As the title of this post says, I think Gatsby is selfish and he is not in love with Daisy.
I'm sure most of us can agree that Daisy is selfish. She loves wealth more than she loves herself probably. I think even if she didn't have a child with Tom, she would still stay with him because he can support her financially and her parents like him. He's rich, famous, and she's afraid of change. When Gatsby tried to impress Daisy, she started crying because of his shirts from Europe. She's materialistic and in it for the money. She only started to get interested in Gatsby again once he gave her a tour and showed her his stuff. But that's enough of Daisy......
Gatsby is selfish because he expects Daisy to just throw away her life to be with him. Sure Daisy is unhappy and gets treated badly by her spouse but, I think it is just selfish to expect someone to completely change their life just because you asked him too. And Gatsby does ask Daisy to.
Maybe if Daisy had grown so tired of her life, she would've already changed things herself. He thinks he is going to save her but she's perfectly capable of saving herself if she wanted to. Also, how is trying to woo someone who already moved on, has a life and family not selfish?
Gatsby is also selfish in terms of not sharing his wealth. He uses all his wealth for himself and trying to impress Daisy. He doesn't think of those in need. He passes by poor people every time he goes to the city and looks down upon them but showing off his fancy car which makes him feel superior. He has no idea how much they could benefit from his help. But no, he needs imported shirts from Europe because that's the only thing worth living for. (totally being sarcastic btw)
On to the part where I said I don't think he's in love with Daisy.......
To elaborate, I mean I don't think Gatsby's in love with Daisy, but he's in love with the version he made up of her in his mind. Think about it, how well did he really know Daisy all those years back? Did they actually spend time talking to each other or did they do what they do now and show up at lavish parties and try to be the next "it couple"? Daisy is very flirty and uses her words without caution. Gatsby might have been interpreting her words differently from what she actually means. So then he goes off to war and Daisy gets tired of waiting. She then marries Tom, because of his wealth, and receives receives a letter. Now this is were I think the letter is from Gatsby mentioning that he's alive and wants to marry her or something. Daisy realizes she messed up.
So why does Gatsby think that by buying a house across the bay and thinking of a plan to get a married woman to leave her husband for him okay? He then throws fancy parties in hopes that Daisy would show up and take him back. Once Daisy comes back into his life, he doesn't get to know her better. It's been five years of planning yet he doesn't try to catch up and try to see if that's the same Daisy he remembers and loves. He's been letting his desires take over him. What's going to happen if Daisy does choose him? Is it going to be like how he wanted and will it live up to his expectations? Or will he realize that life isn't as good as he thought it would be?
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