Jay Gatsby Strengths and Psychoanalysis: Critical Essay

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Jay Gatsby Strengths and Psychoanalysis: Critical Essay

Love makes you do crazy things, even flip your life around. Jay Gatsby is one of the more well-known characters in this story. In the book The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby focuses on trying to manipulate the entirety of his life. He shows a lot of different characters throughout the book but they all point back to how he feels about Daisy.¨The Great Gatsby¨ came out in 1925, and every male individual represents part of the author. By Jay Gatsby doing this it will help apply three parts of psychoanalysis, The id, the ego, and the superego. Applying Psychoanalysis to Jay Gatsby reveals hes living a singular dream, he is very independent when it comes to Daisy, His ego is the balance to his life, and he suffers from anxiety.

In the book The great gatsby Jay Gatsby is proven or said to be living a single dream by Nick Carraway. While Gatsby was busy living in the past, Daisy was engaged in the ultimate form of future-building: having a child. Nick said that Gatsby Paid a high price for living too long with a single dream(Fitzgerald 161). What this is trying to say is that Gatsby’s one dream was attaining Daisy. Everything he’d done during his adult life focused on the dream of one day being the man who could offer Dasiy everything, a dream that would end with the two of them living happily ever after. In the end, Gatsby paid for that dream with his life, a huge price for a dream that could never come true. Jay Gatsby’s superego is at work. He wanted to live up to what he thought were social norms. He felt that if he was wealthy and had the girl of his dreams he was set for life. Jay´s superego is clouding his judgment. The superego is one of the main parts of psychoanalysis criticism. Superego is our social programming, created by social values (Burrows-Stone 5). This just goes deeper into Gasbty showing his superego. This shows what his social programming is like. He feels like he won’t amount to anything unless he has the girl of his dreams and money. Jay Gatsby is just trying to be better than his parents.

Jay Gatsby may be showing idealistic tendencies throughout ¨The Great Gatsby¨. Psychoanalysis criticism is based on the human psyche which is divided into three things, the ego, the id, and the superego. So the id is believed to be the centering of instant gratification (Burrows-Stone 5). The id plays an important role in the development of Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby has the desire to control everything in his life this is shown during several moments throughout the book. The moment when Gatsby was talking to Nick about Daisy. Nick says that Gatsby cant repeat the past and Gatsby rebuttals with ¨Cant repeat the past? he cried incredulously, Why of course you can¨ ( Fitzgerald 110). This highlights Jay´s inability to accept the truth that Daisy has moved on and is married to Tom with a child. His id is very present during this and so are his idealistic tendencies. This can also show that he is an idealist, Which has almost the same meaning as the id. Koncnundudnind0sindisndunsud9nd 0dauxu

Jay Gatsby’s ego is very hard to come by. The ego is supposed to mediate between the id and the superego. Sometimes his ego doesn’t show up. During a moment in the book, Gatsby was at Daisy’s house with Tom and Nick. Nick noticed that He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence( Fitzgerald 91). This quote is describing how the dream of meeting and impressing Daisy, which he has been planning for two years, is finally beginning to start. Their true emotions of Gatsby are starting to appear and how overwhelmed he is by the love he has for Daisy. But also during this time, his ego is nowhere to be found. The ego is supposed to ¨mediate between the Id and the Superego; channeling the desires of the Id into actions acceptable to the superego¨(Burrows-Stone 5). The balance between the superego and the id isn’t presented at this moment in the book. Gatsby lets his id take control during this time in the book.

In the book ¨ The great gatsby¨ Jay tends to suffer from anxiety when his superego stops him from fulfilling his id. When his superego takes over he begins to feel overwhelmed I wanted somebody who wouldnt gossip. Daisy comes over quite often – in the afternoons¨ (Fitzgerald 114). During this moment Gatsby had fired all of his servants. Plus, Daisy is now visiting him more and more, He doesn’t want any gossip to be spread. This is also the very moment where he thought that his relationship with Daisy was over which caused him anxiety. He couldn’t control the situation anymore as his superego took over. Within another moment a couple of pages before that he was having a conversation with Nick when he being to look at me with suppressed eagerness ( Fitzgerald 82). Gatsby was hoping to find out if Jordan Baker talked to Nick and as a result, Nick talked to Daisy. While this moment was happening Gatsby was very calm and cool-headed. He didn’t have any anxiety because he was in control of the situation. This goes to show that when Gatsby lets his superego take over. Also, he suffers from high levels of anxiety.

As expressed Jay Gatsby is falling off the rails throughout the book over a girl named Daisy. Jay and Daisy don’t end up together, but from what Psychoanalysis criticism has scraped up, Jay Gatsby is living a singular dream, he is an idealist, His ego is the balance to his life, and he suffers from anxiety. The way he shows it is to make sure the reader is thrown off, the way he does this is by making sure Gatsby shows more than one side of himself in each chapter. Jay doesn´t have control over his emotions anymore. When it comes to getting Daisy to love him he will do anything. This shows what he is willing to do to get what he wants in life. Also, what happens if he doesn´t get what he wants out of his time?

Works Cited

Burrows-Stone, Katherine. ‘Lit Theory Cheat Sheet.’ English 3, SLA Beeber, 112221. Class Handout.
Fitzgerald, F S. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. Print.

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