Analysis of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald: "It is Gatsby's artificiality and lack of substance which ultimately forces his down fall. One can not live in dreams alone."

Fitzgerald condemns his readers to the knowledge that the American dream is not the key to eudemonia but rather the stair way which once started upon leads inescapably to destruction. When we refuse to accept reality, we lose it completely. The notion of the American dream is a primary concern in the novel. Coincidentally Fitzgerald shows it to be just that. A dream. The frequent, yet subtle references to theatre, fantasy and ideals throughout the …

…the barrier of that "last hope", the commitment to the "following of a grail", Gatsby was gone. The fact that he was shot by Wilson is irrelevant for in truth he was already dead the moment that shimmering "green light" faded. Instead of attaining happiness in the pursuit of the dream Gatsby is destroyed by it. Like his elaborate library, with absence of one book, or one hope, the entire thing "was liable to collapse".