The Great Gatsby Psychoanalytic Analysis

We humans tend to have a natural attraction to wealth, success, power, and beauty, hence why we are so intrigued by the main characters in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, such as Jay Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Bachanan, and Nick Carraway. Everyone in the novel is fascinated by his mysterious and charming allure, making Gatsby a significant part in their lives due to his riches and power, ultimately resulting to his status. However, not everyone is who they seem, which is a part of what the psychoanalytic criticism explores, and Gatsby’s actions and words can be broken down and further analyzed into something deeper. Freud states that although everyone has three levels of consciousness, they operate through their unconscious motives the most. For example, Gatsby’s main motives are shame, grief, denial, and fear. Gatsby’s sumptuous displays of wealth actually showcase a defence …show more content…
One reason for his over-attachment to Daisy through the psychoanalytic lens can be because he has an Oedipal complex and sees daisy as the women his mother never was; rich, luxurious, graceful, etc., since he was brought up by a poor family. Psychologists say that “time stops” when a person is grieving, making Gatsby truly attempting to recover that lost time. This is proven when he meets Daisy after numerous years and he knocks over a clock by accident. This symbolizes him wanting to alter time and stop it so he can have his moment with Daisy forever or go back to the moment where they first met. This idea is proven when Nick states “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 disordered since then, but if he could return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…”