationships in The Great Gatsby. Moreover, relationships are often a source of conflict as Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose for shouting Daisy’s name with a “short deft movement,” which implies that as there is abuse and violence in this relationship, it is unloving and as he is so controlling, to the point where he decides what Myrtle is allowed to say, the relationship is presented as unequal which subsequently suggests it is unloving. Furthermore, in Chapter 3 at Gatsby’s first party two men take their wives out of Gatsby’s gardens, “both wives were lifted, kicking, into the night,” which suggests that their relationship is unloving as force is used and the very “kicking” foreshadows future domestic violence and their relationship is presented as unstable and unloving. The instability in their marriages reflects Fitzgerald’s marriage to Zelda, it was passionate yet unstable and full of pressure, his love of alcohol worsened their relationship as he gradually became an addict and was a particular notorious alcoholic in the 20s- this is reflected by the fact that Tom injures Myrtle under the influence of alcohol and heavy drinking was taking place at the party. Moreover, the superficial and shallow friendships reinforce the idea that there are no examples of a loving relationship in the novel, this is suggested by the fact that Wolfshiem, Gatsby’s “closest friend,” with the superlative alluding to great and deep friendship, refuses to attend the funeral as he does not want to get “mixed up” in it, this implies that their friendship was not a truly loving one, as Wolfshiem prioritises his own appearance over Gatsby’s funeral. Moreover, the fact that “nobody came” to Gatsby’s funeral, including Klipspringer the “boarder” who cares more about his “tennis shoes,” a material object, and would rather go to a “picnic”, suggests that there is no example of a loving relationship as the people that attend Gatsby’s parties abuse his generosity, hospitality and kindness and abandon him at the end. At Gatsby’s parties even the friendships are shallow and superficial, as Nick notices “enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names,” which suggests that the friendships are only skin-deep and temporary and there is no real affection between these women, which connotes that there is no example of a loving relationship in this novel. Contextually, Fitzgerald was partly repelled and disgusted at the hedonism, decadence and carelessness of the Jazz Age, which emerges through the way he portrays his characters and their weak and unloving relationships with one another – an extension of carelessness. The true nature of the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby is certainly not loving. Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy has transformed his notion of Daisy into a “colossal…illusion” and he is more in love with the illusion of Daisy as the “golden girl” as opposed to Daisy herself. Gatsby even remarks that her voice is “full of money,” this metaphor shows that he cannot separate Daisy from what she represents and instead may be more in love with the wealth and money she symbolizes. Moreover, during the confrontation at the Plaza in Chapter 7 Tom and Gatsby fight for Daisy as if she is a prize to be won, instead of a human being – they both intentionally disregard her own feelings as Tom claims she gets “foolish ideas in her head,” and Gatsby dismissed her as being over “excited,” which suggests that Gatsby is more interested in her as a status symbol as opposed to his one, true love, making their relationship appear unloving. Moreover, Daisy’s claim that she “loves” Gatsby is not a declaration of her commitment to him, rather, it is a deliberate technique to anger Tom and arouse jealousy within him, she uses Gatsby to further her own relationship with Tom and it is an unloving relationship as she does not “send a message or flower” upon his death and lets him take the blame for Myrtle’s death – she misuses him selfishly, suggesting the relationship is actually unloving. This is reinforced by the fact that in Chapter 5 she “cries stormily” into his shirts which shows she is only attracted to Gatsby due to his lavish lifestyle and Daisy too carries “well-forgotten dreams from age to age,” which the noun “dreams” highlighting how she has idealised and romanticized their relationship and is more in love with feeling loved, since the abandonment of Tom. Ross Posnock, a critic states people in Gatsby’s society are so obsessed with tangible wealth that they treat each other as objects, this “stops Gatsby from being able to love as he sees Daisy as a prize he can buy,” which confirms the fact that their relationship is unloving, no matter how much constancy and loyalty Gatsby portrays. A critic, William Troy, states that Gatsby represents “one force in Fitzgerald’s life” this notion is supported contextually as Fitzgerald was rejected by two of his lovers, Zelda Sayre and Ginevra King who refused him on the grounds that he would not be able to support them financially, which is why Daisy rejected Gatsby. Fitzgerald then resumed his relationship with Zelda once he had acquired a lot of money, again this is reflected in Gatsby’s story, thus, Fitzgerald presents relationships negatively and as unloving as he potentially believed them to be partly motivated by money and he uses his personal experiences in the novel.

In conclusion, there is no real example of a loving relationship in The Great Gatsby as the greed for materialistic items caused resentment in some marriages, such as the Wilsons as George Wilson could not give Myrtle Wilson what she wanted, which caused her to continue her affair with Tom, despite abuse encountered. Moreover, the widespread consumerism made people view each other as objects in which they could buy each other as prizes, like in Daisy’s case, by the 1920s adverts were everywhere and jingles started to appear in 1923, which caused people to become increasingly greedy. There is no real loving relationship as the characters struggle to be faithful and committed, even Nick Carraway is lacking commitment to Jordan, and characters such as Gatsby believe they are in love but are truly blinded by their own illusions, making their relationship unloving as well. Fitzgerald also wanted to reflect his own marriage experiences into the novel and the careless attitude of the Jazz Age caused friendships to appear superficial, as the “lost generation” lacked religious and moral values and focused more on appearances and wealth, this is also demonstrated by Daisy’s careless treatment of Pammy....