Choose a symbol used in a novel or play of your choice and discuss its function in the world of the work.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the author tells the story of a successful socialite pining lost love during the 1920’s in New York Cory. In this novel, the Fitzgerald uses one of his main characters, Daisy, to symbolize the past and uses her character to emphasize that dwelling on the past and attempting to relive it can only lead to one’s own demise.
In this novel, the main protagonist, Mr. Gatsby befriends his new neighbor, Nick, from whose perspective the story is told. It is in Nick that Gatsby confides the story of his past and of Daisy. As the story progresses, it is revealed to the reader that Gatsby had met Daisy years before and fallen deeply in love. Unfortunately, the couple was separated by war and while fighting in Europe, Gatsby was forsaken by Daisy who married another man. Upon returning from the war, Gatsby bought a house across the bay from Daisy’s on the outskirts of New York and has lived there ever since hoping for fate to intervene and bring them together again.
Gatsby’s current lifestyle at the time that this story is told is one full of extravagant parties that he holds at his mansion which are full of almost complete strangers. He has no real friends and no true aspirations in life. This is mainly attributed to his longing for Daisy and inability to move on. The fact that he would find her after the war and wait in the wings to meet her again, even though she is now married is clear evidence of that. Hence, Gatsby’s close proximity to Daisy yet the fact that she is intangible symbolize key characteristics of the past. The past is an inescapable force that effects all lives and is always easy to refer back to because it is so close to the present, but at the same time it can never be relived, and is thus intangible.
As the story continues, Gatsby miraculously gets what he has been waiting for for years: a chance to speak to Daisy again. It is through Nick’s affiliation with both people that allows the two of them to meet for tea at Nick’s and they quickly relight the fire that once burned between them. Daisy’s innocent manner and ability to elicit old feelings that Gatsby had partially hidden are other characteristics that are again used to symbolize the past. When one begins to obsess about the past and attempts to relive what once was, as Gatsby clearly tries to do in this story, innocent, nostalgic feelings often give a false sense that things will work out.
Towards the end of the story, Gatsby delusional idea that Daisy will leave her husband for him is shattered when, after accidentally running over a pedestrian in the street and fleeing the murder scene, Daisy blames the murder on Gatsby and runs away with her husband Tom. When Daisy leaves, Gatsby is still relentlessly attached to her and convinces himself that she will return. Daisy’s departure and lack of return again symbolizes the past in that no matter how hard you try to reclaim lost memories and make them new again, the past will always be the past and no amount of hope or desire will change that. Daisy’s betrayal of Gatsby by letting him take the blame for the murder also symbolizes the idea that being obsessed with the past and attempting to force it become the present will lead in one’s demise because Daisy’s betrayal lead to the pedestrians husband seeking revenge and killing Gatsby at the end of the book.
All through out novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scoot Fitzgerald, the author skillfully uses a main character in the story to symbolize a major theme. It is through the character of Daisy that Fitzgerald is able to symbolize the past and show the detrimental effects of holding onto and trying to relive the past. It is through this character’s intangibility, her innocence, her betrayal, and her loss that the author embodies the very essence of what once was.
