The Criticism of the Concept of Marriage in The Great Gatsby, a Novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald

In society, marriage is viewed as an necessity among two people. Literary operates as old as the Bible, each fiction and nonfiction, aim to propagandize the idea of marriage, creating it look like without having marriage, life would be unfulfilling. Nonetheless, what these literary performs fail to account for, is the negatives that come with marriage. The convention of marriage is to marry for materialistic demands, and typically emotional fulfilment is ignored, for example, marriages in between royalty accomplished only to secure energy. As time went on however, society became far more conscious of the irony in marrying 1 for the sake of materialistic wants, and authors focused on exposing this nature of marriage in numerous modernist works, such as The Great Gatsby. These novels aimed to criticize the convention of marriage that a single ought to marry somebody, even if there is a lack of a true feeling of really like. In The Fantastic Gatsby, this marriage plot is used as an instrument of producing a story to show the criticisms of a loveless marriage accomplished for selfish requirements. This convention of marriage affects the reading of The Excellent Gatsby, in that it illustrates the notion that a superficial marriage held for the sake of improving one’s wealth or image but lacks any true love can lead to destruction and a loss of freedom to pursue one’s correct desires.

Many characters in The Fantastic Gatsby personify the thought of marrying for the sake of issues like funds or ego and the negative outcomes that outcome from carrying out so. Tom and Gatsby each personify the notion of marrying someone for the sake of improving one’s personal image. For instance, Tom is a character whose existence is centered about getting wealth and getting capable to flaunt his wealth. That is why he married Daisy, due to the fact to him, Daisy would add to his status and image, since she glean[s] like silver, safe and sound above the hot struggles of the poor” (Fitzgerald 150). This description of Daisy sets her apart as getting the literal personification of wealth, which is why Tom married her. To him, Daisy is just an additional asset he can add to his personal image. The readers know that Tom’s adore for Daisy is not genuine, and follows the theme of marrying for funds due to the fact even even though Tom claims that he “love[s] Daisy…in [his] heart” and “[he will] enjoy her all the time” (Fitzgerald 130), he also says in the same dialogue “once in a even though I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself” (Fitzgerald 130), implying the quite a few affairs he had with other girls whilst becoming married to Daisy. This shows that there is no true adore amongst him and Daisy, due to the fact somebody who claims to actually really like a person else would not be so fast to betray that person. To Tom, marriage is merely for the purpose of becoming able to show off is wealth. Since he married Daisy for that purpose, he is now “chained” to Daisy, which is why he refused to leave her. Furthermore than being just the personification of wealth, Daisy also personifies destruction and the loss of freedom. Tom’s freedom can be observed as becoming personified by Myrtle. Myrtle’s sister, Catherine explains that neither Tom nor Myrtle “can stand the person they’re married to” (Fitzgerald 33) and that it is “[Daisy] who is keeping them apart” (Fitzgerald 33). By way of this we can see the all round theme that the convention of marrying someone for the sake of enhancing one’s image and self worth can lead to destruction and the loss of freedom because neither Tom and Myrtle can tolerate the particular person they are supposed to enjoy, which causes them to be unfaithful. Even so, due to the fact they are married, they do not have the freedom to escape that marriage, and they are confined to the metaphorical chains of an unhappy and destructive matrimony. Daisy further continues to destroy Tom’s freedom when she kills Myrtle. Whilst it effortlessly could’ve been any other character in the novel that kills Myrtle, it was important for Daisy to kill Myrtle due to the fact it proves the notion that destruction will comply with in superficial marriages. Furthermore, Nick describes Daisy as someone who “smash[es] up items and creatures and then retreat[s] back” (Fitzgerald 179) leaving “other men and women to clean up the mess” (Fitzgerald 179). Although Nick was referring to both Nick and Daisy when he mentioned this, Daisy is the correct personification of destruction because not only does she destroy Tom’s freedom, she also destroys Gatsby’s freedom by producing the ripple that ended up top to the ocean of events that triggered Gatsby’s death.

Equivalent to Tom, Gatsby believed his enjoy for Daisy was pure, and that he loved her for who she was. But the reality is, on a deeper level, Gatsby’s enjoy for Daisy, and need to marry her follows the same plot that men and women have a tendency to marry people who add to their wealth of income and image. Tom and Gatsby each represent men and women who marry for the sake of generating a false image about themselves to better themselves. Despite the fact that they had diverse approaches to seizing Daisy, they each seek the identical issue, the convention of marriage for the superficial and ego boosting signifies. This idea is illustrated when Gatsby realizes for himself what lures him to Daisy. Nick says that Daisy has an “indiscreet voice” and Gatsby finishes Nick’s sentence by filling in the blank. He says Daisy’s voice is “full of money”(Fitzgerald 120). And at this moment, Nick realizes that anyone who is drawn to Daisy is simply drawn simply because she is like a “golden girl” (Fitzgerald 120), implying that she is like a prize to add to one’s feelings of self worth. And to Gatsby, obtaining that sort of validation, that he belonged among the highest class, was satisfied by Daisy. It is due to the fact of Daisy that Gatsby designed a “glorious future…as Jay Gatsby”. He did this as an work to give Daisy a false “sense of security” that he was good adequate for her. The one particular way he could genuinely bring this fantasy to reality would be to have Daisy in life. For that reason, Gatsby became so obsessed with morphing into “Jay Gatsby” from“James Gatsby” that when he realized that he may not be able to have Daisy as Daisy just “loved him too” (Fitzgerald 132), his pretence was shattered and Gatsby was “broken up like glass” (Fitzgerald 148).

Gatsby and Tom each represent the standard notion of marriage seen in a modernist work of fiction, in that marriage is a way to boost one’s wealth and image to society. Seeing the way this convention of marriage plays out in the novel, the readers are able to witness the destruction that follows this kind of marriage. Tom and Gatsby both follow this destructive path and end up top a life without correct fulfilment. Tom loses a person he loves, and via that his freedom, and Gatsby loses his life, and also by way of that his freedom. Daisy directly triggered the loss of Tom’s freedom by killing Myrtle, and indirectly caused the loss of Gatsby’s freedom by getting the purpose Wilson kills Gatsby. However, how Tom and Gatsby differ is how Gatsby was capable to “turn out alright in the end” (Fitzgerald 2). Gatsby was in a position to turn out alright in the finish because Daisy had stopped providing her really like to him, and like that she was no longer able to “prey” (Fitzgerald 2) on Gatsby. In the end of the novel, Daisy loses interest in Gatsby, but she is nonetheless with Tom. So whilst Gatsby was afforded the chance to reclaim his freedom, and did by means of his death, Tom was not in a position to. He stayed with Daisy and “retreated back into…whatever it was that kept them together” (Fitzgerald 179), which would be a marriage that is confined to “their funds or their vast carelessness” (Fitzgerald 179). When Tom chose to stay in this marriage, he once again writes off his freedom. But Gatsby was no longer preyed upon by Daisy, even prior to dying, and that enables him to truly grow to be the wonderful Gatsby.

The story and discourse events of The Wonderful Gatsby, along with the characters was in a position to illustrate to readers the theme of how the marriage plot of marrying someone to can bolster your public image, and not for any accurate really like, can lead to destruction and the loss of freedom. In this novel, the marriage plot is used strategically to develop characters who would personify the inevitable destruction that comes from loveless marriages.