Answer and Explanation:
This question is about F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby". Nick is the narrator, Gatsby is the main character, and Daisy is Gatsby's love interest.
To better understand the quote we are about to analyze, it is important to know that Gatsby and Daisy had a brief romance before he left to fight in the war. However, not long after he was gone, Daisy, who was already from a well-off family, married the millionaire Tom Buchanan. Gatsby, who was ambitious but poor, ended up becoming a criminal only to make enough money to be with Daisy.
When they finally reunite, Gatsby is also a millionaire. However, over the past five years, his ambition has increased, and his dreams have become too detailed and demanding. He has visualized everything in his mind, which means reality will never live up to his expectations. That is what Nick means when he says that even Daisy fell short of his dreams - Gatsby expects perfection; a perfection that only he knows, because it is all in his mind. As Nick says about Gatsby's dream:
"Almost five years! . . . It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart."
