The Great Gatsby: The incomplete dream
Terra's blog entry about the eye motif in Fitzgerald's tale brought to mind something I had contemplated during my latest rereading.
Nick supposes Gatsby has spent so much time constructing a flawless picture of Daisy in his memory that the real Daisy can no longer fill the hole she left in his heart.
At first, Gatsby hopes that he can somehow rewind their lives and take Daisy back with him to the time before he left her; however, as he later comes to understand, that isn't possible, no matter how hard he may try or how much he may try to change himself or Daisy to fulfill his dream.
Gatsby probably would have been better off if he had never found Daisy again because, as Nick again points out, finding her has taken away the element of fantasy in his lifestyle and forced him to see that his hopes for the future (or rather, for restoring the past in the future) are incompatible with the reality that Daisy is now a part of.
I would even go further to argue that Daisy, too, realizes that Gatsby thinks too much of her. She tries hard to fit into his lifestyle by taking a tour of his home and attending one of his lavish parties, but in the end she too knows that she can no longer make him truly happy (which could explain why she cries during her first visit).