James Sykes Mr. Jennings Honors Eng III 2/23/14 The Great Narcissist Great Giles Mitchell’s, “The Narcissist: A Study of Fitzgerald’s Gatsby”, claims that the novel contains insuperable evidence that Gatsby is a pathological narcissist who by the end of the book has lost his will to live. Which, in theory, cannot possibly be true considering the Mitchell uses the evidence of which Gatsby had been murdered, rather than committed suicide. themes of perfection and omnipotence in character, and then describes his unique Gatsby’s character by Gatsby with narcissism through a psychological perspective. Gatsby “diagnosing” has his life to make himself seem as if it is perfection. With that made “grandiose” lies about comes a of reality, [and] sense of the claim had been “poor sense entitlement.” (Giles 1). Finally, all these characteristics of Gatsby have helped explain made that the central theme of this that Gatsby had lost the will to live by the end of the novel. Although I agree Criticism essay, in with the idea of Gatsby being a narcissist, I have to disagree with the idea of the will him “losing to I Gatsby as the end of the novel. I do agree, however, live”, because didn’t see “suicidal” near with the psychological perspective that Mitchell conveyed on Gatsby. It really does shine a new light on Gatsby, and the typical characteristics given to him. Mitchell has taken a look from a different perspective, a purely psychological viewpoint to show the medical side to Gatsby’s character. Mitchell theory, and uses the discusses Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic phase “ego- to the part of the superego that includes the rules and standards for establish meaning to ideal” good behaviors (Meyers book for AP 361)ONLY CITE AUTHOR AND PAGE NUMBER
James Sykes Mr. Jennings Honors Eng III 2/23/14 The Great Narcissist Giles Mitchell’s, “The Great Narcissist: A Study of Fitzgerald’s Gatsby”, claims that the novel contains insuperable evidence that Gatsby is a pathological narcissist who by the end of the book has lost his will to live. Which, in theory, cannot possibly be true considering the evidence of which Gatsby had been murdered, rather than committed suicide. Mitchell uses the themes of perfection and omnipotence in Gatsby’s character, and then describes his unique character by “diagnosing” Gatsby with narcissism through a psychological perspective. Gatsby has made “grandiose” lies about his life to make himself seem as if it is perfection. With that comes a “poor sense of reality, [and] sense of entitlement.” (Giles 1). Finally, the claim had been made that all these characteristics of Gatsby have helped explain the central theme of this Criticism essay, in that Gatsby had lost the will to live by the end of the novel. Although I agree with the idea of Gatsby being a narcissist, I have to disagree with the idea of him “losing the will to live”, because I didn’t see Gatsby as “suicidal” near the end of the novel. I do agree, however, with the psychological perspective that Mitchell conveyed on Gatsby. It really does shine a new light on Gatsby, and the typical characteristics given to him. Mitchell has taken a look from a different perspective, a purely psychological viewpoint to show the medical side to Gatsby’s character. Mitchell discusses Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, and uses the phase to establish meaning to the part of the superego that includes the rules and standards for good behaviors (Meyers book for AP 361)ONLY CITE AUTHOR AND PAGE NUMBER “ego- ideal”
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