A Multi-Dimensional Study Of The Great Gatsby

Francis Scott Fitzgerald, one of the greatest giants among modern American novelists, is hailed as the mouthpiece of the Jazz Age, an outstanding "chronicler", and a most representative author of "the Lost Generation". He is a productive writer, leaving behind him five novels (the last one unfinished), 178 short stories and a lot of letters and essays. He was extremely sensitive to the use of symbols and metaphors, hence a language of conciseness and vividness. He based his creation on his own life experiences to a large extent: many characters in his works can be found to have archetypes either from himself, or from his lover, his wife, his friends, and even his rivals. This makes his books quite readable, because he himself is a legend with a life rich in glory and hardships. Although he fared very hard in his late days, there surged a Fitzgerald revival throughout America and then the world just a few years after his death.The Great Gatsby, as his third novel published in 1925, is viewed as his finest novel in exposing the widespread social abuses of the Jazz Age, the disillusionary nature and distortions of the American Dream, and the crazy pursuit of people after it. This dissertation intends to make a systematic study on the novel from three dimensions: first, a glimpse of the contents of the novel to give an overview about what the novel is about; character studies in association with the author's life; a psychological approach to several aspects of the novel and the author.In terms of the first dimension, the author rendered the lavishness of the Jazz Age, exposed the disillusionment of the American Dream, criticized the immorality of the wealthy people, condemned the abjectness of some beautiful and materialism-oriented women, and highlighted the sarcasm conveyed by the title "the great Gatsby".In terms of the second dimension, the novel is really enchanting and true to life because the author drew heavily on his own experiences, projecting his own split nature both as an involver in the extravagance of the Jazz Age and as a cool judge onto Gatsby and Nick respectively, mapping the backgrounds and personalities of Ginevra and Zelda onto that of Daisy, and the personality of other people around him onto Tom and Jordan and so on.In terms of the third dimension, psychoanalytic approaches are employed to the analysis of the characters, the unavoidability of Gatsby's tragedy, the author and the relationship between the author's anxiety over the society and his writing. Firstly, the Freudian theory about unconsciousness and the principle of pleasure is employed to the personality analysis of Gatsby, coming to conclusion that Gatsby is driven at the innermost bottom of his heart by his libidinal desire for Daisy despite all his grand dreams, noble ideas and the deficiencies of Daisy as an ideal object of love and marriage. Secondly, the Freudian theory about the psychic structure of id, ego and super-ego is applied to a comparative study between Gatsby and Fitzgerald as well as to the personality analysis of the main characters. This analysis comes to the conclusion that Gatsby is driven by his libidinal desire for Daisy on the id level (the same conclusion as obtained by using the unconsciousness theory above), pursues to invent a fake image of a big shot on the ego level as a result of his forced adjustments to the prevalent social values, and develops a conflicting personality on the super-ego level, moral and immoral at the same time.An important discovery is achieved, that is, Nick is mainly acting as Gatsby's super-ego giving judgments and warnings to him. Personality analysis of the group characters including Tom, Daisy and Gatsby's guests shows no apparent differences on the three levels of their personalities. In other words, they live mostly on the id level, pursuing the principle of pleasure without considering the moral values of their behaviors. Thirdly, Adler's theory about the feelings of inferiority and pursuit of superiority being the driving forces of personality is applied to the personality analysis of Gatsby and Fitzgerald. Fourthly, the theory about collective unconsciousness is used to probe into the archetypes of the American Dream, justifying why it is doomed to fail by summarizing the few abnormalities about the pursuit of the dream from several famous American literary works. Fifthly, the theory about the relationship between neurosis and creativity is used to argue that Fitzgerald in fact found an outlet in writing to release his own disappointment, repression, anxiety, etc., to show his own deep insights into the abuses of the society in order to warn the public of their destructive forces in hope for an improvement.The Jazz Age is a special period of time in American history. It is a period of national economic prosperity and personal pursuit of materialism, which is followed by the Great Depression of the nation, from which America could not revive for quite a long time. It is a heavy blow not only to individuals, but also to the whole nation. Fitzgerald integrated his lives and his understanding of them into his works, and produced a large number of socially critical and thought-provoking works, among which The Great Gatsby represents the peak of perfection of his art. This novel, presenting before our eyes a true picture of the social psyche and culture of that age, provides a stage on which is played a cautionary tragedy about a grand but irrational dream shattered by a distorted way of pursuit and by cruel social realities such as selfishness, carelessness, hypocrisy, and barbarity rooted in materialism. Its cautionary tone still tolls till today not only to the American people, but also to the whole world.The writer of the dissertation approaches this great work by combining a careful reading of the original novel, a thorough investigation into the life of the author, a conscientious study and a trial employment of some psychoanalytic theories for a better understanding of the work. The writer collects and studies important books, journal papers and online resources published both home and abroad so as to form a systematic view of what has been achieved and what is still weak about this work and its author. Based on this, the writer proceeds to find the points of breakthrough of the research. With all the preparation, a deep exploration into the relationship between the author's life experiences and the main characters is fulfilled, and an experimental application of some psychoanalytic theories is done in the analysis of the novel in terms of its characters, theme, plot, author and the relationship between the main characters and the author. In one word, the dissertation is the result of wide literature study and justifiable introspective assumption, a combination of literary study approaches from the traditional perspectives of the relationship between the author's life background and his works, and the modem psychoanalytic approach.