Infatuating Idealism in F. Scott Fitzgerald's the Last Tycoon

Idealism Is undoubtably present in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon.   Infatuation may be a better word, for that was exactly what possessed the main character, Monroe Stahr.   He was totally engorged with one Kathleen Moore.   He idealized Miss Moore as the second coming of his deceased wife Minna Davis.   Stahr was a true man of men that had little to do with women since the tragic passing of his wife.   He would rather put his feet up with a cigar and shoot the breeze with the boys.   Yet once he laid eyes on Kathleen for the first time, all of that changed.   It was love at first sight.  


Kathleen and Stahr meet after an earthquake rocked Los Angles.   Stahr was surveying the damage done to the studio, when a prop came floating by with two "dames" clinging to it for their lives.   A stage hand rescued and presented them to Stahr for judgement.   That was the moment that would change everything.   The following excerpt is a narration of what was going through Stahr's mind when he was struck blind by Cupid's golden arrow.  


    "Smiling faintly at him from not four feet away was the face of his dead wife, identical even to the expression.   Across the four feet of moonlight, the eyes he knew looked back at him, a curl blew a little on a familiar forehead; the smile lingered, changed a little according to pattern; the lips parted--the same." (Chp II, p.26)      


She was Minna, but she wasn't.   All her features were Minna's, except her voice.   "--and then he heard another voice speak that was not Minna's voice."   (Chp II, p.26)   She was obviously British and not glamorous American, as Minna's had been.   Nevertheless, she was a replica of his life long love.   Stahr determined right then that she would be the next.   Before he could get himself together, Kathleen was whisked away by the police for trespassing.   Stahr spent the next few days trying to track her down.   By this time he had fully succumbed to her rapture.   On their third meeting, they...