Desire In The Great Gatsby

Superior Essays
The Significance of Class and Desire and Their Relationship in The Great Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby, By F. Scott Fitzgerald, social and economic class play a large role in a person’s reputation, daily life, and acquaintances. However, In cases such as Tom Buchanan’s, class is sometimes tarnished by the strong grip of lust, and selfishness. Often when it comes to class one desires the opposite of their own identity. However love is one of the only things that can not cross the boundary of class.

Even Though the Narrator of the story is Nick Carraway, and the title of the story is The Great Gatsby, one could argue that the anecdote truly revolves around Daisy buchanan, whose beauty would make the brightest star seem dull by comparison.
…show more content…
They are like a cash printer that pulls perfectly happy people into their world proceeding send them through the machine, laugh when the poor soul gets chopped into pieces and be spit out the other end having felt so close to money but never actually owning it, until finally they’ve had enough so they go talk about it over an expensive bottle of champagne. To the point, the Buchanans use their wealth to shield themselves from the real world. Nick Carraway on the other hand, does not concede into money, for he seeks it out. From the beginning of the story the reader understands that Nick is drawn to money. The bond business was the gold rush of the 1920s, bringing money-hungry young men from all over the country to New York City. Nick was one of those men, a recent Yale graduate who moved to West Egg New York. When Gatsby invites Nick out to lunch, the first thing that Nick notices is Gatsby's beautiful yellow car. In Nick's account of the morning, he describes, “At nine o'clock, one morning late in July, …show more content…
Anybody in New York is aware that Tom is having an affair Myrtle Wilson, however why does Tom, a man derived from absurd amounts of wealth, desire Myrtle, the low down wife of a car repairman. Tom happens to desire the opposite of his own identity. The first example of this, is on Tom and Daisy’s honeymoon when to has a night with one of the chambermaids at the hotel where Daisy and Tom were staying. In Jordan’s account of the incident, she explains, “Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road one night, and ripped a front wheel off his car. The girl who was with him got into the papers, too, because her arm was broken she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel.” (4, 41) It is the girl along with Myrtle’s coarseness that Tom desires. He wishes to be free, and he is reckless in doing so, for he cannot control his temptations. Tom has an affair with myrtle for numerous reasons, including sexual pleasure. However, that is not the drive of his affair. Tom spends a large amount of time and money on Myrtle. For example, “The fact that he had one [a mistress] was insisted upon wherever he was known. His acquaintances resented the fact that he turned up in popular restaurants with her and, leaving her at a table, sauntered about, chatting with whomever he knew.” (2,12) Here the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Daisy Buchanan is the cousin of the narrator, Nick Carraway, and the wife of Tom Buchanan. She is much like every character in the book and emphasizes the themes presented throughout The Great Gatsby. Despite her beauty, she is perhaps one of the most selfish and fickle characters in the book. One quote that shows Daisy’s selfishness is at the beginning of The Great Gatsby. Nick goes to Daisy’s house for the first time since he came to East Egg.…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Myrtle uses her sexuality where she otherwise lacks power to try and gain a more luxurious life. Her sexual power causes Tom an otherwise reasonably respectable man from a well respected family to be unfaithful to his wife and go off on a ‘spree’ with Myrtle. Her power over Tom gained her some luxuries such as an apartment and a dog but unfortunately for Myrtle that is about the extent of what she will get out of her relationship with Tom. Her willingness to leave her incredibly hard working and faithful husband outlines her as a person who is willing to do anything just for a small slice of the american…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the 1920s or as it was also known, The Roaring 20s, many people were finding ways to make money. Some made money through the stock market or becoming bootleggers, how the person had obtained their wealth affected their relationships with others. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald social class has an effect on relationships. It affects how people treat each other and how they are viewed by one another. In the novel, there are three main types of people that are grouped either old or new money and the lower class.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Within The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a hero by the name of Gatsby and a villain by the name of Tom. This time, however, the gorgeous dame, Daisy, chooses the villain. Though this may seem like a twist, looking at it from Daisy perspective makes it clear that she had no intention of leaving her beloved wrongdoer. Tom and Gatsby are more alike than they care to admit, but they each have their own traits defining them as their own unique character.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Myrtles obsession with money leads her to forget the concept of love. Tom Buchanan serves as a devil who gives Myrtle worldly possessions so Myrtle becomes confused as to what true family means. Myrtle, although clearly abused, follows Tom wherever he goes. When Myrtle voices Daisy’s name out loud, “Tom Buchanan [breaks] her nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 37). Although these events take place, Myrtle still goes with him and forgets how unremorseful and abusive he is.…

