He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence. He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an over-wound clock.
– F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby. Chapter 5, Gatsby’s emotion changes from embarrasment to wonder, it is all too sudden for him to meet Daisy, whom he has been dreaming of for five years. The paradox is that when he achieves the thing he had strived so hard to get, he doesn’t know what to make of it.