The Great Gatsby: Context: Zelda Fitzgerald

The Influence of Zelda Fitzgerald on The Great Gatsby:

Zelda Fitzgerald was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife and muse, and she had a profound influence on his works, including The Great Gatsby. Her experiences, personality, and the dynamics of her relationship with Fitzgerald all find reflection in the novel.
Zelda was a socialite and a symbolic figure of the Roaring Twenties. She was known for her vivacious personality, unconventionality, and rebellious spirit, much like the character of Daisy Buchanan.
She was often described as the original ‘flapper’, a term used in the 1920s to describe a new breed of young Western women who flouted conventional standards of behaviour and dress and indulged in bold, modern lifestyles. The independent and colourful personality traits of flappers are noticeable in the female characters of The Great Gatsby, particularly Jordan Baker.
The tumultuous, complex, yet passionate relationship between Zelda and Fitzgerald is mirrored in the relationships between characters in The Great Gatsby, especially Daisy and Jay Gatsby. Their love story is fraught with intensity, drama, wealth, and ultimate tragedy, much like that of the Fitzgeralds.

Zelda’s Mental Health and its Impact on The Great Gatsby:

Zelda Fitzgerald suffered from what is now recognised as bipolar disorder. Many critics and historians believe that her mental health struggles significantly influenced Fitzgerald’s work.
Zelda’s psychological difficulties and her stay in various sanatoriums could have been a driving influence behind Fitzgerald’s portrayal of emotional turmoil and elusiveness in Daisy, and more broadly his exploration of the darker side of human emotions and the American Dream.
The emotional extremities and destructive tendencies of Gatsby’s obsessive love could be seen as a reflection of the uncontrollable aspects of Zelda’s behaviour and emotions.
Fitzgerald famously said of his wife, “I used to wonder why they locked Zelda in, then I came to realise that it was because it was she who had the key.” The sense of entrapment and impossibility of escape evident in this quote can also be seen in the tragic endings of both Gatsby and Daisy.

Zelda as the Inspiration for Daisy Buchanan:

Many interpret Daisy as a literary projection of Zelda, representing her beauty, charm, and frivolity, as well as her emotional instability and the materialistic culture she embodied.
Zelda’s wealth, social status, and the freedom they afforded her, along with her ultimate retreat into mental instability, could be paralleled with Daisy’s character, who lives in opulence and social privilege, but is unfulfilled, unhappy, and trapped in her own way.
Despite all her vivacity and allure, Daisy is depicted as quite shallow and careless, reflecting a critique of Zelda’s lifestyle and the whole Jazz Age flamboyance and decadence.
Both Zelda and Daisy show the dichotomous nature of the American Dream- the promise of limitless possibilities on the one hand, and the hollowness and disillusionment it can engender on the other.