Symbolism of the Green Light in The Great Gatsby Essay Example

Fitzgerald, in his novel the Great Gatsby, reveals a lot about character relationships by developing the use of light throughout the novel. Fitzgerald first reveals this distant, flickering green light that sits on the end of Daisy’s dock.  The green light is directed towards Gatsby’s idyllic dreams for a relationship with Daisy. Besides the green light, Fitzgerald uses the flicker of the bridge to create a sense of Gatsby’s aspirations to experience a relationship with Daisy. The flickering light that this bridge creates is used to examine Gatsby’s journey and rough path to pursue his goals with Daisy. Fitzgerald throughout the novel continues with this theme of light and shows this blazing light that Gatsby’s house brings in times of darkness.  The blazing light reveals how Gatsby has the ability to manipulate light to sway Daisy’s emotions and to unveil his hopes to meet Daisy. In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the motif of light to explore the reality of Gatsby’s aspirations to attain Daisy.

F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes the attractiveness of the flickering green light to examine Gatsby’s ambitions for Daisy. Gatsby gently stood at the end of his dock while he blankly stared at this visually addictive green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. While Nick inspects Gatsby’s attraction to the green light, he notices that this light represents a beacon of hope for Gatsby. The green light emphasizes Gatsby’s unwavering love for Daisy: “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been at the end of a dock.” Gatsby stretches out his hands to the green light which ultimately represents his wants for Daisy. This idea of distance is also being revealed because the green light is on the other side of the water. The green light shows the attractiveness that Daisy presents, but this dream is slowly being destroyed by the distance among them. As the story progresses, developing the theme of light, Gatsby glaring out into the water sees: “If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,” said Gatsby. “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.” Even though Daisy is with Gatsby in this scene the mist reveals the true reality of Gatsby’s aspirations for Daisy. This is the one time in the book that Gatsby wants to reveal his dreams to Daisy, the green light, but the one time he try’s to show her this green light it’s being ironically visually covered by mist. Therefore Gatsby is the only one that has this unachievable reality of their relationship. Having been inspired by the green light, Fitzgerald continues to examine their relationship through the blazing light. 

Fitzgerald uses the blazing light that Gatsby’s house creates to examine the reality of Gatsby’s eagerness to meet Daisy. Nick tells Gatsby that he will set up an arrangement for him to meet Daisy once again. Gatsby then has to make everything perfect and turns on the blazing lights in his house to contrast the darkness of the rain outside. Fitzgerald develops the idea of light to show attractiveness and manipulation: “Two o’clock and the whole corner of the peninsula was blazing with light, which fell unreal on the shrubbery and made thin elongating glints upon the roadside wires.” The blazing light that Gatsby’s house offers is ultimately used to represent the eagerness that Gatsby has to meet Daisy. While this light shows Gatsby's attractiveness to Daisy, it also reveals how Gatsby has the power to manipulate light to attract Daisy. The blazing light in this novel is the first light that attracts Daisy to him, and this is the only light that Gatsby has had control over so far. This reveals to us that Gatsby only can attract Daisy when he has the power to manipulate the light in the novel. Fitzgerald also uses fire to examine the reality of Gatsby’s relationship: “afraid for a moment that his house was on fire.” Nick also reveals this sense of fire that arises in this blazing light of Gatsby’s. This fire represents Gatsby’s ambitions to slowly destroy the relationship between Tom and Daisy to fulfill the reality of his dream.  Not only does this fire represent breaking down Tom and Daisy’s relationship, but represents Gatsby destroying other character relationships, Mr. Wilson, to fulfill his ambitions. Continuing with the theme of light, Fitzgerald uses the flickering light the the bridge creates to compare the past and present ambitions of Gatsby. 

The use of flickering light on the bridge reveals the reality of Gatsby’s ambitions in contrast to his past. Gatsby was driving to the city, they passed a bridge, and the bridge shed a light in a constant flicker across Gatsby’s face. As the light is crossing his face, the skyline of the city slowly starts to arise in front of his eyes and reminds him of Daisy.  This flickering light resembles Gatsby’s flickering thoughts contrasting the reality of Gatsby’s relationship now versus his past: “Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money.” The skyline appears which represents Gatsby’s ambitions for Daisy, and when he sees the city the lights are flickering across his eyes. The flickering lights across his eyes are used to reveal the constant flickering thoughts of his past and present relationship with Daisy. As he goes into the city he remembers the great connection they had in the past but is being constantly reminded of the terrible connection in the present day. Fitzgerald continues with the theme the bridge creates and relates it to the city: “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.” Since the city represents Gatsby’s attraction to Daisy, the city reminds him of the beauty and mystery that Daisy brought to his life. The city is a constant attraction to Gatsby because it reminds him of the beauty Daisy presents, and how Gatsby is still solving the mystery of Daisy within his life.

In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the motif of light to explore the unachievable reality of Gatsby’s aspirations to attain Daisy. Fitzgerald explores the reality of Gatsby’s relationship and reveals that this reality is unachievable. Gatsby follows these seducing thoughts in his mind that ultimately are used to follow his aspirations for Daisy. These thoughts lead him to cause fire and destruction to other relationships throughout the novel and lead him to follow the things he thinks represent Daisy, such as the green light and the city. Gatsby follows the wrong unattainable representations of Daisy that ultimately lead to more distance and corruption within their relationship.