I firmly stand with Nick when he explains that you cannot repeat the past. In the past, Gatsby and Daisy were no doubt in love. They adored each other completely, but Daisy had to make the decision to choose money over love. However, in the years that they have been apart, she has greatly missed the love she felt for Gatsby. Because of this, she feels as though she loves Gatsby the same as she used to. Gatsby sees how much Daisy adores him, and is very hopeful. He wants desperately for things to be the way that they were when Daisy and he were still young and very much in love. However, his hope has damaged his view of the situation. If he were not so set on living out his life with Daisy, he would see the situation for everything that it was. …show more content…
“By God, I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me.” (Page 11, Chapter 6) Tom says this to Nick, to emphasise that Daisy knowing people that he didn’t was not okay with him. It was not very common for women to have friends that were not also friends of her husband’s.This being said, if it were to ever be discovered that Daisy had slept with someone besides Tom, she would be finished. The entire community would shame and shun her, and she would be completely isolated. She could not simply leave her husband for Gatsby, no matter what feelings exist. Alongside this, she is not the same person that split ways with Gatsby six years ago. Daisy has been married, had a child, and lived several years in the glamorous life offered by being old money. Meanwhile, Gatsby has been to college, pursued many careers, and experienced many things. “I feel far away from her.” Gatsby says to Nick on page 117 in chapter 6. He is explaining that he doesn’t feel the same connection that they once had. This is not an effect of not caring for each other, but a result of Daisy and Gatsby being apart for years. They have grown as their
Gatsby and Daisy had met years prior, but ended up going their separate ways. However, Gatsby remained in love with Daisy and longed for her affection. The two reconcile, and Daisy starts seeing Gatsby outside of her marriage with Tom. In this, Daisy is leading Gatsby on by making him believe he will attain his ultimate dream: a life with her. However, Daisy knows deep down she will not leave Tom for Gatsby. This is proven when a confrontation about the affair sparks between Tom and Gatsby, and Daisy attempts to defend Gatsby and stick up to Tom, but ultimately fails and retreats back to her husband. “Her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage she had had, were definitely gone” (Fitzgerald 135). Daisy’s carelessness shines through in leading Gatsby to believe she would abandon Tom for him, but fails to follow through. She recklessly broke the heart of the man who had been in love with her for many
62) Gatsby even asked Nick for his help to put him and Daisy in the same room together earlier in the novel. Nick agrees and eventually an affair ensues between Gatsby and married Daisy. This alone depicts exactly what Nick means when he speaks about how close Gatsby was to his dream and how it was almost impossible for him not to achieve it. He somewhat has won Daisy over by throwing his wealth in her face every chance he had. However, Daisy was already used to the lifestyle that Gatsby just newly acquired. This realization speaks through the next portion of the passage. “He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city” (pg. 180). His dream of winning Daisy back is trapped in the past because she is now married to Tom. Gatsby fails to accept the fact that times change and so do people. Daisy was not the same person he knew all those years ago. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything” (pg. 22). Living lavishly was not new for Daisy like it was for Daisy. She had traveled the world and done everything she wanted to do so nothing really excited her anymore. Despite her love for Gatsby, Daisy decides to stay with tom when Gatsby demands she tell her husband she never loved him. Her decision shows that Gatsby’s dream of winning Daisy’s love back was indeed in the past. The icing is put on the cake when Tom exposes Gatsby for
In "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he shows women, treated and presented as worse than men, and are rather disregarded and neglected by the male characters. Even Fitzgerald describes and creates the traits of the women in the book in a negative manner.
As Gatsby reached out to the green light across the harbor, he mistakenly thought there was still hope of getting back into a relationship with a married woman, Daisy. He regretted his actions that occurred five years ago, and did everything in his power to regain Daisy’s respect. Gatsby used his wealth to summon Nick, Daisy’s cousin, under his “spell” as his first step to fulfill his path to the love of his life. Gatsby’s fixation to getting back with Daisy makes his judgment unclear since he cannot think distinctly. His craziness for her is seen at, “Yes,” he said after a moment, “but of course I’ll say I was” (Fitzgerald 143). At this scene, Gatsby takes the fall for what Daisy had done. When he does this, he was not thinking about the consequences that might follow which included the revenge of the dead woman’s husband. Gatsby was clearly not thinking straight because his obsession to be with Daisy overcame his intelligence. His dream of being with her slowly became into a nightmare. If he had not done some of his actions, he would not have been in this mess in the first place. If he had let go of her and let her be happy by marrying Tom, this whole situation would not have happened.
When an individual does not come to the realization that the loved one from the past has changed, they continue to overlook the loved one’s flaws. For example, Gatsby had ideas of Daisy from the past, but he had not realized that she had changed, so he attempts to turn back time to relive a perfect life with her. The moment Gatsby kissed her, his heart had been married to her; however, the idea of a promising future with Daisy had been long gone. To begin with, Gatsby did not consider Daisy as a regular human being, but he thought of her as an ideal woman without any flaws, only thinking about her favourable qualities. However, this perspective of her did not correspond with the real-life Daisy. In reality, Daisy was no longer single like she used to be. More importantly, she was a married woman and had been married to Tom Buchanan for five years. In addition to that, she was a mother of a three-year-old daughter. In short, Gatsby had overlooked all those contradictions when he was thinking about living a perfect life with Daisy.
