Jay Gatsby’s Dangerous Illusions in The Great Gatsby

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Jay’s Dangerous Illusions in The Great Gatsby

America is a land of opportunity and hopes and dreams can become reality. The "American Dream" consists of the notion that the struggling poor can achieve financial success through hard work. F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, puts this premise to the test while also warning against the dangers of believing too passionately in any dream. The central character, Jay Gatsby, "proves a tragic hero who succeeds financially but fails emotionally when he attempts to hold onto something from the past"(Mizener 126). Gatsby not only possesses imaginative dreams, but also idealistic illusions. These illusions eventually result in the unfortunate downfall of Jay Gatsby.

In Fitzgerald's novel, Jay Gatsby's past, the time in which he is emotionally bound, is crucial to the understanding of his premature death. In 1917, just prior to his entrance into World War I, young Gatsby falls in love with the beautiful, affluent Daisy Fay. They have the type of love that is written about in fairy tales: "...He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God...At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete" (Fitzgerald 117). Jordan Baker, a good friend of Daisy's, also describes their previous love as unique when she says: "[Gatsby] looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime" (Fitzgerald 80). Circumstances caused Jay and Daisy to be separated, and when he returned from war, he was faced with the news that she had married another man. Nevertheless, Gatsby's flaw is hold...

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Fielder, Leslie. "Some Notes on F. Scott Fitzgerald." Mizener 70-76.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

F. Scott Fitzgerald Centenary Home Page. "The Great Gatsby's Theme". Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina, 1997.

"http://www.uni-ulm.de/schulen/gym/sgu/gatsb/klaus2.htm".

Mizener, Arthur, ed. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963.

Possnock, Ross. " 'A New World, Material Without Being Real': Fitzgerald's Critique of Capitalism in The Great Gatsby." Critical Essays on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1984. 201-213.

Rowe, Joyce A. "Delusions of American Idealism." In Readings on The Great Gatsby. edited by Katie de Koster. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press. 1998. 87-95.

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