In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many of the characters lived in their own world of make believe. A theme that is reoccurring through out the story is, "A confusion with the real with the ideal never goes unpunished" by Goethe. This replicates how many of the characters mistake fantasy for reality. Money was the underlining cause of the illusionary world that the majority of the characters where trapped in. Though the narrator of the story was trapped in it all but saw how money had corrupted the reality of Gatsby, Daisy, Myrtle, and Tom.
Jay Gatsby is the main character that lives in his extravagant world of make believe. "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!" (pg 116) Gatsby's main attempt was to get back everything that he had in the past and lost that he forgets that it's entirely impossible. Gatsby, in love with Daisy places her on this high pedestal of everything that he wants her to be. He gets so wrapped up in his desires and expectations that he never stops to realize that Daisy may actually be in love with Tom, her husband. Though Daisy may have loved Gatsby once, there was no real way for Gatsby to ever get Daisy back again. Gatsby had a very platonic view of himself. He lived in the gossip that people spread about him. Being the nephew of the German leader, a spy, a murderer, and his own personal story, being from a deceased wealthy family and been educated at Oxford college, were all roles that he played in his life. He was so absorbed in the lies and the money that wrapped up his life that he never really got a true view of reality.
Daisy Buccannan was another character that was absorbed in all the things that weren't in relation to reality. Daisy was never really in love with Tom or Gatsby. She was obsessed with the money, becoming the only thing that was important to her. She was brought up that way coming from a high class family.
