He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: "I never loved you." After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken.
Chapter 6 · Narrator
Context
After the party, Gatsby confides in Nick about what he truly wants from Daisy. Nick reveals the full extent of Gatsby's demand: not merely a reunion, but a complete erasure of Daisy's marriage and the four years she spent with Tom, as though that time could simply be cancelled.
Analysis
The hyperbolic demand to 'obliterate four years' with a single sentence exposes the magical thinking at the core of Gatsby's obsession—his belief that language can literally undo time and that the past is revisable through declaration. The word 'obliterate' carries violent force, revealing that Gatsby's romanticism is not merely idealistic but destructive: he requires Daisy to annihilate her lived experience, including her marriage and daughter, to conform to his fantasy of temporal restoration.
How to Use in Essay
Essential for essays on Gatsby's impossible relationship to time and the past, or for arguing that his love for Daisy is ultimately a form of control—demanding she deny her own experience to validate his dream.