Oct 30 2008
Love Triangles, Period 10
Define ONE or TWO love relationships in The Great Gatsby using Sternberg’s terms and textual evidence.
23 responses so far
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The relationship between Gatsby and Daisy could be considered fatuous love on Gatsby’s part, and infatuation on Daisy’s part. They exhibited passion in the beginning of their relationship and how they acted towards each other. However, Daisy was in love with the false image Gatsby made for himself, of him being rich. She was not committed to him, as shown by her marriage to Tom while Gatsby was away. Gatsby was committed to Daisy, however, which could be seen when he would stare at the light on the deck of Daisy’s house, or the parties he threw hoping she would come.
The relationship between Myrtle and her husband could be considered empty love. There was no apparent love between them, as Myrtle had an affair with Tom and another life that her husband didn’t even know about. However, they remained in this loveless relationship instead of getting a divorce.
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The relationship between Myrtle and George Wilson can be considered to be empty love according to Sternberg’s terms. It seems that the only thing keeping the two of them together is their marriage; they show no interest in each other. Myrtle is off having an affair with Tom while George is completely clueless of it.
Tom and Daisy’s relationship can also be defined as an empty love because they really show no intimacy or passion towards one another. Since Tom is Myrtle’s significant other, he most certainly does not share the same kind of romantic love with his wife, Daisy. Tom and Myrtle even have their own apartment together, despite already having homes with their own spouses.
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Daisy did not share Gatsby’s consummate love for her in 1917. What Daisy had was an infatuation or possibly romantic love. Although she promised Gatsby she would wait for him after the war, she was engaged to Tom Buchanan by the following year. Daisy had no commitment with Gatsby, but she later proved she had commitment for Tom by killing Myrtle with Gatsby’s car. That was basically all she had for Tom. They shared a base of empty love.
As years went by, Gatsby and Daisy grew far apart, thus, they lacked intimacy. Gatsby’s love for Daisy downgraded to fatuous love, while Daisy’s love for Gatsby was still infatuous. She did not like Tom and his mistresses, and needed a little excitment in her life. After Daisy killed Myrtle with Gatsby’s car, Gatsby defended her by saying he was the driver. He defended Daisy through passion, and if it were not for George Wilson, Gatsby’s love for Daisy could have grown again into consummate love.
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Throughout The Great Gatsby there were several mixed feelings centered around the idea of love. It seemed that while each relationship could be defined differently, each person’s view of their own relationship was different as well. An example of this is the relationship of Daisy and Gatsby. While Daisy’s “voice was full of money”, it showed that perhaps she was more in love with money than Gatsby. Because of this, her love is infatuation. While she did not hold much commitment towards Gatsby since she did not wait for him after the war and chose to marry Tom instead, it seems that she was infatuated with money and the idea of Gatsby rather than Gatsby himself.
However, Gatsby’s love for Daisy is fatuous. While he holds parties every weekend in hopes that Daisy will come back to him, it shows his commitment towards her. In addition, he committed himself to moving near her and becoming a new man just to win her back. In addition to being committed to her, Gatsby is in love with Daisy and has so much passion towards her.
George and Myrtle’s relationship is nothing but empty love. While it seems that they only cause each other pain, they hold no compassion or commitment towards the other. Myrtle cheats on George with Tom, which shows that she has no loyalty or love towards her husband. Because it takes George a while to learn of her affair, it seems that he does not have much concern towards her. George and Myrtle seem to be a very unhappy couple, sharing a mutual feeling of empty love.
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Sternberg’s terms could be releavent to pretty much any character in, “The Great Gatsby.” 2 specific terms that I could focus on would be infatuation and empty love. Myrtle and George Wilson’s relationship from Myrtle’s perspective was empty love. Along with Tom and Daisy from Tom’s perspective was empty love. Both of which were in relationships that were “dead” and where having affiars with other people.
The reason Tom and Myrtle feel their relationship with their spouses were empty love was because their relationship together was and example of infatuation. They each lied to their spouse to be with one another and then they had an apartment together. They had infatuated love by Sternberg’s terms.
