The Motif of Eyes throughout The Great Gatsby

THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN ON NOVEMBER 6th 2007

F. Scott Fitzgerald is renown for his mastery of both symbolism and motifs. In The Great Gatsby, this becomes most evident considering the boundless symbols and motifs he employs: eyes, parties, colors, the American dream, etc. The eyes of doctor T.J. Eckleburg are of particular importance and extensively symbolic throughout the novel. Fitzgerald uses the eyes of doctor T.J. Eckelburg to create relative parallels of symbolic importance with the eyes of other characters as well. Cumulatively, he employs the motifs of eyes to, with masterful discretion, criticize American society in the 1920’s.

Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes are described as “[. . .] blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high. The look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose...his eyes, dimmed a little by many painless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground [. . .]” (23). Upon first description, Fitzgerald depicts the eyes as faded, disappointed, sad, and overseeing. We later learn that they look into and over the valley of ashes, the place where those who fail to achieve the American Dream with little to start with end up at. Already, Fitzgerald creates a felling as if the eyes represent god. The usage of the word “brood” in the quote above implies that the owner of the eyes is rather unhappy with what he is watching. The Eyes create an idea of a godly being watching over society. They seem disgusted with society of the 1920’s, the moral decay, and the social decadence that so characterizes the era. Furthermore, the eyes expressively show disappointment in the American Dream which causes people to fail and ruin their lives out of their own self-ambition, which is essentially, another component of the era of decadence.

One of the most significant passages regarding the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg in this novel occurs after Mr. Wilson realizes that Mertyl was cheating on him: "I spoke to her," he muttered, after a long silence. "I told her she might fool me but she couldn't fool God. I took her to the window- " With an effort he got up and walked to the rear window and leaned his face pressed against it, "-and I said 'God knows what you've been doing, everything you've been doing. You may fool me but you can't fool God!' " (167). At this point, Michaelis, who was standing behind him, was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, which had just revealed themselves to the night, “pale and enormous”. In this situation, it can be seen as though the eyes were watching over, with dissapprovement, the entire moral deterioration and scandalous behavior of meryl which was so characteristic of the 1920’s. This passage firmly, and in a non-abstract manner, establishes the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg as god’s eyes. The idea of “she couldn’t fool god”, emphasizes that she couldn’t fool god that she was achieving the American dream, which she never was, and in part, was just another component of the moral decadence of the 1920’s.

Nick’s eyes are continuously mentioned in the narration, in which he discusses things “through eyes”, for example: "After Gatsby’s death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eye’s power of correction." (167). This last quote shows how Fitzgerald often uses “through Nick’s eyes”, to point out a flaw with society which he himself sees. In this instance, Nick shows that his image of the east has seen the impossibility of the American dream which destroys so many superficially people of the 1920’s. Furthermore, Nick tries, or wants, to run away from the destructive force of the American dream in stating he wants to leave, but alas, that is where the reader find’s Nick lacks the epiphany that the consuming, ruinous drive to achieve the American dream is everywhere around him, no matter where he goes, and feeds of the shallowness and decadence of the society of the 1920s.

Conclusively, Fitzgerald uses the motif of eyes to develop his theme of the ruinous impossibility of achieving the American dream which preys infinitely upon the shallowness and decadence of 1920’s society. He does so through the repetition of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes throughout the novel, which represent god, looking down, disappointedly, upon American society, as well as through the insights of nick which directly convey Fitzgerald’s personal criticism of the 1920’s. Eyes are an outstanding example of Fitzgerald’s mastery of motifs and symbols, and one of many which he uses to develop the theme of the factitious nature of the American dream which is inevitably ruinous.