American Literature and Drama Practice Test 2026 – Complete Exam Prep

Gatsby’s attachment to Daisy is driven by an obsession with an idealized image of her and what she represents, not by Daisy as she actually is. He envisions Daisy as the perfect partner who embodies success, status, and the hope of reclaiming a lost past, and he builds a fantasy world around that image. This obsession shapes his actions—his relentless pursuit, his wealth-building to impress her, and his belief that he can recreate the moment they could have had together—despite reality changing around him. Because the question focuses on this fixation and its fantasy nature, the best description is love and obsession: it captures how Gatsby loves an imagined Daisy more than the real person.

Time and the past is related, since the dream centers on reclaiming what’s lost, but the emphasis here is on the obsessive, fantasy-driven quality of Gatsby’s love. Anaphora is a rhetorical device and not central to Gatsby’s motive. Decay of morality describes a broader theme of the novel, but it doesn’t explain why Gatsby’s feelings are fantasy-based.