Love In The Great Gatsby

The novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was written and set in the 1920’s, also known as ‘The Roaring Twenties’, where most Americans lived in cities than farms. There were parties at every door and the nation’s economy doubled. Fitzgerald created a novel full of social status, money, and love. However, it is said that only fools fall in love, and the biggest fool is Jay Gatsby himself. One of the biggest themes is how people will do anything for love. Gatsby’s love for fortune, Tom and Daisy’s marriage, as well as Gatsby’s love for his true love Daisy, represent their actions for love and how they all have consequences. The tragic hero, Jay Gatsby, chose money over everything and because of this, his fortune had mass consequences.

He worked for a very wealthy man, and Gatsby would inherit a big sum of money when he died, but the money was taken by the man’s family, so Gatsby stole for his riches. Gatsby was a very lonely man and he tried to fill his loneliness with trying, unsuccessfully, to win friends with his grand. Nick, Gatsby’s neighbour, explained how, “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars” (43), which highlights the extraordinary extent of Gatsby’s wealth and materialism. Gatsby never attended his own extravagant parties, but threw them for his lost love, Daisy, hoping she will come to one so he can pursue her. As said, he opened his house to everyone, rich, poor, young, or old, to fill his empty mansion so that he may feel something. He showed off the materialism he could afford to impress people, thus bringing up his social status. Though even with his undeniable love for money and what comes with the luxuries, he could never fill that empty feeling without being loved by Daisy. In addition, he tries to create a friendship with his neighbour, Nick, by making business or taking him on expensive

To the reader, Daisy appeared to be in love when her and Tom were first married. She married Tom after Gatsby had left for war, nonetheless the realities of the marriage, have worn on her. Daisy’s cousin, Nick, exclaimed that, “They had spent a year in France, for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together” (10). The reader’s introduction to the couple immediately catches reader’s attention as they were described them as a rich and bored, but privileged couple that only worries about money and social class. However Tom is quite restless which motivated him to have affairs, even soon after their honeymoon, while Daisy is weighed down by the knowledge of those affairs. He almost resents Daisy as he does not think about her while with other women. Yet it was not uncommon for men, especially the rich, to have affair, but this did not mean it did not make his wife upset or unloved. Because Daisy accidentally killed Myrtle, Tom’s mistress, meant that they could re-start their life somewhere else and hopefully fall back in love. Tom and Daisy may have some kind of affection and loyalty for each other, but it is not actual love. Despite all of the revelations about the affairs and other unhappiness in their marriage, it is known to the reader that they married because