Analysis of Jay Gatsby The "Roaring Twenties"� is a time when the United States was at pivotal era in its emergence into the new world. After the First World War, after prohibition America came alive with decadence. The men and women of this age were flamboyant and more alive than the generations before them. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, he tries to reveal some of the magic of that time through the lives of his characters in the story. Jay Gatsby, the lead character, exhibits the positive and negative aspects of the artisan temperament, which includes charm, duplicity and determination to win.
The charm that Jay Gatsby demonstrated throughout is life is what took him from rags to riches. He was admired by all of those around in a mysterious ways that teased their simple minds by trying to contemplate his world. He executes something that most people cannot accomplish; he puts money and brilliance together, which implies his charm.
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great GatsbyHe uses his charm throughout the story in attempt to win back his long lost love of eight years Daisy Buchanan. In doing this he feels that by showing her everything he owns, his house, his cars and other personal possessions, he will win her back. But first, he must charm his neighbor Nick Carroway, who happens to be Daisy's cousin into becoming his friend. He not only has a charming effect on Nick and Daisy, but on everyone he meets. He is able to use this trait to persuade anyone he makes contact with into doing what he wants.
The duplicity of Jay Gatsby furthermore exhibits his inner character and ties into his undying struggle. "Jay Gatz "" that was really, or at least legally, his name. He changed it at the age of seventeen at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career."� (Fitzgerald 104) In this line it is clear that Gatsby has another side to him, one that does not recognize his childhood or his misfortunate adolescence. "His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people-his imagination had never really accepted his parents at all."� (Fitzgerald 104) Jay Gatsby's entire past was fiction, something that his mind had conjured up so that he may be accepted in the class of society he thought his place to be. "Beneath the elaborate, albeit gaudy, elegance of Gatsby looms James Gatz, the original "ÃÂroughneck' that Gatsby spends so much energy trying to conceal."� (Lehan 59) This was the parallel life of Jay Gatsby.
When Gatsby and Tom Buchanan had reached their moment of confrontation, Gatsby's characteristic determination to win was expressed. He could not bear to refrain himself from blurting, "Your wife doesn't love you, she's never loved you,"� to somehow win the dispute with Tom. Because of his lack of self-control in this matter, their argument comes to no resolution and their beloved Daisy is forced into the middle of the confrontation. His aggressive manner does not "ÃÂwin' him his prize; instead, Daisy is drawn further from either man.
These aspects of Jay Gatsby's personality the positive and the negative are what is so appealing about him. He came from the lower class, with an incredible sense of achievement and motivation. When he lost his love it drove him harder in pursuit of his dreams. What Fitzgerald did in the Great Gatsby was to lift the main character to a "mythic level."� He created a character that was based on the idea of America itself. Gatsby is the last of romantic heroes, whose determination kept him motivated till his quest was complete. (Lehan 12)
The Great Gatsby Movie Set
The Great Gatsby Movie Set
The Great Gatsby Movie Set