Psychoanalytic POV

Does “love” even exist in the Great Gatsby? This seems like a rhetorical question to the average person; “Why, of course it does! Gatsby loved Daisy,” is probably what they would say. But this is not true. There is no genuine love in this book. Rather, nothing is genuine aside from the genuine illusion.

Some say love can be described when opposites attract. Others say love can be described when two people who are very similar find each other. I say love doesn’t exist. It is just another illusion to express our desire for an ideal.

Humans are inherently selfish; we think and we act in our own self-interest; why would we give up this natural tendency for another? We wouldn’t. Instead, we cover up this highest order of selfishness with the word, love. Man does not care for another unless that other best fits their ideal. We set some standard for our partner. Some people are specific, some are general. That doesn’t matter. All that matters is we have some standard. If we didn’t, we would be perfectly happy spending the rest of our lives with the next person we meet on the street.

            The most naïve comment people say is, “I love you for who you are.” If you say this, people will think you are a good person who judges others first by their character. In truth, this comment actually means, “I already have a set ideal for my [insert relationship type], and only because you embody that ideal, I want you to remain in my life.” Sounds selfish, doesn’t it? Because it is.

            Some say, “It was love at first sight.” Yeah, this just means you had a set standard for looks and the other person matched it. Maybe you subconsciously had an ideal which you never gave much thought to? But when you saw a figure which embodied it, you had a BAZINGA moment.

Bringing this back to the Great Gatsby, Gatsby never loved Daisy, he longed for wealth and a higher social status which is what Daisy symbolized. His mind could no longer “romp like the mind of God” because he had an ideal and he found a figure which embodied it. And Gatsby took it one step further by being ignorant and not changing his ideal over time, but rather expanding on it. So he was fixated on one standard, which was what he thought Daisy represented. Until he finally realized after meeting her, she no longer embodied what he wanted her to embody.

            Accept the fact that we always act for our own good. It’s just a matter of which word selfish has been replaced with in the dictionary.