Gatsby is praised by people in town for his amazing parties, but as a person, he is a shell of a man. Expedient methods are used in his attempt at dispelling his loneliness. Perhaps because he is an outsider trying so hard to rekindle his relationship with Daisy and he chases after class and wealth, he becomes isolated. His story is one of tragedy and self-destruction that leads him to his demise. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby” Jay Gatsby is tortured by his loneliness which is caused by his dishonesty, materialism, and his obsession with the past.
To begin, Gatsby is not different from any of the liars in East Egg. He is something of an enigma and his mysterious characterization only serves to push people away from him emotionally. As he explains his made-up life to Nick, he reveals his lying habits. Nick says, “He looked at me sideways—and I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. He hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford,’ or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him, after all,” (Fitzgerald 65). Gatsby creates doubt in Nick’s mind and it’s his lack of authenticity that prevents him from forming profound bonds with others. He just barely won Nick over when he decided to come clean and tell him the truth, that his old money was really new and illegal, as Nick narrates, “he told me at a time of confusion, when I had reached the point of believing everything and nothing about him,” (101). His reluctance to come clean to his peers about his job, his education, his money and past is what makes everyone so untrusting of him and hesitant to approach him at his parties. In addition, it sends Tom on an aggressive hunt to expose Gatsby, which proves to have worse consequences than the rumours spread about him as his revelation puts distance between him and all the other characters, isolating him and eventually causing his death in a domino effect as his life begins to spiral out of control. When Gatsby dies alone it is heartbreaking… but expected. In a world where so many lies are excused amongst the rich, so long as you are rich and not an outsider, a wealthy man who lies about his rise to wealth is destined to be abandoned.
Furthermore, Gatsby’s obtained riches and omnipotent status proves to be a fatuous attempt at fulfilment. At his famous house parties, his hospitality is shown through alcohol, entertainment and a big beautiful house. His events are visceral experiences and grab the attention of everyone, yet he cannot hold that attention himself for even a second. Nick states that at these parties, girls are quick to take up random dancing partners, but Gatsby they stay clear of. He’s nothing more than an object in the house to be seen occasionally, if at all, and never heard. Although people do love talking about him. These extravagant parties and Gatsby’s charming decorum are desperate attempts to reach out to anyone willing to cure his loneliness. The novel leads readers to believe it is only for Daisy, but as Gatsby endeavours to maintain a relationship with Nick, one might argue that he is extending a hand for companionship to anyone entering his house, invited or not, yet his hand is always left cold and utterly alone. This can be seen after the party ends in chapter three, “A sudden emptiness seemed to flow now from the windows and the great doors, endowing with complete isolation the figure of the host who stood on the porch, his hand up in a formal gesture of farewell,” (55). Gatsby’s house is a major symbol for his loneliness, it is large and glamourous, he’s meticulous in his care for its appearance, but on the inside, no one is home but him. Even as he begins to actively interact with Nick and Daisy, they stay in Nick’s house. Just as Gatsby does not or cannot let anyone behind his wall of lies of persona to his true self, he struggles with actually letting anyone in his house in intimate, personal settings without loud music and drinks lining up for a hundred or so strangers. His ties with materialism unequivocally create distance between him and the guests, such as the one Nick calls up to attend Gatsby’s funeral much later on, “one gentleman to whom I telephoned implied that he had got what he deserved. However, that was my fault, for he was one of those who used to sneer most bitterly at Gatsby on the courage of Gatsby's liquor and I should have known better than to call him," (169). Out of the countless guests, Gatsby only succeeds in reaching out to one, Nick, as no one from East Egg attends his funeral. Those who used to exploit his hospitality don’t even care that he died, and feel no connection to him. Gatsby has no one but himself in the end and might have made good use of the lesson that things are temporary, but friendships can transcend time if they are authentic and true.
Finally, what caused all the futile attempts at gaining people’s approval and attention through lies and flashy things? What was it all for? Well, there appears to be one monolithic goal that drives Gatsby to do all these things, that is the past. The past, that is years away and already withering away in everybody’s mind but for Gatsby. Nick speaks about Gatsby’s fondness over his past with Daisy, “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. His life had been confused and distorted since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…” (110). The Daisy of the past is a symbol of what readers can assume was the happiest time of Gatsby’s life. His memory of her, who she used to be is an ethereal reverie and he can’t fathom the idea that for her, time might not have stopped when they parted ways. That she had left him behind and gotten on with her life. He is stuck on the idea of her, and by getting her back with his possessions and new status he may regain his old contentment and the person he used to be, who wasn’t alone, who could build relationships, love and be loved. Gatsby may believe that Daisy unilaterally causes his loneliness and suffering by her separation from him (though it is not her intention to hurt him) but to put her at fault and make her the soul cause and cure of his quest in fulfilment furtively dismissed his own failure to rely on himself to create his own happiness and puts a burden on Daisy which she is not responsible for. One person is not the answer to his fundamental alienation. By Gatsby’s death, his endless fight to obtain some comfort for himself by trying to go back in time is made abundantly clear, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter–tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past,” (180). This quote can be interpreted as a failure and tragedy. Gatsby strives so hard to reach the green light he has never been able to touch. The green light, which here can be interpreted as his happiness in the past, where he was not alone, but in love with Daisy, may have been tangible to him years ago, but isn’t any longer. He cannot let go and thus is frozen in time forever through death, now unable to ever change. But perhaps he had been frozen long before, on an angstful day when he left a warm house for a battlefield.
There is a quote in chapter one, it paints Gatsby well, “he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone—he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling,” (20-21). No one wants to be alone. It is a void Gatsby cannot pull himself out of. A darkness he is submerged in. His fake life story and large house cannot assuage his pain. He had a precarious rise to wealth, and all for nothing. Because he won’t trust that others will accept his real upbringing, and because he chooses to hide behind his money and carelessly, almost pathetically or pitifully chase an old life that is already gone, he’s condemned himself to both emotional and physical isolation.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott). The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner, 1953.
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