The Great Gatsby Psychoanalytic Analysis Essay

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Psychoanalytic Type A: Analysis of Jay Gatsby To criticize psychoanalytically using type A, one would examine conflicts, characters, and symbols from a literary work. This literary criticism focuses solely on the work of literature. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is ultimately a story of, “The rise and fall of Jay Gatsby (Telgen).” Gatsby is a complex character who undergoes conflicts; and is connected with numerous symbols from the novel. Focusing specifically on Jay Gatsby, one can understand how the conflicts and symbols relating to him shape the actions he takes as a character. The actions Gatsby takes as a character are the result of three parts of his subconscious: id, superego, and ego. Gatsby’s id represents his irrational …show more content…
“He developed out of an idealization of the American Dream, and the Golden Girl who personified that (Telgen).” He had grand parties, he seemingly had Daisy, and he had wealth; all of these go into the idea of Gatsby symbolizing the american dream. Gatsby impresses Daisy with his beautiful house, “That huge place there? (Fitzgerald 90)” However, there is the decay of social and moral values, such as Gatsby’s empty pursuit of pleasure. “We also recognize in Gatsby the loss of our personal and national dreams (Baker).” Gatsby loses everything when he lost his “Golden Girl (Telgen)” who happens to be the most important factor of his american dream.
Gatsby’s subconscious favors his id more than his superego, this is shown through society judging his behavior as inappropriate. A conflict that results from that is Daisy choosing Tom over Gatsby, and Gatsby acting irrationally overall. Part of the reason that Daisy chose Tom is that he came from old money while Gatsby came from new money. Lastly, gatsby represents the demise of the perfect american dream when he gets shot and dies, with very few people attending his

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