Obsession has been used as a controversial tool in literature for many years. It provokes strong feelings in people because of the different ways obsession can take form, whether it be soft and affectionate, or aggressive and violent. Often, the targets of obsession are females. In The Great Gatsby, The Virgin Suicides, Lolita and Fear, there are men who obsess over a female character. These female characters are all shown to be powerless, whether it be at the hands of their obsessor or because of other factors in their lives. In The Great Gatsby and The Virgin Suicides, the theme of obsession is prevalent. It is shown through Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy and the boys obsession with the Lisbon girls. In both of these novels, these people …show more content…
The boys obsession is unrequited, with the narrator noting that “while we pretended we hadn 't been looking for them at all, that we didn 't know they existed.” This is in contrast with Gatsby, whose love returned by Daisy during the novel. Gatsby’s and the boy’s obsessions are both used in order to fill a hole left in their lives: Gatsby feels incomplete without Daisy, and the Lisbon sisters were taken away from the boys very abruptly, which left them needing to find out what happened. The men who show their obsessions in Fear and Lolita do so in a more aggressive manner. Humbert, who has always had in interest in young girls, is instantly taken with Dolores, the 12 year old daughter of his landlady - “It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.” She is the whole reason for his decision to stay at the house, as he is initially put off by her mother, the domineering Charlotte. Humbert takes extreme measures by marrying Charlotte for the sole purpose of staying close to Dolores. After Charlotte’s death, Humbert takes Dolores on the road for an indefinite road trip. He is so attached to her that he becomes easily panicked when he is faced with the possibility of her leaving him. This causes him to be incredibly possessive over her, limiting her interaction with friends her own age to prevent
The story The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes you through the life of the protagonist of the novel, Jay Gatsby, who is shot to death in the end. Who was really the reason for Gatsby’s death? There are many of reasons that lead up to Gatsby’s death and several people who are considered to have caused it. Although George Wilson physically killed him, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby himself all take part in the death. Tom’s anger, Daisy’s carelessness, and Gatsby’s idea of the American Dream all contribute to his death in the end.
The Great Gatsby As A Tragedy A hurried read of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby can generate a tragic impression. The deaths of three of the main characters and the failure of Gatsby and Daisy's romance can be viewed as tragic. However, a deeper analysis of the book reveals a much deeper tragedy.
In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald he shows Gatsby’s obsessive feelings for Daisy by all the unremarkable actions he displays, and his incapability to love someone else. It all started in autumn of 1917 in Louisville, Kentucky. Gatsby was a lieutenant in the war and Daisy was just 18 years old. Even then Gatsby bestowed the same infatuation for Daisy that he does now, five years later. Over the course of those five years Gatsby did everything he could to become wealthy so that maybe he could find his way to Daisy again. What he is unaware of is that Daisy hardly remembers her time with him, and shows little thought towards him. His obsession for Daisy never changed, but his lifestyle certainly did.
In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship is portrayed as obsessive, materialistic, and ineffective. Gatsby displays the quality of obsessiveness within the relationship by consuming himself with the desire to bring back the image of Daisy he fell in love with and his romance with her that had existed in the past. The intensity of Gatsby’s obsession is displayed when Gatsby invites Daisy and Nick over to his house. Nick observes that Gatsby “had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock” (Fitzgerald 92). Nick’s examination of Gatsby obsession reveals that Gatsby has had this intense
Gatsby had never met anyone like Daisy, he fell in love almost immediately but after leaving her and not getting to know her as well as he should have, he began getting more obsessed. Knowing
Regarding Gatsby, it is his lack of emotional satisfaction that shapes his obsession and greed toward Daisy. Gatsby’s goal is to regain his former romantic relationship he shares with Daisy, as he truly believes that it is possible to repeat the past (Fitzgerald 110). In fact, during the last five years, he builds himself a facade through illegal means to impress Daisy. Nevertheless, his greed for the exclusivity of Daisy backfires. Daisy says that “ ‘[he] [wants] too much!’... ‘[she] [loves] [him] now--- isn’t that enough?’ ” (132). When Gatsby asks Daisy to affirm that she only loves him, she could not confirm the statement truthfully, thus reducing Gatsby’s efforts throughout the years to naught. Gatsby’s commitment for Daisy’s affection is the very cause of Daisy’s rejection.
