Motivational speaker and best-selling author Steve Maraboli once stated that “the past will be your teacher if you learn from it; your master if you live there”; this, in many ways, can be applied to life scenarios. It can also be applied to the personal life of American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and his most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, as the concept and role of the past is questioned several times. Much of Fitzgerald's love life can be seen through the relationships of Gatsby's characters, such as the tumultuous romance between Daisy and Gatsby, and this was intentionally done by the author to cement his life experiences within a novel he died believing was a failure. Outside of Daisy and Gatsby's relationship, on the other hand, there is Nick Carraway who demonstrates the constructive forces that will bind Daisy and Gatsby together; Because Nick is biased and shares many of the same opinions as Gatsby as a result of their friendship, Nick becomes Gatsby's reassurance that what he is doing is logical and moral when, in reality, Gatsby is completely disillusioned with his love for Daisy. Ironically, Fitzgerald also wrote himself into each of the novel's characters to illustrate how he embodies both destructive and constructive forces, a paradox that shows the disillusionment of both Gatsby and Daisy's relationship and Fitzgerald and Zelda's relationship. Fitzgerald weaves the lust- and love-filled story of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan to mirror his life with his wife Zelda, and writes himself into each character in the process to illustrate the opposing factors in relationships within The Great Gatsby as well as the his personal In the glorious period following Fitzgerald's first successful novel, they became accustomed to the glamorous celebrity life that was available to them but not long after, Zelda's physical and mental health began to deteriorate, effectively putting the their marriage. The Fitzgerald family traveled frequently, never permanently residing anywhere, but instead moving from hotel room to apartment to rented house for most of their lives. During one of their stays in France in 1928, Zelda began to practice dance and was invited to dance with the Royal Ballet of Italy and, although she refused, she continued to dance, which eventually led to her first hospitalization in Switzerland for exhaustion. Here she is officially diagnosed with schizophrenia. From this point on, Zelda is almost constantly hospitalized in a mental health institution such as Johns Hopkins Hospital while Fitzgerald drowns himself in alcoholism to cope with the deterioration of not only his wife but also his marriage. Even as their relationship suffered from heavy burdens, their love undoubtedly persevered, seen through the multitude of letters between the two as Zelda was hospitalized. In a 1930 letter to Fitzgerald, Zelda wrote “Wasn't it fun to laugh together at the telephone? You are so infinitely sweet and dear - O my dear - my love, my sweet infinitely inexpressible treasure, I love you so much... If all