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The 1925 novel, Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald follows an upstanding young man, Nick Carraway as he tells the tragic story of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, attempts to pursue Daisy Buchanan, a wealthy woman whom he loved in his youth. Fitzgerald creates an ‘artificial world’ where money is the object of everyone’s desire. Capitalism drowns the characters, the setting, and the plot, manipulating the morals of the constructs. The 1920’s therefore marked the time when capitalism and a desire for wealth overtook religion. In the novel, there are few, if any, characters displaying faith in God, the spirit, or principled ideals. It consists of disapproval towards religion and a lack of morality presented through tone, personification, and (something of structure) and utilizes characters such as Catherine, Tom, Wilson, and Gatsby to reveal the trends of living in modern society. The novel provides commentary on the social life of America in 1920.
The religious influence in ‘Great Gatsby’ was presented to be from the 1920s, also called the progressive age. It was a time when religious beliefs were challenged by capitalism and where religion was not dominant at all and rather it was looked down upon. Characters of the upper class who lived in East Egg have a noticeable lack of a godly presence in their time in the novel, Daisy and Tom Buchanan married couple have such a deep unethical understanding. It starts with the obvious fact throughout the novel: they’re both cheating on each other. Tom with Myrtle, Daisy with Gatsby. They both know they’re doing it; the immoral feature comes up from the wrongful act of adultery. More evidence against Daisy’s lack of spirituality is made with a comment from Daisy during one of Tom’s parties at the secret apartment, “she’s a catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce’. Nick then informs the reader, ‘Daisy was not a Catholic’. This is humorous in a way to read because Nick as the narrator is informing us of how every irreligious Daisy is by seeing through this simple lie. Catherine speaks of Catholicism in a disapproving tone, using it as an excuse for Tom’s refusal to abandon Daisy. She judges Daisy to be the ‘antagonist’ for not letting Tom divorce her when that is definitely not the case. Daisy’s lack of spirituality is highlighted when she cheats on Tom herself. Someone with a deep-rooted religion would not judge as Catherine does and would recognize that what Tom is doing is morally wrong. Through Nick’s perspective, we come to realize that religion is very truant from the construct’s lives. In this situation, religion simply serves as an excuse for Tom’s not accepting Myrtle’s marriage proposal. Tom’s case is different. Openly despises the idea of a god as he, ‘ exchanged of frown with T.J. Eckleburg’. Tom exchanges frowns with Eckleburg. Not only is this moment a sign of God looking down upon a decaying society who have disregarded good morals and religion, but it also shows us how Tom personally doesn’t believe in a God and has no morals himself. Tom’s frowning illustrates his disapproval of God and is even angry that anyone had the audacity to judge him. This can be seen as Tom’s condescending attitude to even God.
Set in Roaring Twenties, The Great Gatsby vividly captures the historical moment of the economic boom of post-war America, the new raging parties, and the free-flowing illegal liquor. As Fitzgerald describes it, the era was “a whole race going hedonistic, deciding on pleasure.’ It was an era where the morality of the people was changing as they began to now spend time and wealth on money-oriented treasures with a complete loss of religious direction. Religion had always been the foundation of many people’s lives, providing them with an ethical framework and enriching people’s morals, for the welfare of the individual themselves and the society at large. In ‘The Great Gatsby’, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg symbolize god and the way traditional religion and morality disappear from everyday life. The only character that invokes God is George Wilson who expresses that ‘God sees everything.’ This statement holds all the characters to account through the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg. Nick, besides Wilson, is the only other character to recognize this allegation. He frequently describes the eyes as (YEE). The personification of the billboard in the lines giving human-like qualities to a divine entity provides relatability to the reader. This also presses overwhelming emotions of dejection onto the reader as ‘God watches’ his ‘children’ lose faith in him and live their lives with immoral standards. The fading yet dominant image of the ‘eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’, who is explicitly identified as ‘God’ through symbolism, is also quite ironic. Wilson is shown to be a troubled hermit, standing outside the borders of traditional religion. He draws on his infatuation with an all-knowing and hypercritical presence in his married life to account for his manipulative and disciplinary attitude towards his wife. With an intent to provide comfort, when Michaels asks Wilson if he attends church, Wilson replies, ‘Don’t belong to any’. This suggests that Wilson doesn’t really have any value for religion in his life, and he merely uses it as a way to excuse his horrid behaviors. The only hope of a character who could have had some connection with god is now disapproved as his lack of connection with a church leads him to the rage that comes with wanting to kill Gatsby. This just comes to show you that the traditional ideas of God and religion are dead here and the American dream is direly corrupted. The fact that religion is absent among even the lower levels of society where there is a desperate need for hope and happiness, suggests that a moral standard is absent. This, in turn, generates and highlights the idea that capitalism and the desire for wealth have replaced faith and trust in religion.
**Instead of being guided by the moral precepts of religion or of God, a majority of the characters find other codes to determine their behaviors: a father’s advice, a self-serving mantra, a jaded viewpoint, or an undying love.
F. Scott Fitzgerald lived in an era that had a major change in morality. It was a time when it became more common to fight the traditional living aspects and grow older with the arising of flappers, constant threats of prohibition, accumulation of wealth, and disregard or a lack of empathy for others. The fact that F. Scott Fitzgerald almost completely excluded the presence of a god-like figure in his novel, creates a new standard of immorality in the characters. The characters in Great Gatsby serve as figures of privilege, people who see themselves as being unbound by standard morality. This is challenged when Myrtle is run over by a car and Gatsby is killed as a result. The elitism of the rich, in the end, is nothing more than an excuse for bad behavior. It does not protect them from the repercussions of immoral behavior. The example of Jay Gatsby is central to a discussion on the special morality of this group of people. Gatsby puts a great emphasis on achieving a certain dream of love. This dream is, in itself, pure. Yet, to achieve his goal of marrying Daisy, Gatsby must break up the marriage (between Tom and Daisy), effectively undoing two lives in order to make his own life. (YEE) Gatsby never doubts the validity of his position, morally or otherwise, and maintains confidence even in the end after Myrtle has been run over. He waits for Daisy to call. George Wilson comes instead as an arbiter of misplaced moral justice and Gatsby’s dream comes to an end. Jay Gatsby, the dreamer and romantic, is a liar and a criminal (as a bootlegger) and even Nick sees him as being a low sort of person at first. Regrettably, Daisy did not wait for Gatsby. She was more engrossed with wealth and the social power that came with it. So when Gatsby went to war, Daisy did not wait, rather she married Tom Buchanan who had lots of ‘old money’. Daisy serves as the mouthpiece of the society she lives in as she leaves a man she loved simply because she couldn’t be patient with him and because he didn’t have sufficient funds to support her lavish lifestyle.
The lack of a presence of a god turns the characters in Brick Gatsby into wrongful and truly immoral people with their actions and beliefs caused by this void in their lives. The theory of evolution and the desire for wealth and social standing have altered the way religion is perceived by the people. Due to the absence of religion, there is an observed decrease in the morality of the characters in Great Gatsby.
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