Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The great gatsby character development
The great gatsby character development
The great gatsby character development
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The great gatsby character development
Gatsby changes his way of life to accomplish his dreams. He desires to turn back time and live in the past when he was with the perfect girl. Gatsby says, “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before” (Fitzgerald 117). He wants to recreate the time he spent with Daisy before he went to war. He believes that he has to become wealthy and successful in order to win her back. “To young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamor in the world” (106). At a young age, he sees this overwhelming yacht and decides that this is how he wants to live; he aspires to be as rich and live as extravagantly as the owner of that boat with the addition of Daisy by his side. Even though …show more content…
Jordan explains to Nick that “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (83). He frequently stares at the glowing green light of her dock and reminiscences on the past. He regularly throws outrageous parties hoping that one day she will cross his path. Gatsby luckily meets Nick who happens to know Daisy. He forces his way into Nick’s life, and Nick is able to reunite them. When Gatsby finally reconnects with Daisy, he starts acting differently. “He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room” (94). After spending much time alone with her, he attempts to persuade her to leave her husband. Gatsby doesn’t want to believe that Daisy has a life without him in it. “After his embarrassment and his unreasonable joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence. He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end ...” (97). He believed that she had loved him and only him the whole time they were apart, but that wasn’t reality. Although she was perfect for him in the past, Daisy has changed within the five years they were apart. Gatsby was unable to get her back because she was able to move on with her life. He dwelled on something that happened five years before and wouldn’t accept the fact that you can’t turn back
Gatsby’s true dream is made abundantly clear throughout the entire text; winning Daisy back and reigniting the flaming love they once had. Gatsby’s dream of having Daisy divides him from his power at one critical point in the text, “Then I turned back to Gatsby-and was startled by his expression. He looked-and this is said in all contempt for the babbled slander of his garden-as if he had ‘killed a man.’ For a moment the set of his face could be described in just that fantastic way” (134). As Gatsby is arguing with Tom over Daisy and whom she loves, he loses himself to his temper and emotion. He embarrasses himself and soils the image of himself that he's built up for others to see, and loses his perceived power. Gatsby also shows a lack of personal integrity, esteem, and power when he requests for Daisy to say she never loved Tom at any point in time, such as when he says, “‘Daisy, that’s all over now,’ he said earnestly. ‘It doesn’t matter any more. Just tell him the truth-that you never loved him-and it’s all wiped out forever’”
... But the "Great Gatsby" still believes he will obtain Daisy and happiness with the gain of money. It seems Gatsby did not necessarily want Daisy back, but the time he had with Daisy all those years ago. He wanted to relive his past. He wanted to have his past self love the past Daisy in the past years, and it cannot be because time has moved them forward.
Upon first meeting Gatsby we find him staring at the green light at the end of the dock owned by Daisy. The exact wording of this moment is “But A I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone-he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling” (Fitzgerald, 19-20). This instance alone shows nothing, save a longing, but when combined with the next few chapters it shows Gatsby obsession with all things related to Daisy. Another instance of Gatsby's longing for Daisy is showed in that his parties are meant to be for her. This conversation between Nick and Gatsby from late in the book shows Gatsby's concern when Daisy is actually at his party ““She didn’t like it,” he said immediately. “Of course she did.” “She didn’t like it,” he insisted. “She didn’t have a good time.” He was silent, and I guessed at his unutterable depression” (108-109). The major flaw in Gatsby's plan is that Daisy is old money, and old money and new money...
Gatsby was infatuated with Daisy Buchanan, this is why he moved to the West Egg. He was a man of great wealth who threw parties on weekends for everyone to come. He found out that his next door neighbor, Nick Carraway, was a second cousin once removed of Daisy. He has Nick arrange a tea party for Daisy to come so that they two can meet up once again. While they are waiting for Daisy to get there, Gatsby gets nervous, afraid of what to say and what to do. Even after she arrives he acts as though he’s afraid to say or do the wrong thing, that if he messes up he’ll never have a chance to get back what they once had.
To reach his idea of what happiness is,Gatsby must go back in time and relive an old dream. To do this Jay Gatsby is a man who does not wish to live in the present because it offers him nothing. He spends the majority of his adult life trying to recapture his past and,eventually,dies in his pursuit of it. The reason he wishes to relive the past is because long ago he had a love affair with the rich Daisy Buchanan,who he fell deeply in love with. However,he knew that they could never get married due to the difference in their economic and social statuses.
Based on the consequences of the past, Gatsby’s priority is to earn a place in high ranks in order to win Daisy. Remaining faithful through the years he endures apart from her, Gatsby builds a reputation of being affluent, for her. He expresses his loyalty towards Daisy through the wealth he establishes, for her. In the hopes that she will return to him after seeing his newly gained assets, Gatsby flaunts his mansion and possessions to Daisy. Everything he earns plays an important role in displaying his wealth to Daisy, as well as his dedication to her. Gatsby devotes several years to earning a fortune for Daisy, never deviating from his original motive of living the past, except with Daisy. However, Gatsby becomes “dazed” because her physical existence erases the importance of his belongings. Even though Gatsby’s valuables once signified the path to Daisy, because Daisy is now with him, the items mean nothing. Gatsby proves consistency in his love for Daisy as she is the motivating force that occupies his life. Gatsby’s persistent hope gives him the belief that he can and will live his happy ending with Daisy. When Gatsby’s imagination of Daisy does not align with the existing Daisy, he tells Nick, “Can’t repeat the past?...Why of course you can!” (110).
Daisy is yet another character seemingly confused by love. When she was only seventeen she fell in love with a young Gatsby. She left him because he was not wealthy enough for her blood. She later married another man who is wealthy. Several years later when Gatsby comes back into Daisy’s life she is ready to leave her husband. It seems odd that if he wasn’t good enough for her when she was a girl, that he suddenly would be now that she is a grown woman with a husband and child. Could it be perhaps because he is now just as wealthy, or even more so, than her husband. It is a distinct possibility Daisy is mistaking her love for money, for love for Gatsby.
Gatsby believed that Daisy still loved him, just like she did five years ago. He thinks that history can repeat itself, and be like the past. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t realize that many things had changed over that span of five years. However, history doesn’t necessarily echo itself.
Daisy is not pure and perfect like Gatsby thought she was in the past. From Gatsby's illusions of the past preoccupying all his thoughts, he forgets about the key dimension he exists in which is the present. Although Gatsby was persistent on reliving the past, Gatsby vaguely lived for the present. This is apparent when he cancels his biology by leaving home, changing his name, and leaving his heritage behind which was not done by following the past.
In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby functions under the illusion that Daisy is perfect and is living in such distress because she was forced to marry Tom due to Gatsby being away at war and being poor. This illusion leads Gatsby to spend his entire adult life pining after Daisy and cheating his way up the social and economic ladder in order to win her over. Gatsby believes that Daisy will someday come back to him because she loves him so much and they will live happily ever after together.
Love makes people do crazy things. Gatsby spent 5 years waiting to see Daisy again. When Gatsby moved to West Egg he threw many parties in hopes that Daisy would show up, but she never did. After an extensive amount of time Nick finally got Daisy over to see Gatsby again. Gatsby had spent all this time thinking about what he would do when Daisy finally arrived at his home, then when she finally did he almost backed out. He dissatisfied himself with everything that he had and thought that bringing Daisy over for tea was a mistake. He had his doubts about Daisy; he thought that he wasn’t good enough to have her and that he would dishearten her. Gatsby was stuck on a love that was all made up in his mind; a love that would only bring tears and disillusionment.
Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald implies that at one point maybe Daisy and Gatsby were together, in the end Gatsby’s wealth and status get in the way of him and Daisy being together. Gatsby’s not truly in love with Daisy but more of what she represents in her wealth and status.
Think about being separated from the one you love. You thought this person would be in your life forever and always. You may have spent days and weeks thinking and planning your future together, but then one day they disappear from your life. That person has moved on, and chose to live a life that no longer including you. It would be assumed in most cases that the love of your life is no longer the person they were before, so should you stick around and try to win them back? In the case of Gatsby and Daisy, Gatsby did not realize Daisy would be different, and although he still thinks he is in love with Daisy, is he in love with her for who she is now, or the idea of everything she used to be the answer may shock you, and this is all due to the unreal expectations he has for her to fill. Because Gatsby is not in love with who she is at the time they are reunited. Instead, he is caught up in the idea of who she used to be. The actions of Gatsby, how he talks about her, and the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy once they are back together again show who Gatsby is really in love with, and that is the old Daisy.
Starting from the first day that he meets her, Gatsby does everything within his power to please Daisy. Nothing has changed for him as far as his feelings for Daisy are concerned, even though it has been five years since their first meeting, and despite the fact that she has married Tom Buchanan. He “revalue[s] everything in his house according to the amount of response it...
Gatsby, ever since his first encounter with Daisy, could not think about anything else but spending his life with her, as there was something different about her than all the other girls. After his long absence, Daisy married the stern Tom Buchanan, believing that she would never encounter Gatsby ever again after waiting so long for his return. Once Gatsby was in West Egg, he ran into Daisy and then wanted to try to win her over again and to get her to leave Tom and marry him. He would try his best to get her love again with all of his "new money" as well as the extravagant lifestyle he lived. Throughout the entire novel, he displayed his persistence in his goal the many times he would go out with Daisy: driving around his white Rolls Royce, always wearing his finest suits, inviting her to his colossal mansion, and bringing her to lavish parties. "I thought of Gatsby 's wonder when he first picked out the green light. . . his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it."(Fitzgerald 189) It was in this quote that Nick, the novel 's narrator, confirmed Gatsby 's undying hope for some kind of future where he and Daisy are happily together. Gatsby never gave up on that idea and always worked to making it a reality, all the way until his death, when he was shot dead by