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The relationship between Daisy and Tom would be defined as empty love. The only thing keeping them together is commitment; together they are wealthy and have a stable lifestyle. Daisy only married Tom because she did not know exactly when Gatsby would come back. After the climactic events that included the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, and Gatsby Tom and Daisy fled the scene with each other to regain regularity in their lives. The relationship between Tom and Mrs. Wilson would be defined as infatuation. They were passionate, but that was it. Tom would meet Mrs. Wilson at a predetermined time and place, and after they were done what they were doing, they went their separate ways.
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There were many relationships found within F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The most prominent relationship was that of Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby’s love for Daisy was considered fatuous love, because of the passion and commitment he proposed for her even after being five years apart. Though it appeared that Gatsby and Daisy were physically committed, in reality, they actually knew very little about each other. Gatsby enriched a new status and personality. Daisy married Tom; and although Gatsby saw this, he still elongated his passion and commitment for her, hoping that she would one day return back to him. Daisy’s love for Gatsby, however, was considered infatuation love, because she instead lacked commitment and passion for Gatsby. Daisy stated to Gatsby, “I love you,” shortly after “kissing him on the mouth” (Fitzgerald 116). These actions were faulty on Daisy’s behalf, because she was only doing them to get back at Tom, and not because she wanted to rekindle her love for Gatsby. Soon after, she even stated to Gatsby that her love for Tom was not over. Another relationship that was evident within the novel was that of Tom and Daisy. This love was considered “empty love.” They both lack commitment, passion, and intimacy for one another, because they both possessed alternate “relationships.” Tom and Daisy ultimately lost trust within each other, which was the building block for any relationship.
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Nick and Jordan – Liking
They have intimacy since they spend so much time with each other, share their opinions about Tom and Daisy’s relationship, and even spent the evening together at Gatsby’s party. It was obvious they enjoyed spending time with each other and had gotten to know each other pretty well. Nick had come to know Jordan was a bad driver and Jordan knew Nick wasn’t a careless person. They are lacking commitment to each other, since two years after the funeral Jordan had already found another man and got engaged. There was also no passion apparent to the reader; their love story always came second to that of Gatsby and Daisy.
Nick and Gatsby – Compassionate
I believe that Nick and Gatsby had a compassionate relationship. There was no passion between the two, but they showed levels of intimacy and commitment. Even though Gatsby had some qualities that Nick did not like, he was still fond of Gatsby, and even in awe of him. He showed his commitment by helping Gatsby find his way back to Daisy. Gatsby, in turn, also liked Nick, and trusted him enough to tell him the real story of his past, a story few people knew. Nick was committed to Gatsby all the way up to the funeral.
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Many different types of relationships are lucidly seen in the Great Gatsby. Daisy and Tom, a married couple with a young daughter, unfortunalty share a relationship of empty love. Bounded by their daughter and societies opinion that divorce is wrong, these two people remain in a loveless marriage. While Tom still has some feelings for Daisy, he repeatedly cheats on her and has an apartment with another woman. Daisy feels no love towards her husband and she hasn’t for years.
Gatsby, on the other hand, has not seen Daisy for five years and is still remains in love with her. Yet, his type of love is fatuous, as even though he is passionate and is committed, there is no intimacy between them. They have not spoken for years, and he really knows nothing about the person she has become. Daisy does have feelings for him once he returns into her life, but for the five years preceding the summer they were re-introduced, she did not share his obsession with their relationship.
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The Great Gatsby is full of love triangles, a major one being between George, Myrtle, and Tom. George possesses Fatuous love for Myrtle. He’s married to her, therefore he’s committed. After her death, in “a fit of passion” so to speak, George kills Gatsby because he believes Gatsby was Myrtle’s lover. On the other hand, Myrtle is married to George, but no longer has any feelings toward him. This is Empty love. Myrtle and Tom’s love for one another is nothing more than infatuation. They are in a relationship because Myrtle wants to have things she could never afford with George, and it seems that her and Tom are only sexually intimate. Tom doesn’t have any deep feelings for Myrtle, as is shown when he punches her for mentioning his wife’s name. The love triangles in the Great Gatsby are usually based on selfish interests, like those of Tom and Myrtle, while people who are genuinely in love with their spouses, like George, are rare.