Through marriages, relationships, and friendships the author questions rather love itself is unstable or is it the way the characters experience love and desire problematic? I choose to write on this because the way that Frederick Douglass portrays them is a phenomenal complex that will make you reconsider true love. The relationship at the very heart of The Great Gatsby is, of course, Gatsby and Daisy, or more specifically, Gatsby’s tragic love of (or obsession with) Daisy, which is a love that drives the novel’s plot.
There is a fine line between love and lust. If love is only a will to possess, it is not love. To love someone is to hold them dear to one's heart. In The Great Gatsby, the characters, Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan are said to be in love, but in reality, this seems to be a misconception. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays the themes of love, lust and obsession, through the character of Jay Gatsby, who confuses lust and obsession with love. By the end of the novel however, Jay Gatsby is denied his "love" and suffers an untimely death. The author interconnects the relationships of the various prominent characters to support these ideas.
The Great Gatsby is a novel about a man who tries to win over a woman
Obsession is defined as “an unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someone” (1), and is a prominent theme (in) The Great Gatsby, Enduring Love and Othello. For example, in all three, there is a great desire to obtain things which are unattainable, and in turn this fuels their obsession and causes it to intensify. Furthermore, the act of being obsessive is a common human characteristic, which enforces the fact that obsession is a key element throughout all the texts. Othello has the desire to seek revenge. Fitzgerald shows the desire of lust for Gatsby to have Daisy, whilst also allowing him to accomplish a social desire of fulfilling the American Dream, which was typical of the 1920’s as people were searching for wealth
Famous love stories have all been recollected for their dramatic disasters; The Great Gatsby is no acception. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work has fell in the hands of millions of curious readers around the globe for the last century. Love and obsession are harmless on their own; however, when the two mix together, unexpected monstrosities are a common result. The Great Gatsby is a terrific example of this concept. The main character, Jay Gatsby, uses his love and obsession toward Daisy, to fight through the emptiness in his heart. Given his characteristics, his true love for Daisy will never be realized.
Love is a very powerful and common thing that most people go through in their lives. It can eventually affect one’s actions and even their thoughts. This is called obsession: being devoted to something that continuously preoccupies one’s mind. This obsession is portrayed through Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, he characterizes Gatsby’s feelings towards Daisy as love at first, but later as obsession through Gatsby’s actions, his thoughts, and past memories with Daisy.
Wanting a connection and attention from others drives you to turn yourself into someone you may not always like. Lust and sex dumb you down to feel good but eventually kill you off in mental ways that you only crave it more. In “Lust” by Susan Minot, she develops her character not by physical appearance, but by her relationships with other characters as well as her own actions and feelings. She makes herself nameless and faceless, but gives us enough to understand her emotional detachment. Her character explores many fun lustful relationships and sexual encounters but that doesn’t fill the hollow void of despair to find love that she has, making her more helpless and distressed in search of a connection.
While most people chase love, few know that it is foolish. One should not chase after love, but allow it to find them naturally. Obviously, Gatsby was none the wiser about that bit of advice. In the story, we see Gatsby chase after his supposedly long lost love, but is she truly his love? With how little time they spent together, how much they’ve grown throughout the years, and all that has happened in both of their lives, does Gatsby truly love Daisy, a married mother of one? Their star-crossed story is the perfect example of a hold on the past destroying a future. This essay will explore their strange and twisted romance while supporting one simple fact. Jay Gatsby was not in love with Daisy.
The biggest plot point of the book can be condensed to Gatsby’s desire to regain Daisy’s love. This can be related to the