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| Jay Gatsby |
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| Lawrence Selden |
After reading these pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel,
The Great Gatsby, I noticed a comparison
between Jay Gatsby of this novel and Lawrence Selden of Edith Wharton’s
The House of Mirth. It is among these
pages that the reader discovers Gatsby’s infatuation with and love for Daisy
Buchanan, a woman who he cannot exactly have because of her marriage to Tom
Buchanan. This is similar to the predicament of Selden. Although he is in love
with Miss Lily Bart, Lily is looking for a husband of higher social status and
wealth and does not consider Selden a possibility, regardless of her feelings
towards him. In other words, both men have reciprocated feelings towards women
that they are unable to act on. Because of these feelings, they both experience
feelings of loneliness and sadness that for once, they cannot get what they want.
Gatsby has avoided Daisy for years, only to find out that she really does still
care for him but she cannot do anything about it. Nick even describes that
during her meeting Gatsby, Daisy’s face “told only of her unexpected joy,”
(Fitzgerald, 89). Selden has a similar predicament, as he has to walk around
with the knowledge that Lily does in fact love him, she just refuses to stoop
to his level. However, I only can hope that the comparisons and similarities
between these two men and these two novels end here. In
The House of Mirth, Lily’s constant hope and struggle for something
more prestigious leads to her downfall, and I do not want a similar thing to
happen to Daisy if she gets caught up between her husband and Gatsby. There is
always that possibility, and if Daisy were to ever face scandal, it could cause
her the same problems that Lily Bart came to know in
The House of Mirth.
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