    • 1136 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As we are introduced to Gatsby, he tells Nick all about his past life from where he grew up, to how he ended up in New York. Progressively as the book continues, the reader learns that Gatsby has been lying about his life. We find this out when Nick is asking Gatsby about his upbringing. While Gatsby explained his past Nick starts to feel as though Gatsby is lying about where he's from, and how he came into his money, because his facts were so absurd’ "…

    • 1415 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This passage connects to two important themes which correspond to social classes and wealth in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The social classes represent the different types of people in each class and their different types of behaviors. Wealth is also an important theme to the book as it represents greed for money. Greed for wealth consumes people by making them want a more luxurious life. Gatsby’s overload of money is wasted on all this entertainment for his guests and house just so that he can impress Daisy who is not even present in his parties.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The line between love and obsession is often blurred. It is difficult for a person to know what he or she is feeling. Often a feeling can be misinterpreted to be something it is not. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is obsessed with Daisy Buchanan, he is clinging to the past, desperately trying to relive the romance of his youth. His obsession is demonstrated on multiple occasions throughout the novel.…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Greed In The Great Gatsby

    • 1041 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Myrtle maliciously talked about Mr. Wilson as a “good for nothing” to Tom when recalling how “he could not even buy his own suit” (50). Being involved with Tom feeds her short-term happiness, but her bitterness is taken out on the poor environment she comes home to and her husband, expecting him to fulfill the materialistic goods he cannot afford. The affair with Tom eventually leads to her death. She rushes in front of the yellow car thinking it is Tom’s wife, Daisy, resulting in Myrtle getting run over by the car (160). Myrtle’s desire in being Tom’s only love causes her death.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Love In The Great Gatsby

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Even though Tom is married to Daisy, it doesn't stop him from going after what he desires. He is having an affair with a girl named Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle and her husband live in the Valley of Ashes, and are very poor. However, all Myrtle wants is to be a rich woman who can wear fancy clothes and jewelry, and she knows that Tom is the exact person to provide her with all the riches that she wants, so she uses Tom to reach her American Dream of being an upper class women. Tom buys Myrtle materialistic items, which is proved when Myrtle states, “I want to get one of those dogs.…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Grass Isn’t Always Greener “It excited him, too, that many men have already loved Daisy- it increased her value in his eyes” -F. Scott Fitzgerald Everyone knows the old saying “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” While that is mostly false, Jay Gatsby, from The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), does believe so. He enjoys knowing that other people want what he has.…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Just like all of the people in the novel who are fixated on fame, Nick takes pleasure in noting that he has “a partial view of [his] lawn, and [a] consoling proximity [to a] millionaire”(5). Not long after, Nick sees Gatsby for the first time. Gatsby is alone in the dark trembling, yearning for something with outstretched arms, which is later discovered to be the companionship of Daisy. This shows a great contrast between Gatsby’s legacy and life, the first being rich and full and the latter being deficient and lonely. This idea is reinforced when nick meets Gatsby’s father ,“who’s pride in… his’s possessions was continually increasing”(173) and seemed to make a greater impact on him than the death of his son.…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tom isolates himself from Daisy by his affair with Myrtle, shown by him physically leaving Daisy at the table at dinner time. This corresponds…

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In contrast to commonly held beliefs, the fact remains that that money does in fact buy happiness, as well as pretty much everything else in the world. While shocking to many and sure to destroy many people’s dreams, lots of people have known this for a while. Although class may seem fluid and transmutable, in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald represents social class as an impermeable barrier and contributes to the theme of the novel that American society has fundamental flaw. Fitzgerald displays wealth and social class as an inescapable thing through the metaphor of West Egg and East Egg. The narrator, Nick writes, “I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires ... [but]…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    F. Scott Fitzgerald exhibits a glimpse of the American society in the 1920s in his novella The Great Gatsby; set ‘In the city that never sleeps’, he exposes the social hierarchy full of injustices, consumerism and excess. The novel tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a man whose desire to be reunited with his long lost love brings him from poverty to unimaginable wealth. Sadly being married to unsensitive Tom Buchanan, Gatsby’s beloved Daisy does not bring him happiness, but eventually, death. Fitzgerald deliberately sets up the story to show how each distinct social class -old, new and no money- has its own problems and uses various settings to contribute to the novel’s themes about the disapproved social climbers and the abysmal difference between…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays