Fidelity in the Great Gatsby Essay Example

The Great Gatsby entails a few months of Nick Carroway’s life, an ex-vet who moved to the rural area of West Egg in pursuit of flourishing in the bonds business. During his time, he meets many characters, the most important of which being Tom & Daisy Buchanan, and Gatsby himself. Gatsby is a curious man, as the way through which he obtained his riches was in the dark, though he used his influence to drive himself closer to Daisy, his ex-lover, in order to try and win over her love for him. F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes fidelity in his storytelling to bring to life a world in which contextualizes the importance of one’s loyalty to another, or perhaps an idea in which they find themselves attached to; Gatsby being an important offender of holding onto his loyalty to one fantasy, Daisy being his lover. Fidelity is as ever-present in The Great Gatsby as it is in real world situations, whether that be in friendship, marriage, or simply two parties putting enough trust in each other to make ends meet to the desired effect. Although, fidelity can be just as easly gained as it is to abandon. As one person can become dubious of the fidelity the other holds towards them, resulting in a spiraling conflict between the two of them if those concerns are brought to light; or perhaps it could be a looming horror between the two of them, the ever-haunting chance that one abandoned the trust of the other, forever an unspoken fear.

Typically, marriage between two people is an agreement to forever hold one’s loyalty to another person. Though the marriage of Tom and Daisy Buchanan juxtaposes that idea, as he and Daisy do not seem very lively of a couple when they’re around one another. More often than not, they are depicted as sad and frustrated when the topic of their relationship comes to light. Though once Nick speaks with Jordan Baker, a famous golfer and friend of Daisy’s, he learns the truth of their relationship, “‘You mean to say you don’t know?’ said Miss Baker, honestly surprised ‘I thought everybody knew.’ - ‘I don’t.’ - ‘Why,’ she said hesitantly, ‘Tom’s got some woman in New York.’” Tom abandons the supposedly unbreakable agreement of marriage for both parties to remain loyal to one another, by committing something anyone would scoff at, adultery. Though Daisy already seems to know of what Tom has been doing outside of her direct knowledge, as Jordan remarks on how Nick doesn’t know about the affair. Daisy chooses to remain blissfully ignorant of the fact that her husband cheated on her, but her problems with their relationship didn’t begin there, as she speaks about the birth of her daughter with Nick, “Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ther with an utterly abandoned feeling, and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl.” during an event like the birth of a child, one would expect that marriage would bond the two as close as possible– literally and metaphorically– although Tom had abandoned the loyalty that comes with marriage long ago.