Psychoanalytic interpretation in “The Great Gatsby”

Lacan’s theory on psychoanalysis opened up a number of different interpretations

for literary texts as it explores the origins of human psychosis and the causes of
human behaviour. Lacan furthers Freudian psychology with his ideas of drives and
desire: biological urges vs. subconscious needs. So, by applying the psychoanalytical
theory to the “The Great Gatsby”, we can come to understand the reasoning behind
why certain characters act and behave how they do through their fears, motivation
and past experiences.
“The Great Gatsby” is an American novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald about the
Jazz Age in 1926. In the novel we see the story of eccentric millionaire Jay Gatsby in
his journey towards achieving Daisy. “The Great Gatsby” is a novel that shows how
different psychoanalytic personalities succeed or fail to achieve the American dream
and about trying to satisfy the unconscious needs of James Gatz, and winning Daisy’s
love. Gatsby’s effort to attain wealth and social status is for Daisy. Gatsby’s effort to
run from his early life, to turn his back on his parents, and to develop destructive
behavior in repressing an early life he did not enjoy, a life of poverty and psychological
trauma. Jay Gatsby isolated himself from everyone and everything; in essence he built
an emotional barrier between himself and those around him. He hosted lavish parties
but in doing so he could be alone. He lived in a huge mansion by himself and only had
a few personal possessions in his own room. Gatsby is in love with a woman he doesn’t
live with and she is the face of his every effort and desire, but deep down it’s a
rejection of everything in his childhood he seeks. Gatsby is running from his former
self, the part of him born of “shiftless and unsuccessful farm people- his imagination
had never really accepted them as his parents at all”. The physical realities of his
boyhood, growing up on a farm in the Midwest with ordinary parents, didn’t live up to
the power of these desires, so Gatsby left his parents and severed contact with them.
By erasing his parents in this way, Gatsby was psychologically releasing himself to be
born again. Meeting Daisy, he was introduced to a previously unknown way of life that
in certain ways matched his unconscious desires. His obsession with Daisy became a
means to bring into existence the person he himself longed to be. But Daisy is not in
herself the object of Gatsby’s desire; she is just one more stage prop in his inner
drama. Gatsby’s love is actually self-love; he is driven by a powerful unconscious
desire to become ‘The Great Gatsby’. Jay Gatsby is governed primarily by his
unconscious and his impulsive instincts and desires. Humans are a product of their
family experiences, and Gatsby's negative experiences had consequences on his
psyche. He left home and took up criminal activities to achieve wealth. Gatsby even
created a facade for himself to hide the fact that he came from a poverty stricken
family.
All of the character’s in The Great Gatsby demonstrate destructive personal
behavior, they all have anxiety, they all have core issues they suppress in their
unconscious.
“The Great Gatsby” is an example of the American dream in which people begin to
seek out pleasure and power instead of individualism. Wealth is easy to come and it is
used as a tool to obtain other desires. The desire for American dream not only causes
corruption but so distruction through characters effort to achieve it. The desire for a
luxury life is why Myrtle is ina affair with Tom. The reason she wants to be with Tom
is because he represents the life of „the rich and the famous”. Also, the desire of money
has corrupted Daisy to marry with Tom and stay with a man who doesn’t treat her
well, but also, there is a possibility that Daisy married Tom to give herself an excuse to
distract herself from Gatsby and possibly forget about him, this fact shows defense
mechanism from fear of abandonment. Gatsby becomes corrupted because his main
and ultimate goal is to have Daisy, to get his lover back and this shows the fixation and
the unhealthy obsession.
Repression is the impetus behind every action or inaction of the characters in The
Great Gatsby. Even the critical junction between Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy results in
Daisy turning her back on Gatsby because she is unable to move beyond her own self
destructive fears of intimacy and status.