Resume: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gatsby Essay

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Narcissist

The Great Gatsby, a thriller, a drama, a love story and a story about the American dream, and yes it is all of these things; yet, the characters of the “The Great Gatsby” novel, specifically Gatsby himself, succumb to many other subversive temptations. Throughout this classic novel, each character emerges an amoral character at times, but Jay Gatsby unable or unwilling to face reality, also emerges as a narcissist.

Jay Gatsby is wealthy by any measure, but he fails once again to capture the heart of his long lost love Daisy. He believes that the only way to have Daisy and be reveled and admired is through his riches. In the end his dream falls short and he’s left yet again with only a slither of self-esteem and a life, which he yearns to have, out of reach.

Gatsby focuses all of his energy on building a perfect relationship with Daisy. He believes the reason their past relationship didn’t work is because he didn’t have the riches to shower her with. Although Daisy is married, Gatsby doesn’t even consider that Daisy may not leave Tom to be reunited with him. Throughout the novel, Gatsby remains delusional regarding the re-uniting between him and Daisy.

Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder grow up feeling superior and needing to be admired. They have a longstanding pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy. The core feature of this disorder is antagonism (grandiosity, attention-seeking, callousness) which repeatedly puts the individual at odds with other people This aligns with the lavish parties that Gatsby hosted every weekend at his mansion for no particular reason. Jay Gatsby possesses a sense of entitlement; it is the main focus of his character. Gatsby hosts lavish parties every weekend, but he doesn’t know the attendees, and he doesn’t care to know them. They simply serve as his reaffirmation that he is well liked by some of the upper social types. He tends to view people as inanimate objects, like fixtures on the wall maybe. When Daisy asks him how he could live in such a huge house all alone, he replied, “I keep it always full of interesting people, night and day. People who do interesting things. Celebrated people” (Fitzgerald 90). These are the people that he wants to be, although most don’t know who he is and he doesn’t know them. The parties are all part of the images he needs to create to reflect on how important he appears to others.

Narcissists are generally contemptuous of others. This seems to spring, at base, from their general lack of empathy, and it comes out as (at best) a dismissive attitude towards other people's feelings, wishes, needs, concerns, standards, property, work, etc (halcyon). In the presence of Nick, Jordan, Daisy and Daisy’s husband Tom, everyone’s shocked, especially Daisy, when Gatsby decides to reveal to Tom that his marriage to Daisy was about financial security
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