For all his attempts to ingratiate himself into the upper echelons of society, Gatsby remains an outsider. No matter how big his mansion, no matter how lavish the parties he throws, no matter how much his extensive collection of handmade designer shirts causes Daisy to weep, Jay will never be accepted as an equal by the East Egg crowd—because even in a decade where society is becoming more open and more fluid, blood still counts.
The likes of Tom and Daisy are perfectly happy to show up at one of Gatsby's legendary soirées and partake in his lavish hospitality, but that doesn't mean they accept him as one of their own. To them, he's just a nouveau-riche parvenu shamelessly trying to buy his way into the social elite.
To paraphrase the great English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, to seem the stranger is Gatsby's lot. There will always be something ineffably strange about this man of mystery with the shady past, no matter how much of his backstory is revealed. Even Nick, who gets closer to Jay than just about anyone, never fully fathoms the man to whom he's become so attached. He too is a stranger to the charmed world of East Egg, but unlike Jay, he's able to fit in more comfortably, given that he's a distant relation to Daisy.
Also, Nick has a heightened sense of self-awareness, something can't really be said for Gatsby. He's spent so much time, effort, and money on turning himself into someone else that he no longer knows who he is. So as well as seeming the stranger to everyone around him, he's also a stranger to himself. And this is his greatest tragedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment