Jay Gatsby and F. Scott Fitzgerald: Parallels in Character

Jay Gatsby, as is evident by the title, is the main character in The Great Gatsby. His dreams and desires are what the novel revolves around. To me, Gatsby is the most intriguing character in the novel; but what makes him  fascinating are the parallels found between him and the author, Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Both Jay Gatsby and F. Scott Fitzgerald fell madly in love with a woman; Gatsby for Daisy, and Fitzgerald for Zelda Sayre. Fitzgerald married Zelda, and she became a great inspiration for him. However, Zelda Fitzgerald had schizophrenia, which strained their relationship. Despite her illness, her husband loved her dearly, almost irrationally. This irrational love is paralleled in Gatsby's feelings towards Daisy.

Jay Gatsby and Daisy had a brief relationship that Gatsby could not put behind him. While Daisy got on with her life and married, Gatsby waited five years and then found her again. After so many years apart from her and longing to be by her side, Gatsby had created this fantasy of Daisy as the most wonderful person. He built expectations of her that she could hardly hope to meet. When he found her, it must have been disappointing to discover that the dream that had consumed his life was not as wonderful as he thought it was:

"There must have have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart."(Fitzgerald 97).

In my opinion, both Gatsby and Fitzgerald had unhealthy relationships with the love of their lives. Both of them knew that Zelda and Daisy had faults, but they refused to acknowledge them. They both built up this fantasy of the perfect woman in their heads, and after some time began to believe the fantasy was true. This is more apparent in Gatsby than Fitzgerald:  Gatsby spent 5 years of his life in love with his dream Daisy. Fitzgerald spent many years with Zelda, and was very aware of her mental illness, but chose to not acknowledge it. What I wonder is whether Fitzgerald realized the similarity between his love for Zelda and Gatsby's love for Daisy.

One final important similarity between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jay Gatsby is the general opinion of them by people who surrounded them and the rumours and lies that engulfed them. Both Gatsby and Fitzgerald had humble beginnings, and sought to become more than what their fathers were, by rising to achieve fame and riches. With that fame and riches came varied public opinions. F. Scott Fitzgerald wished to earn a solid literary reputation, but the public opinion of him was that he was a drunk and an irresponsible writer.  No one really knew Gatsby, so people created terrible rumours about him, but really, he was just a man attempting to reconcile with the love of his life.

Jay Gatsby died alone and with only a stranger and his father in attendance at his funeral. F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing himself to be a failure. Who ended off for the worse? I find it very strange just how similar Gatsby and Fitzgerald are. I wonder whether Fitzgerald realized he was paralleling his own life as he wrote The Great Gatsby. They both seem under appreciated for who they were while they were alive. However, they both have grown to achieve great acknowledgement now that they are dead and gone. Would they have been happy to know of their cultural significance? I think Fitzgerald would have, but I don’t think Gatsby would even have noticed. As the narrator of this story said, Gatsby had this “foul dust floating in the wake of his dreams” (2) that consumed him and shadowed everything else. And it is that which makes Gatsby such an intriguing character.