Obsessive Love In The Great Gatsby

“There I was, way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute.” A person who is ‘perfect’ does not become obsessive, does not fail, does not sin, and so does not exist. We fall, rise and hopefully learn from our mistakes. Imperfections are traits that characterise us as human beings. The quotation above, taken from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, introduces one of the key ideas which features as a universal theme throughout literature. With all the themes presented across the ages, it seems undeniable that love, and sometimes its consequent obsession, resonates the most; from friendship to platonic love or lust to romance. Be it love for another, love for pleasure or love for power, love can be seen as the origin of …show more content…
However, the obsession that is initially presented in Othello, The Great Gatsby and “First Love” in Mean Time, suggests that obsessive love can be sweet, beautiful and simply involve a couple becoming deeply consumed in one another. All three texts present first love, as an inevitable consequence of a healthy, mutual obsession, as precious and innocent.
In Shakespeare’s Othello, it is evident that Othello and Desdemona’s relationship is built upon a deeply felt mutual attraction, unmistakably present in Act 1 Scene III: “I will a round, unvarnished tale deliver/ Of my whole course of love: what drugs, what charms,/ What conjuration, and what mighty magic” (1.3.91-93). Othello’s repetition of “what” adds conviction to Othello’s speech. Othello reinforces the idea that nothing but his tales of war wooed Desdemona. The power of Othello’s eloquent rhetoric, combined with the clever use of the repetition, raises questioning among the senate, only then causing for further clarification by Desdemona herself. Unlike the usual definition of obsession, Desdemona and Othello are overwhelmed by their mutual love, so utterly