One of the most prominent conversations I’ve heard is whether Gatsby and Daisy truly loved each other. At this point in the book, it seems fairly obvious to make the metaphor of Daisy being a symbol of old money status that Gatsby can never reach. The conclusion would be that Gatsby never loved Daisy, just the idea of gaining the level of status that she has. It’s more complex than that, though, because love is a complicated feeling. It’s such an abstract concept that’s so hard to describe concisely. Because of this, how can you know if anyone is truly in love? Is it instinctual to recognize love, both in yourself and others? It feels like love is different for everyone. However, I think the definition of true love I will go with is that love is not entirely based on the pursuit of something else, like wealth or status.
It is implied that Gatsby only started to love Daisy for her wealth. He outright states that her beautiful house was one of the first things that excited him about her. He comments that he just wanted to pursue Daisy and enjoy his time while he could, since he was penniless and could never dream of pursuing her seriously at the moment, no matter his dreams for the future. Actually pursuing Daisy changed this view, though. Gatsby specifically mentions that all of a sudden, after falling in love with her, he didn’t care about keeping up his facade of wealth. I think this proves that he did love her in reality at some point. This moment shows that he is not just pursuing Daisy for the purpose of her wealth, because otherwise he would have kept up his image and gone with his original plan of pursuing her until he inevitably would have to stop. This marks the turning point for him, where he actually loved her. Then, when he lost her during the war, he got overly attached to her and the feelings the idea of her drew out. The common attitude of the era was that the war left everyone disillusioned, which I believe is what left Gatsby longing for the feelings he felt before. He worked to earn wealth in hopes of winning Daisy back in this grand scheme that would restore those memories.
Daisy loved Gatsby as well, but her perspective shifted the opposite way of Gatsby. She loved Gatsby in the beginning, before he left for the war. However, during and after the war, she grows older and realizes more about the real world. She understands more about how wealth and status shape her lifestyle. This can be seen when she wishes that her daughter will be a fool. She wishes this because she wants her daughter to not have to think about the conflicts between love, wealth, status, and the place of women in society; she wants her daughter to be able to go along with it easily. In this way, I believe that Daisy loved Gatsby, but realized that wealth and status were more important to her lifestyle. She was separated from Gatsby anyway, and Tom provided her with wealth and status. However, at this point, I think Daisy still wanted to believe in love. She still wanted to love someone, and Tom also provided that for her until she became aware of his cheating. After years of being married to him, Daisy has lost any value she put in love and has turned to wealth and status. Gatsby reappearing in her life didn’t give Daisy any of her love for him back, but it reminded her of it and provided her with an opportunity for escape.
Both Gatsby and Daisy represent disillusionment with society, but they deal with it differently. Gatsby chases the past and can’t let go of it, while Daisy has accepted society as it is now and has molded to fit it.
Source: Medium
This is along a similar vein as to what I wrote, though I believe you read chapter 8 and I did not (also shoutout to this blog for helping me realize I wrote chapter 9 instead of 8 in my preface). I agree with most of what you said, but I would argue Gatsby's disillusionment with society has to do with what he can never achieve, while Daisy is disillusioned because she has achieved what he wants, it's just not all its cracked up to be.
ReplyDeleteI think this is partly why they approach it differently. Gatsby still holds on to that experience that he can never achieve because he doesn't know what it's really like. Daisy doesn't have that same illusion.
DeleteI really liked this post, it actually made me think about Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship in a new way. You explained both of their perspectives so clearly, especially how their love changed over time. I liked how you connected it to society and the idea of disillusionment too, that was really smart. Overall this was super well written and easy to follow!
ReplyDeleteThis post really had me thinking about how love looks different to different people and how it can change overtime. I really liked the way you explained how Gatsby and Daisy did love each other at one point, but materialism got to them and eventually they did split ways. I especially like the way you added how Daisy acted the way she did because she wanted to believe in love. Overall, this was a really great read that gets one thinking about what love might look like to them.
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