The Great Gatsby • Chapter 5 

1) The Weather: What is the weather mostly during this chapter? What does water often symbolize?

How could this symbolism of water apply to Gatsby? How does the weather change? What might the

changing weather symbolize?

2) Nick describes Daisy with, “Under the dripping bare lilac trees a large open car was coming up the

drive. It stopped. Daisy’s face, tipped sideways beneath a three-cornered lavender hat, looked out at

me with a bright ecstatic smile….A damp streak of hair lay like a dash of blue paint across her cheek

and her hand was wet with glistening drops as I took it to help her from the car” (85/90). Analyze the

style in this passage. Daisy is supposed to appear to be a flower in this passage. Discuss how the

colors, the hat, her hair, etc. create this effect. Why is a flower an appropriate image for Daisy?

3) Time references: Look for references to hour, day, year, month, etc. including the song lyrics. What

are some of these references? Copy with context two or three examples. Why does Fitzgerald include

so many time details in this chapter in particular?

4) Repetition of “too late”: Fitzgerald repeats this phrase throughout the chapter in seemingly

insignificant lines. Examples include Nick’s line of “It’s too late”(81/86) after Gatsby asks him to go

to Coney Island and Gatsby’s line, “It’s too late!” (85/90) when he thinks Daisy is not coming. What

is the significance of this line given Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship? Explain.

5) “Defunct Clock” symbol: Read the passage where Gatsby knocks the defunct clock of the mantelpiece. Then answer the questions that follow.

“Gatsby, his hands still in his pockets, was reclining against the mantelpiece in a strained counterfeit of perfect ease, even of boredom. His head leaned back so far that it rested against the face of a defunct mantelpiece clock, and from this position his distraught eyes stared down at Daisy, who was sitting, frightened but graceful, on the edge of a stiff chair.

‘We’ve met before,’ muttered Gatsby. His eyes glanced momentarily at me, and his lips parted with an abortive attempt at a laugh. Luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers, and set it back in place. Then he sat down, rigidly, his elbow on the arm of the sofa and his chin in his hand.

‘I’m sorry about the clock,’ he said.

My own face had now assumed a deep tropical burn. I couldn’t muster up a single commonplace out of the thousand in my head.

‘It’s an old clock,’ I told them idiotically.

I think we all believed for a moment that it had smashed in pieces on the floor” (86-87/91-92).

What does defunct mean? Why is this word choice significant? What else is significant about this

passage?

6) Gatsby’s shirts: Daisy has an almost spiritual reaction to Gatsby’s shirts. Read the passage and

answer the questions.

“Recovering himself in a minute he opened for us two hulking patent cabinets which held his massed

suits and dressing-gowns and ties, and his shirts, piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high.

‘I’ve got a man in England who buys me clothes. He sends over a selection of things at the beginning of

each season, spring and fall.’

He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher—shirts with stripes and scrolls and

plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, and monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, with

a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.

‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. ‘It makes me sad because

I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before’” (92/97-98).

What is going on here? Why does Daisy act that way over shirts? What is significant about a spiritual or very

emotional reaction over shirts?

7) Green Light: Gatsby refers to the green light when talking to Daisy. Look carefully at this passage

and answer the questions that follow.

“ ‘If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,’ said Gatsby. ‘You always have a

green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.’

Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted

objects had diminished by one” (92-93/98).

What does the green light symbolize? What does Nick mean by “colossal significance”? What does the last

line mean?

8) Theme of Expectations: Nick describes before leaving, “Almost five years! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. 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” (96)

How does Gatsby’s dream of Daisy compare to the reality of Daisy?

Notes on Chapter 5 

This is the central chapter and the one which brings Gatsby and Daisy together. It takes place largely in Nick’s house before moving across the newly mown lawn into the Gatsby mansion giving him the chance to show Daisy the evidence of his material success – the route not so much to her heart, but to keeping it. The prelude to the tea party is a short description of a meeting between Gatsby and Nick on Nick’s return from New York. Chapters 4 & 5 are consecutive and little or no time passes between them.

