Unrealistic Expectations In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

Unrealistic expectations plague relationships. The character’s love stories in The Great Gatsby are an allegory for the quest that all people go through to find happiness, Fitzgerald shows us that people will never be satisfied when they finally get what they want because their goals are often unattainable and their expectations are too high. Gatsby’s quest for the completion represents the endless search that everybody goes on to feel fulfilled. Gatsby’s inability to be satisfied with what he has represents how Americans are hold onto their dream and idealize what their life will be like once they are accomplished.
Gatsby’s relationship with Daisy shows us how the idea of the perfect life is just an illusion because no life is as good as …show more content…
The green light represented the possibility of their relationship and just as Gatsby was captivated by Daisy he was captivated by the light, “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling (p.21).” Fitzgerald uses figurative language to describe how Gatsby’s need for Daisy is a total physical and mental compulsion. When he finally meets up with Daisy again and she puts her arm around him, “it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of the light had now vanished forever… Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one (p.93).” When Gatsby had Daisy there is no significance, to him, of the green light because it is just a substitution for the woman he loves. In the end, after Daisy has killed Myrtle and conspires with Tom she turns off her bedroom light and Gatsby dies the next day. She was the fuel to his existence and without her or the possibility of having her Gatsby must …show more content…
Both characters were rich and beautiful and most importantly in love. But quickly their marriage deteriorated, Tom was caught cheating and Daisy had cold feel right before her wedding. Daisy thought she could go on living unhappily and that eventually she found Gatsby again. Daisy became fixed on the idea that if she just kept up her affair she would be content despite living with a cheating and domineering husband. Tom thought that if only he did not cheat anymore then their marriage would work out but unfortunately for him life is much more complicated. There is not one thing that goes wrong like a cheating husband or smart daughter. Daisy thinks that if her daughter is a fool then she will be content and never have to deal with the heartbreak and loneliness that she herself deals with. But that is not true, there is not one characteristic that make people happy. There are many other variables that come into play and Daisy’s hope for her daughter to be a fool will not give her daughter the happiness that she wants her to have. Daisy’s expectations for her daughter and husband prevented her from seeing that there was so little that she could have done to fix her