Blinded

No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.

                                                                                                                        -Nick Carraway

Gatsby has been in love with Daisy for five years, but in those five years, they have also been separated. During this separation period, he came up with a vision of her that, over time, became less realistic and more idealistic; it became an illusion. He was unrealistically aiming for perfection when Daisy was far from it. Instead of accepting who she had become, Gatsby was trying to relive the past, but this would require him to unite once again with the Daisy he had fallen in love with. Daisy had grown, changed, gotten married; she was not the same. The vision he had of her was not her, but an apparition. It was “ghostly” and unreal, an illusion. Since Gatsby is constantly haunted by his past, he is also haunted by ghosts and he creates and chases them, just like he did while idealizing Daisy. Gatsby is preoccupied with ghosts, therefore making his heart “ghostly”.

The word “ghostly” is also used in another place in The Great Gatsby;

“Gatsby pointed out a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat in state under a white plum tree. Tom and Daisy stared, with that peculiarly unreal feeling that accompanies the recognition of a hitherto ghostly celebrity of the movies.”(Great Gatsby, Chapter 6)

Tom and Daisy seem to have somewhat of an “unreal” feeling while seeing this celebrity in person for the first time. Before seeing the celebrity, she had been like a ghost. Daisy is Gatsby’s “perfect” celebrity. He looks up to her as if she is a Goddess. Daisy had been like a ghost to Gatsby until he finally reunited with her, just like how the celebrity was a ghost to Daisy and Tom.

This quote is so important in the book because it shows just how much Daisy had Gatsby hooked onto her and how much he idolized her, despite her many imperfections. He was blinded by the love he thought he had for her, when in reality, he did not even know who she was anymore. In the picture, he looks at her with such passion and love, as though she is exactly who he wants her to be. But in reality, she cannot be that woman.