Recapturing the past is a universal desire that has captivated humans for centuries. Whether it’s reminiscing one’s childhood, immersing oneself in history, or wishing for a redo, people have always been drawn to the idea of recapturing the past. Perhaps this is because the past represents a simpler time, a time when life seemed more manageable and less chaotic? F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel, The Great Gatsby, discloses the consequences of being enthralled by the past as many are falsely led to believe the possibility of reliving the past. Through characters, motifs, and symbols, Fitzgerald analyzes the ruination caused from the obsession of retrieving the past.
Fitzgerald primarily establishes the pernicious effects of recapturing the
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This is first displayed at one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties, where Jordan Baker reveals to Nick that Gatsby only hosts these kinds of parties because “he half expect[s] [Daisy] to wander into one of [them]” (78). Fitzgerald’s early presentation of hidden connotations in the words “wander” and “half expects”, initially reveals Gatsby’s spontaneous plan and his cluelessness on truly how to achieve his past back. Continuing to attempt a rekindlement, Gatsby buys a mansion on West Egg “so that Daisy would be just across the bay”(78), as though that would allow Gatsby to be closer to Daisy. So, upon Gatsby’s request, Nick reintroduces Gatsby and Daisy. During their reunion, Daisy is surprised Gatsby remembers her because they “haven’t met for many years”(87) and her memories of him are abstract and cloudy. Gatsby, however, has been so infatuated with her that he remembers the exact month they parted and makes it clear that it will be “five years next November”(87) since he last saw her. Through Gatsby’s remembrance of the past, Fitzgerald conveys how memories can be very different even if they revolve around the same event. As well as that these memories, like Gatsby, can have a perpetual effect on a person leaving them to believe the past is the present. Thus, …show more content…
Fitzgerald divulged into Gatsby’s idolization of Daisy through the usage of hyperboles to create emphasis on his disappointment when she did not live up to the growing illusion of her. Nick attempts to reason with Gatsby and explain that “you can’t repeat the past”(110), but Gatsby can not acknowledge the gap that five years has driven between him and Daisy, and the inevitable fate that things will never be the same as they used to be. Parading the idea of recapturing the past, Fitzgerald employs foreshadowing through Nick who pleads that you can not repeat the past, foreshadowing Gatsby’s fate. However, Gatsby continues to try and persuade Daisy into leaving Tom and wishes “to go back to Louisville and be married from her house - just as if it were five years ago” (109). He is reluctant to believe that Daisy ever remotely loved Tom and argues with Tom that “she’s never loved [him]”, but Daisy admits she does love Tom due to their past together (130). At this point, Fitzgerald illustrates
Although, he still achieved his original goal, Gatsby’s vast ambitions took a different route when his goals begun to solely revolve around getting Daisy back. After one of his parties, Nick discovers that Gatsby aspires to go back to the days when Daisy and him were deeply in love without anything hindering them, “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy,” (110). Gatsby’s life, which he had spent pursuing his dreams of mass prosperity, now centers exclusively on Daisy and his continual pining after her. Unlike Daisy who has Tom, her husband, to fall back on, Gatsby only has Daisy and has spent the past five years of his life utterly devoted to seeing her again.
Gatsby’s life and The Great Gatsby revolved around his obsession with the past, which inevitably impacted
Almost five years! There must have been some moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams not through her fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion"(Fitzgerald 95). This explains how over the years Gatsby has created a fictional image of Daisy. Also, since now he has Daisy, he is dissatisfied because she is not the perfect girl that he built her up to be. While Gatsby and Nick are talking about the past Gatsby starts to speak about how he wants to past to be the present once again.
Gastby’s romanization of the past with Daisy has been causing him to repeat the past to be able to impress her. Within The Great Gatsby, Gatsby has been romanticizing his past to Nick, while also trying to replicate it within the present. His way of looking at the past is through what is known as a Rosy Retrospection, which is known to give a person expectations that are difficult to follow. There are two parts of his past that make him the way he is today, in which he longs for Daisy.
Gatby finds this ridiculous and can not believe that someone would think he “‘Can’t repeat the past?’” and responds to Nick ‘Why of course you can!’” (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby’s memories of his past with Daisy are linked to his feelings of hope and optimism. He associates Daisy with a time in his life when he was full of potential and believed that he could
Fitzgerald uses a flashback to reward readers with Gatsby’s and Daisy’s long-anticipated history, finally explaining why Gatsby is so dead-set on winning Daisy back, and why he feels betrayed by time. Nick reveals that the name Jay Gatsby is really a pseudonym for James Gatz. Under the assumed name, Gatsby believes he can achieve success to a level worthy of attaining Daisy, rather than be the “penniless young man without a past” (Fitzgerald 149). However, in his pursuit of a past, Gatsby found himself resenting it because after making a name for himself in the war effort, he was sent to Oxford rather than back home. All-the-while, Daisy, back home, engulfs herself in an “artificial world” of parties, champagne, flowers, and orchestras that “summed up the sadness and suggestiveness of life” (Fitzgerald 151).
Daisy however, very heartbroken and anxious to start a family, failed to wait for Gatsby while he was at war and she vulnerably fell in love with Tom and his money. Throughout the time Gatsby was away she grew and developed mentally, leaving him to love someone that no longer existed. When Gatsby says “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!”(Fitzgerald 110)it shows how his imagination has affected his sense of reality. He became lost in the idea that he could get Daisy back and things would automatically return to how they were before he went away.
Gatsby is constantly trying to revive his past relationship with Daisy, which ends up taking him away from reality. Gatsby’s obsession with living in the past and daydreaming about Daisy shows when he is talking to Tom and mentions that, “Your wife doesn’t love you … she’s never loved you. She loves me” (Fitzgerald 130). Gatsby needs Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him so they can make up for the past time they lost together. Later, finding out the true reason “Gatsby bought that [mansion is] so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 78).
Imagine, all of a sudden, your past lover pops into your life again, wanting you to forget about your spouse and child and start a new life with them. In the famous American novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby constructs an elaborate plan to have Daisy Buchanan meet him after five years had past, as if it happened to be coincidence. Gatsby gets in touch with people who are related to Daisy to join in his plot to get Daisy to meet Gatsby without Daisy’s husband, Tom, knowing. During the five years, Gatsby transforms himself from a penniless, poverty-stricken man into a filthy rich, wealthy gentleman in order to have countless parties to hopefully get Daisy to come and reconnect with him. Fitzgerald reveals Gatsby’s feelings
‘Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now-- isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.’ She began to sob helplessly.
Nick sticks out in the sense that he cannot buy into the manipulation of time. He says to Gatsby, “You can't repeat the past” as Gatsby passionately replies, “Why of course you can!” (Fitzgerald 110). This begins to reveal Gatsby’s obsession with getting the past back. He lives in the past, where he had Daisy, and refuses to form any new connections because they will take him away from his ‘reality’ with her.
‘Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’ (Fitzgerald 116). Gatsby was essentially asking Daisy to completely forget about the five years that she spent with Tom at the drop of a hat.
To further explain, Fitzgerald captures materialism-induced corruption with
Once Daisy begins to see Gatsby on a regular basis, Gatsby begins to encourage Daisy to leave Tom and create a life with him. In the novel, Nick observes, “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should 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.” Gatsby believes he can provide Daisy with a lavish and happy life that her unfaithful husband could never give
Gatsby “believes that he can bring the past into the present—to regain Daisy Fay” (Wang 1).