The Great Gatsby's Irony

In the Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby’s ultimate downfall was his relentless pursuit of love with the woman he once cherished so much. His obsession with making her his again is what would lead to his death. This displays situational irony as one man’s pursuit for love ended up being his greatest undoing. It is ironic that something such as love is viewed as being the greatest feeling in the world but led Gatsby down a path of self-destruction for its pursuit. I think Fitzgerald used irony to deploy this situation because he wanted to elaborate the point that even though love is a wonderful feeling, it can also lead people to do crazy things that in turn can lead to their own downfalls. I was fascinated by his use of irony in this way because he …show more content…
Gatsby then asked Nick to set up a meeting for Daisy and himself, however she was unaware of the fact that he would be attending. Nick warned Daisy, “Don’t bring Tom” (Pg. 81) and she replied, “Who is Tom?” (Pg. 81) as if to say she had no intention of mentioning the meeting to him at all. This meeting would be the beginning of the end for Gatsby. After seeing her again, he knew he could not stand to live another moment without being able to call her his wife. Gatsby obsessed with the idea that Daisy could have ever loved another man and it bothered him that she claimed to love Tom. Gatsby plead with Daisy to admit to Tom that she does not love him and that she never did love him at all. In his mind, he thought he could have her erase what had happened over the course of the past three years by just telling Tom that she had never loved him at all. He imagined that everything could go back to the way it was before he left for the war and that they would be able to pick up their relationship right where it left off five years ago. As cynical as it sounds, this was the extent of Gatsby’s obsession over Daisy. He was unable to accept the fact that she had moved on from the love they shared and found a new love with Tom. He refused to accept that as an answer from her and demanded she leave Tom and run away with him. Nick attempted to reason with Gatsby by saying, “ You can’t repeat the past,”(Pg. 104) and Gatsby responded, “Why of course you can!” (Pg. 104) and he said it with a sense of amazement that his friend would suggest something so logical. Nick always referred to Gatsby’s plan as a colossal dream. Despite Nick’s efforts to save his friend from going down the path he was destined to follow, he was unable to convince Gatsby that Daisy did not want to be with him under those conditions. He became consumed with the determination to recreate everything, to make Daisy