The Great Gatsby focuses on the stories of Gatsby, Daisy and Tom. Writer Nick is a participant and a bystander, sometimes in it, sometimes out of it. Watching two different classes of people lose and struggle in desire, wealth and love.Gatsby was born poor, but brave, pure and rich in dreams. The greatest ideal is to be with Daisy. For this purpose, he has worked hard for five years. Daisy was born noble and looked sweet. However, after marriage, he cheated on Gatsby, and ran around between two men. Finally, he left Gatsby in order to protect himself and maintain a stable and prosperous life. Daisy’s husband, Tom, is also a member of the upper-class society and has racial discrimination of white supremacy. He is insidious and cunning, and romantic and hypocritical. In order to prevent Gatsby from staying with Daisy, Gatsby was blamed for the crime of driving into people and derailing, and Gatsby was murdered by his mistress’s husband. At Gatsby’s funeral, apart from Nick, none of the thousands of people who had reveled in his home attended his funeral, including Daisy.
There are many reasons for Gatsby’s tragedy. First of all, it is the background of the times. In 1922, the United States had serious class differentiation. It is not like this is an era of advocating personal struggle. Gatsby was born in a poor peasant family, although he has become a rich man with a prominent position and a luxurious house in five years. But his identity was not accepted by the upper class. As Tom said in the film, Gatsby is just a new upstart and a dirty smuggler.
That was an era in which classes could not be overstepped. The prosperity of the city is created by the bottom stratum in the hazy and dusty air. But the aristocrats in the upper class live a luxurious and decadent life all day long.
No matter how many diamonds and jewels Gatsby owns and how many rich and famous people can come to his home for parties, it can’t change the fact that he is just an upstart who has climbed to the upper class through dishonest business. As Tom said when debunking Gatsby’s history in front of Daisy, “We are born different. What you do, say, and dream can never change these.”
Different classes, born differently, have different destinies. Gatsby was not only rejected by the upper-class society, but also became the target of public criticism. When Daisy killed Tom’s mistress while driving, Gatsby was charged with hit-and-run and was wrongly murdered by Wilson. Wilson, who killed people, also ended his life with a gun. The death of Gatsby and Wilson seemed to be an accident, but in fact it was the inevitable result of the fate of the blacks and lower class people in that era.
The cause of Gatsby’s tragedy is not only the age, but also his blind love for Daisy. Many people said that Gatsby was too persistent to see that Daisy had changed. In fact, Daisy has not changed. She has always been the woman who was born in the noble family and loves to indulge in luxury. Gatsby was also aware of this, so he built a magnificent city, in which singing and dancing flourished.
When they met again, Gatsby saw that Daisy’s mind had changed from a girl to a wife. However, Gatsby was unwilling to accept this fact, and stubbornly solidified Daisy’s image of her teenage years in her heart. Let her become a statue like a goddess.
And Daisy was moved when she saw her young sweetheart return with success and grace. However, considering the cost of her own derailment, Daisy’s biggest concession was to elope with Gatsby, run away from home, and escape everything in front of her. But Gatsby wanted two people to live in this place with dignity. Daisy’s incomprehension was a great sorrow to him. In fact, Gatsby was very sober at this moment. He suddenly realized that his dream of five years’ hard work had been broken. He was like a person who had suffered a heavy blow. His enthusiasm and hope had been extinguished, and all that remained was his obsession: to be with Daisy at all costs.
This obsession made him give up his god-like free mind, and he was fettered from then on. Gatsby added some illusions to his love for Daisy. He stubbornly believed that Daisy loved him. But at the climax, when the conflict between the three people intensified to an outbreak, Gatsby, who was torn off the gorgeous mask, made Daisy panic, and Daisy began to return to reason. If the former happiness with Gatsby was to seek comfort, now Daisy wants the sense of security from her family and the prosperity of the upper-class society.
Gatsby, however, is still mired in fantasy: Daisy loves me, but she needs some time to leave Tom.
If you persist too deeply, you will eventually become a magic barrier. Daisy killed Tom’s mistress by driving and blamed Gatsby for the crime, which led to his death. Maybe Gatsby didn’t know until he died. Daisy was just missing God in the life of a tired housewife, but let him sacrifice his dream and life.
Admittedly, Gatsby’s persistence has caused his own tragedy, but his persistence is also a great, a great.
In a world full of charm and illusion, love and lies made by rich people, people paralyze themselves by alcohol, parties and sex. For Daisy and Tom, love is a tool to satisfy their pursuit of status and fame. Everyone is lost in the city of New York, with the exception of Gatsby, who is the only person with faith in the film.
Gatsby has always been extremely firm in his ideals and love. In his emotional world, there was never a second woman except Daisy. Love, for Gatsby, is a belief. In order to be with Daisy one day, he has been trying to become a superior class with his dream.
The Great Gatsby does not directly describe how great Gatsby is in many film languages. The audience needs to analyze Gatsby’s personality and psychology according to the dialogues and expressions of the main characters in the film.
Looking at the whole film, we can see why Gatsby is great by comparing and analyzing Gatsby’s class with the upper class society. People in the upper class live a luxurious and extravagant life, and do not hesitate to hurt others for their own interests. Underneath their bright appearance, they are hiding the extremely ugly souls. Although Gatsby was born in a bad family, he was full of dreams and hopes, brave and upright, and worked hard to learn the social etiquette, cultural knowledge, and fashion trends of upper-class people, and put them into real action. He is wise and calm, acting like a gentleman, but also a real “aristocrat”.
As Plato said, “When the soul of beauty and the appearance of beauty are harmoniously integrated, people will see that this is the most perfect beauty in the world.” The great thing about Gatsby is that he is such a person who has both.