Gatsby explains how he wants to rekindle his relationship with Daisy and he is desperate to repeat what they once had. He wants it to seem as if the past had not happened and that Daisy never married Tom. If he could go back he would but he cannot so he will do anything and everything it takes to get Daisy back and fulfil the perfect picture he has in his head. This shows Gatsby’s love for Daisy because he is willing to do anything to win her back.
"I love you now—isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once—but I loved you too." (84) Gatsby's obsession with her seems shockingly unilateral, and it is clear to the reader that she will not leave Tom for him. You can also see why this confession is a blow to Gatsby. He has dreamed of Daisy for years and sees her as his one true love, while she not even can marshal her love of Gatsby over her love for Tom. Gatsby is too desperate and obsessed, and does not understand that he must move on as it is impossible to get back Daisy. This can also be explained by Daisy’s as we get an insight at her real feelings. As she sad in the quote, she loved them both, and to her those were equal loves. But, she has not put that initial love with Gatsby on a pedestal the way Gatsby has. Unlike Gatsby, Daisy is more tragic, a loving woman who has been corrupted by greed. She chooses the security of money and comfort over real love, and therefore he will never get back
After five years of being in a marriage - maybe not so happy but still - she is thinking about leaving everything behind and running back to Gatsby, who was her first love. Gatsby, on the other hand, is not cheating on anyone. He is free like a bird but mentally, he is not so free. His obsession with Daisy made him do things that violated quite a few significant values. Shown as a selfish, self-centered man, he tries to break apart a five year long marriage because he wants to finally win Daisy, who is not being treated equally by any men and is treated like a trophy instead, “High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl”(Fitzgerald, 120). It is not so surprising because the setting of this book is happening in the 1920’s when the gender roles were different than they are today. The main goal was to have a pretty, “trophy wife” and men had all the power. Instead of respecting Daisy’s privacy, Gatsby leaves her with no choice but to tell Tom that there is someone else in her life with Gatsby being present. It is very possible that things would have gone in a different direction if he let her take her time and have this conversation in a more private setting. Both Gatsby and Tom’s decisions are spontaneous and not so thought out. Sometimes, they act like children, fighting over Daisy, instead of dealing with the situation like two adult
She feels this way because he still likes to live in the past, but Daisy does not like that. Gatsby is new money, while Daisy is old money. Gatsby wants to rekindle a love that they used to have, but Nick is right because Daisy does not want this. Gatsby feels distant from Daisy, but he feels distant because Daisy does not want him the way that he wants her.
Gatsby’s claim to love Daisy is nothing more than wanting to complete his collection of the grand prize being a trophy wife. It became apparent to Nick that Gatsby wanted to repeat the past in order to win the award of a perfect woman. While reminiscing, Nick realizes Gatsby’s desire was that, “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’ After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, after she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house- just as if it were five years ago” (Fitzgerald 109). Gatsby’s relentless need to ‘get the girl’ blinds his ability to comprehend Daisy’s feelings of the situation. His want to shatter the Buchanan’s marriage
The next person we find of buying love is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is always throwing these extravagant parties to either make him look like he belongs with the elite rich people or to attract someone else in particular. As we know Gatsby loved Daisy from the get go when he was in the military, but she got married and he now has to find a way to have her love him again even if it means that he has to buy love. Gatsby builds a mansion across from her in hopes that maybe she will take notice, but he soon realizes the quickest way to her is threw Nick. He invites Nick and Daisy over to come explore his mansion, during that time he shows her his wardrobe. "'They're such beautiful shirts'"(Fitzgerald 92). Daisy is describing how the shirts are elegant
The relationship between Daisy and Gatsby is also an affair. Five years ago they were in love, but when Gatsby was shipped out to war Daisy did not wait for him. She married Tom while Gatsby sat around waiting for her to come back to him. He truly believed they were meant to be together so he never dated anyone else. Gatsby knows that Daisy only cares about money so he flaunts his newly made fortune in hopes of luring her in. He some how looks past the fact that she is using him for his money and gave her his heart. He is stuck in the past and "he wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: I never loved you' "(116). Daisy was tempted to leave her husband until she found out Gatsby made his fortune illegally. She killed Myrtle, let Gatsby take the blame which resulted in his death, and then she disappeared. This was not a true relationship because they were only trying to relive the past. When Nick tried to explain to him that he cannot repeat the past he exclaims, "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!"(116). Over time people change and though Gatsby tried to look past the fact that Daisy moved on, in the end they were not together.
Gatsby is confident and relies on the fact that he can go back and change the past with him and Daisy even though it’s not true. For the last five years he believed that Daisy and him had a chance to be together if he went back to the first time they met but this time start his liquor business earlier and then Daisy will be with him because he has money. “You can’t repeat the past. Can’t repeat the past? He cried out incredulously. Why of course you can! I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before” (Fitzgerald 110). Because Gatsby is so fixated on the past he doesn’t live in reality and he doesn’t see that Daisy and him can never be together because she moved on to Tom but still loves and cares for him and because of their social
When Daisy was younger she was infatuated with Gatsby. A big part of their story is mixed with a sense of rebellion as well as subconscious understanding or feel that it's all a game. She probably knew that she would safely retreat into the wealthy echelons to which she belonged. Gatsby to Daisy represented a memory of her younger more romantic self. Many of us like to cling to our own younger more idealized versions as being purer in some way. When she receives the letter from Gatsby when she was about to get married to Tom, she breaks down but still goes ahead with the wedding. I think she realizes then how much she then conforms to what is expected of her and how that romantic idealized past is now remote from her. When she sees Gatsby again,
The love in great Gatsby started with Gatsby and Daisy. They both met in way back high school