Perceptions of Time in Great Gatsby Essay -- essays research papers

Time is an idea described in diverse periods and aspects, for example philosophical, psychological, physical and biological. This time flows consistently but is broken into the past, present and future. Since we only live in the present forever in preparation for our futures and dreams, when we try to live in the past it restricts our future. Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby wasted time and his life for a single dream, and it was his illusion of his idyllic future that made time a key dimension in his life. Fitzgerald sees life in satiric-tragic dimensions, as a contest between romantic illusion and coarse reality. The reality slowly and viciously disintegrates the illusion. Gatsby suffers from past memories of Daisy and tries to revive the relationship and in the process Gatsby was murdered. Nick wonders, "Almost five years! There must 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." (101). Gatsby's impractical view of Daisy was, s...