The Great Gatsby
Imperfect Reality, Unattainable Dream
A dream creates ideal circumstances which are not ideal in reality. Reality
instigates the destruction of the ideal and therefore encourages one to fantasize about that
which is unattainable in actuality. In one’s imperfect reality, a dream is unattainable;
thus, one may often compromise or modify his dream in order for it to match or perhaps
justify the practical. This imperfect reality generates an unattainable dream. Jay Gatsby’s
disillusionment in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby permits Gatsby to imagine that
which will never exist. When his reality and fantasy collide in such a way, his fantasy
perishes, and additional conflicted dreams and imperfect reality ensue. Gatsby’s passion
is an exercise in futility because reality prohibits the execution of such a dream.
Gatsby’s passionate illusion develops based on wishes which cannot be met in his
reality. Human wonder allows him to envision his fantastic image; however, he finds that
it is “pervaded with a melancholy beauty” because the potential of his beautiful dream
deteriorates in his harsh material world (Fitzgerald 152).Gatsby fails to realize that Daisy
is the type of woman who cannot “be over- dreamed” for she lives her life in a concrete
world with which Gatsby is unfamiliar (Fitzgerald 96). Gatsby’s failure to recognize that
Daisy flourishes in the material world leads him to believe that she loves him, and that
she “never loved” her husband (Fitzgerald 103). Gatsby’s reality does not match his
fantasy, though, for he loses “the freshest and the best” his reality offers when Daisy
refuses to marry him (Fitzgerald 153). His reality and his dream become unaligned after
Daisy’s refusal; he begins to reconstruct and embellish his vision and consequently, he
exhausts and eradicates his reality.
Gatsby’s intention to marry and love Daisy is honorable until he exhausts the
tangible. He begins to
A dream creates ideal circumstances which are not ideal in reality. Reality
instigates the destruction of the ideal and therefore encourages one to fantasize about that
which is unattainable in actuality. In one’s imperfect reality, a dream is unattainable;
thus, one may often compromise or modify his dream in order for it to match or perhaps
justify the practical. This imperfect reality generates an unattainable dream. Jay Gatsby’s
disillusionment in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby permits Gatsby to imagine that
which will never exist. When his reality and fantasy collide in such a way, his fantasy
perishes, and additional conflicted dreams and imperfect reality ensue. Gatsby’s passion
is an exercise in futility because reality prohibits the execution of such a dream.
Gatsby’s passionate illusion develops based on wishes which cannot be met in his
reality. Human wonder allows him to envision his fantastic image; however, he finds that
it is “pervaded with a melancholy beauty” because the potential of his beautiful dream
deteriorates in his harsh material world (Fitzgerald 152).Gatsby fails to realize that Daisy
is the type of woman who cannot “be over- dreamed” for she lives her life in a concrete
world with which Gatsby is unfamiliar (Fitzgerald 96). Gatsby’s failure to recognize that
Daisy flourishes in the material world leads him to believe that she loves him, and that
she “never loved” her husband (Fitzgerald 103). Gatsby’s reality does not match his
fantasy, though, for he loses “the freshest and the best” his reality offers when Daisy
refuses to marry him (Fitzgerald 153). His reality and his dream become unaligned after
Daisy’s refusal; he begins to reconstruct and embellish his vision and consequently, he
exhausts and eradicates his reality.
Gatsby’s intention to marry and love Daisy is honorable until he exhausts the
tangible. He begins to