Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Response to Lois Tyson's Psychoanalysis

Looking back on the Great Gatsby from this point of view certainly made the story clearer in ways, such as being able to see some examples of all of the information that I read about a couple nights ago. My new understanding is clearer than it was before, but it is not clearer to me how it was written than it is why it was written. It seems like Fitzgerald custom built this novel for psychoanalysts. As usual, Lois Tyson is intelligent and insightful, however, I disagree with some of her opinions. In the first sentence or two of her analysis, she mentions the "romantic relationships portrayed in the novel." These relationships seem everything but romantic. Gatsby pining over Daisy would be romantic, if he didn't only like her for her money, and it's still not a relationship no matter how much Gatsby wishes it is. Tom and Daisy are also not connected enough to be considered romantic, especially proven by the fact that Tom cheated on Daisy with Myrtle. Also, she clearly writes that Daisy and Tom are not connected at all where she says that "Daisy has no more desire for intimacy with Gatsby than she has for intimacy with Tom. Somehow, Lois Tyson says that Tom and Myrtle have a fear of intimacy, and she makes this conclusion just by saying that, "It's no surprise, therefore, that Tom's relationship with Myrtle lacks intimacy." She is suspecting a fear of intimacy only because of a lack of intimacy, but, in the first place, if this affair lacks intimacy, wouldn't that make it an oxymoron? Overall, Lois Tyson misses a few little things about what she wrote previously as she writes the final pages.

No comments:

Post a Comment