"In the Great Gatsby, love is presented as an unobtainable fantasy" How far and in what ways do you agree with this view of TGG?

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"In the Great Gatsby, love is presented as an unobtainable fantasy" How far and in what ways do you agree with this view of TGG?

In Fitzgerald's novella, The Great Gatsby, love runs throughout as an established theme but it's success has been left for the readers to debate and speculate about. Tom Shore, after reading the novel said that there were elements of "pure love, if not pure then thwarted by some obstacle other than pleasant snobbery" which essentially outlines the basic underlying motifs Fitzgerald was portraying. Ultimately, love is presented as an unobtainable fantasy and a dream that can only be chased but not achieved. This can be seen through the characters, their pairings and their relationship. Nick as a narrator  is not only unreliable but he shows us that love in the West Egg society is impossible and simply unattainable. Pathetic fallacy is another way in which Fitzgerald shows that love between the characters is an unobtainable fantasy.

Gatsby's idea of achieving his fantasy and being noticed by Daisy was through his "little parties" with "champagne..and blue gardens of men" right from the start of the book, believing that Daisy will notice him through his wealth if only he portrays it in a romantic manner, one that will bring back their love. He throws these, ironically said "little" parties in hope that one day she'll come to one. Gatsby has been attempting to re-create a better version of himself for Daisy, unaware that he was creating and living in an almost fantasy world with huge parties being thrown every week, best dancers, best music and the whole town invited. What he hadn't realised though is that the life he was trying to create was the thing that was making their love unattainable. The "blue garden of men" was there to represent his wealth and his way to romanticise the scene for the time Daisy would hopefully show up. Blue is also the colour of hope, wisdom and c confidence as it represents a sky full of stars or sea 'with plenty of fish in it' despite the fact Gatsby is hung up on one in particular.

Chapter 5 in the book is one of the most important chapters of all because it follows the greatest build up and from there on, the story begins to take a downfall. The fact that chapter 5 is the 'peak' point of this story was done by Fitzgerald to give the readers a sense of structure and follow the Todorov's theory which allows the message of unobtainable love to be presented clearly; it will be explored later on. In this chapter we see pathetic fallacy from the beginning and start to understand that there isn’t going to be a happy ending for Gatsby. As it begun to get heated and tense in the room, Gatsby leaned over and knocks over a clock “we all believed for a moment that it had smashed in pieces on the floor” similarly to Gatbsy’s unobtainable…

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