Quote
"It was when the curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night – and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over" (Fitzgerald, 113).
The Good
|
The Bad
|
Gatsby's Role
Jay Gatsby, the famous man that no one knows about, is just a simple man with simple aspirations living in West Egg. He dreams of happiness, love and has already achieved prosperity. He was once a soldier who fell in love and got swept to war with the promise of his lover's love to be eternal, only to find her married when he returns. Daisy, Gatsby's lover from the war, has finally noticed him once again and are now becoming quite close as she goes "over quite often-in the afternoons" (114). Gatsby demands that she admits her love for him and lack there of for Tom, his current wife; however, this takes time for her to grasp and even then not fully. There is a constant tension between Jay and Tom because of their personalities and classes being opposites, but they are similar as they are both striving to achieve hedonism and Daisy's heart. This causes Gatsby to have anxiety and leaves him vulnerable in a sense. Ultimately it is this vulnerability and his idealistic personality that leads to his downfall just as he thinks he has achieved his life long goals once and for all.