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Examples Of Obsession In The Great Gatsby

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Examples Of Obsession In The Great Gatsby
Gatsby’s love for Daisy could be considered an “obsession.” If Gatsby truly cared for Daisy, he would love her enough to let her live her new life with Tom in peace. Gatsby’s love for Daisy is undeniable, but is it really for the right reasons? Gatsby goes out of his way to become the person that Daisy would actually want to be with. Love and obsession are two different things. Love is having an intense feeling where obsession is filling your mind with someone or something in a troubling way. It seems as though Gatsby continues to be obsessed with Daisy and he just can’t let her go. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests that Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby are in love, when in reality Gatsby has a crazy, obsessive love for her. Fitzgerald …show more content…
Gatsby talks to Tom and says “she never loved you [Tom], do you hear?” [Gatsby] cried. She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved any one except me!” (Fitzgerald 130). Gatsby is trying to justify why he is okay with Daisy marrying Tom instead of him. Gatsby assumes that the only reason Daisy married Tom was for his money and not for who he is as a person. Gatsby has a misconception that if he earns enough money, Daisy will want to be with him. He earns his money by doing illegal bootlegging. Even though Daisy is married and has a child with Tom, Gatsby is still trying to win her over. He’s trying everything he can to interfere with their marriage by telling Daisy “he wanted nothing less of [her] than that she should go to Tom and say: I never loved you...just as if it were five years ago” (109). Gatsby feels like Daisy deserves more than what Tom has to offer, he really does care for Daisy and seems to want the best for her. Gatsby just approaches it the wrong way. His approach produces many conflicts and does not end the way he wanted it to. Gatsby tries to recreate the past because he loved her even before he went to war. He’s thinking that they may still stand a chance to be together because of their slight history together in the past. Gatsby’s getting so carried away with “...his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. [Gatsby] had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out...no amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his heart” (170). He has put his whole heart into this so called “relationship” with Daisy. Gatsby tries to reel in the past to show her that he hasn’t changed as a person, where his wealth is the only thing that has changed. He has so much passion in him to try to impress her and do

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