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Fatuous love contains passion and commitment; however, it lacks intimacy much like George Wilson’s love for Myrtle. George wants to have intimacy as well, but that is hard because Myrtle is not committed to him. “‘I want to get away. My wife and I want to go west.’ ‘Your wife does,’” George and Myrtle do not have consummate love between each other because George is passionate and committed to Myrtle but lacks intimacy with her while Tom is in the picture. George would like to get Myrtle away from Tom in hopes to create a perfect marriage with consummate love. Myrtle cannot commit to her husband because she likes Tom. She has an intimacy with him but is not infatuated with passion or committed to him. To Tom their relationship is a companionship with intimacy and commitment until he discovers Myrtle has not totally disregarded her husband for him, “He had discovered that Myrtle has some sort of life apart from him.”
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In The Great Gatsby, Tom and Daisy’s relationship is very similar to the relationship between George and Myrtle. According to Sternberg’s classifications of love, both of the relationships would be considered “Empty Love” due to the commitment of marriage but lack of passion and intimacy within that marriage. It seems that both Tom and Daisy, and, George and Myrtle are married just to be married. They express no sexual interest in each other or any interest in each other at all. In fact, in both relationships, one spouse is having an affair. Tom is cheating on Daisy with Myrtle and George is being deceived by Myrtle while she is off with Tom. While it is obvious that Tom and Daisy’s relationship is dead along with Myrtle and George’s, they continue to stay tied down in their lifeless relationship making it “Empty Love”.
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In The Great Gatsby, the protagonist Nick Carraway becomes involved in an affair with an affluent pro-golfer Jordan Baker. Their relationship most closely resembles romantic love because neither one of them is committed to the other person. However, they are both passionate for each other, and to some degree intimate as well. While Nick and Jordan are definitely acquainted, they do not have much in common and thus cannot fully connect with each other. Nick quickly realizes that “the bored haughty face that she [Jordan] turned to the world concealed something…she was incurably dishonest.” (Fitzgerald 57) This comes into direct conflict with Nick’s view of himself; he sees himself as “one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” (Fitzgerald 59) In addition, Jordan comes from the “old money” background personified in East Egg, while Nick is part of the “nouveau riche” of West Egg. Eventually these differences lead to the end of their relationship at the end of the summer.
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The Great Gatsby seems to intentionally highlight unfortunate forms of love. It could be said that Tom and Daisy had empty love. They were married, but both of their hearts were elsewhere. Tom’s relationship to Myrtle emphasizes his lack of interest in Daisy, while Daisy barely intended to marry Tom in the first place. Meanwhile, Gatsby’s love for Daisy is of the fatuous variety. His obsession with her stretches for years, showing committment. He is clearly passionate, hosting many lavish parties just on the off-chance that she’ll come to one. However, she remains distant from him; just a far off light on the end of the dock.
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The relationship between Gatsby and Daisy is considered a fatuous love, there is passion and commitment. When Gatsby and Daisy first meet there is so much passion between them, this is the beginning of fatuous love. Then they lost each other for a long period of time, but when they came back and reunited. Throughout these years Gatsby still longed to find Daisy and still obsessed over her. This longing and obsessing showed his love for her and his commitment to her. The second part of fatuous love.
Going along with Daisy there is also the love between Daisy and Tom. Their love would be considered empty love. They both weren’t in there relationship 100%. Each one had their mind set on something else. There was no passion in their relationship, they were always looking for something else that their relationship wouldn’t give them. There are many other love connections and relationship in The Great Gatsby that revolve around the love triangle.
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The relationship between Daisy and Tom in The Great Gatsby was empty love. They were committed to each other only in marriage, but no longer felt any passion or intimacy. Both had relationships with others outside the marriage. Daisy had a romantic relationship with Gatsby. Tom also had a romantic relationship, but with Myrtle. Both of these lacked commitment, but had the passion and intimacy that was not felt in the marriage of Tom and Daisy. When Gatsby told Daisy to tell Tom she never loved him, she responded,”‘Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom,’ she admitted in a pitiful voice. ‘It wouldn’t be true.’ ‘Of course it wouldn’t',’ agreed Tom. She turned to her husband. ‘As if it mattered to you,’ she said” (Fitzgerald 133). This shows that even though both Tom and Daisy admit to having loved one another, it is now meaningless, and thus a relationship with empty love.
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In the Great Gatsby, an example of empty love would be the relationship between George and Myrtle. In the case of George and Myrtle, the only thing that is holding their realtionship together is commitment, or the fact that they are married. they have no interest in eachother anymore, and have no passion or intimacy for eachother. This is espeshally true of Myrtle’s feelings toward George, as she claims that she only thought she loved him but them realised soon after that she no longer loved him. George does not seem to have passion or intimacy for his wife, anymore, and seems upset when he learns of her affair simply because she is his wife and that it was going on without him knowing, rather than the fact that he was in love with her.
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The relationship of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan correlates with Sternberg’s “Love Triangle” theory. Gatsby and Daisy have a relationship that can be considered both unhealthy and unstable forms of love: infatuation and fatuous love. Daisy, being infatuated with Gatsby because of his status, money, and anything materially luxurious does not stay infatuated with him for long after he leaves for the war; as exemplified, “…she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men, and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress…” (Fitzgerald 151). Gatsby, possessing fatuous love, falls in love with Daisy and somehow remains committed to her even throughout the five years he was away. Fitzgerald reveals Gatsby’s commitment, “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.” (Fitzgerald 95-6), after Gatsby becomes disappointed in what Daisy had become (or what he finally realizes she is).
Fitzgerald elaborates exactly how far Gatsby would go in order to win back Daisy, and it becomes a problem because Daisy is already married to Tom. On Daisy’s part, she was not in love with Gatsby; just his ‘money’. If she truly were, she would not have become bored, date many men after him, and then quickly grab at the one that somewhat fit her ideals.
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Myrtle’s marriage can be considered empty love because it is little more than a binding shell. She and her husband are committed to one another by little else than the fact that they are married. They share no passion or intimacy and Myrtle is not even faithful to her husband. She has an affair with Tom and really does not even try to hide the fact.
Likewise, the marriage between Tom and Daisy could be considered empty love for although they may have at one time had stronger feelings for one another, now they share only a marriage certificate and a house. Like the previous relationship, another member is not even faithful, this time it is Tom who cheats on Daisy with Myrtle.
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The relationship between Daisy and Tom was liking. In the relationship, there was no commitment. Tom had a mistress while closer to the end of the book, Daisy once again fell for Gatsby. Neither one of them seemed to care about the infidelity. As a matter of fact, neither one of them seemed to take their relationship and marriage seriously.
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Several different types of love can be found throughout “The Great Gatsby.” Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship is one of the strongest examples of fatuous love in the book. Their relationship spans a long period of time, a large portion of which they are apart. It starts off strong and is confronted with several challenges and bumps in the road, but is brought together in the end by their undying passion for each other. Gatsby commits to only one women and waits for her. Tom and Myrtle’s relationship could be considered empty love. They are bound to their spouses merely by marriage. This leads me to believe that they are only together because they feel that they have already made a commitment, and even though their feelings have changed, they should still stick to it.
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The relationship between Gatsby and Daisy shows the love triangle theory, joining Gatsby, Daisy, and Daisy’s husband Tom. The love between Gatsby and Daisy is so powerful that it cannot be touched, and so it is ignored by Daisy. She knows it would be wrong to leave Tom for Gatsby for he left her before. But, it is so strong, sometimes they cannot help but show it.
The relationship between Myrtle and her husband George is lost. They just keep living their days in a marriage with no passion or love to be seen or known. They lost that fire they once had for each other and just love each day like that’s the way it will be forever. They have come to terms that life is nothing more than it is right now.
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The relationship between Daisy and Jay Gatsby can be described as “empty love.” Although Daisy did once have feelings for Gatsby, her feelings have slowly faded away with time and her marriage to Tom. Their relationship unfortunately ends up with Gatsby on the losing end. Gatsby still felt the same feelings he had for Daisy after the war while Daisy had moved on. Gatsby devoted his entire life to trying to impress one person, and would stop at nothing to acheive his dream, to one day have Daisy once again.
Unfortunately Daisy no longer has the same feelings for Gatsby as she once did. She dislikes his new and outlandish lifestyle and pushes him away once again. This empty love makes Gatsby realize his dream is lost and the love Daisy once felt for him was gone.
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