Setting:

 House and Garden:

We know that Nick’s house is squeezed between the great mansions of West Egg and it can be useful to see it as a sort of off-shoot of the great wealth that is Gatsby’s – he certainly has few scruples about directing the lawn to be cut and the pair move freely into each other’s spaces. At the start of the chapter Gatsby’s house is lit up, ‘like the World’s Fair’ heightening the sense of advertising and display which Jordan has told Nick about and also causing Nick to fear for the safety of his house. There seems to be a warning here – to continue with Gatsby will bring about destruction in some way. Again the Lucifer idea becomes plausible – a light-bringer who may burn all with whom he has contact. Gatsby offers a ride to Coney Island and a dip in the pool (foreshadowing the end of the book) and Nick accepts neither, brushes off a job-offer and goes happily to bed in his house.

The day of the party is raining, hardly a good omen and images of ‘soggy whitewashed alleys’ and a gardener in a raincoat trying to tame Nick’s lawn – or ‘yard’ as Gatsby refers to it – hardly suggest a positive outcome. By tea time there is a ‘damp mist’ echoing the general fog in Gatsby’s mind and his uncertainty, yet the sun emerges as the pair talk before the wind rises and thunder is heard. The chapter ends in rain. A moment of happiness and calm has been found, but the outlook for the pair, as predicted by nature, is not encouraging.

A clear contrast between Nick’s small house, crammed with Gatsby’s outsize preparations for tea and the vast and ostentatious display of financial power in Gatsby’s mansion is clear. It is in this chapter that Nick recounts the history of Gatsby’s house and the fate of the brewer who had it built. Again, Fitzgerald places the show of material success against the reality of material failure and allows the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Characters:

• Gatsby seems ill at ease in this chapter. His green light/grail/green ball/dream is within his grasp and he fears for the outcome. He is uncertain how to thank Nick and makes a clumsy offer of a job, making it clear that there will be no dealing with Wolfshiem, as though this might be the root of Nick’s scruples. Mention is made of selling bonds and there is a clear foreshadowing of the phone call received in Chapter 9. Presumably Nick was to enter the world of the ill-fated ‘Young Parks’, but he is not ready to cross to Gatsby’s nether world and the offer is rebuffed. Gatsby is anxious about appearances, sends over vast quantities of tea and flowers before losing his nerve and almost leaving before Daisy arrives. Ever the actor, though, once she does arrive – playing up to Nick’s mysterious invitation and exhortations to leave Tom behind, Gatsby (re)enters, as though just arriving. The tension is palpable. As Nick says ‘it wasn’t a bit funny’. Gatsby is gauche and clumsy – he knocks a (broken) clock from the mantle and reinforces the theme of time and man’s attempts to control it. At this point, as the broken clock suggests, the pair are returning to 1917, the point of Gatsby’s departure and he seems to have arranged to stop time momentarily, even if he will never be able to turn it backwards. Nick is relieved to be able to leave but has time to speak to Gatsby. For the only time in the novel, Gatsby is at a loss, behaving like a ‘little boy’ stuck in a world he cannot control. This will not last.

Once Nick returns, the pair are relaxed, the sun has come out and Gatsby’s need for the small house is over – he leads the party next door to introduce Daisy to his world. He bought the house to lure her in, and his success is as absolute as it will ever be. Like his house and like the sun which has emerged, he ‘literally glowed’. He draws Nick’s attention to the light radiating from his house and is so caught up in love that he not only tells the truth about earning the money to buy it (3 years) but cuts Nick off abruptly ‘That’s my affair’ when Nick queries his story. He has no need to act for others –Daisy is his only audience at this stage. She is given the grandest of grand tours, no short cuts, and all designed to impress. The group walk through numerous rooms, all pluralised to emphasise size, before arriving at Gatsby’s relatively modest suite of rooms. Nick is clear that Gatsby is almost trancelike, referring all to Daisy’s gaze and barely aware of his surroundings. His shirts ar ethe final proof of his success in material terms and all designed to impress.

The group return to the drawing room before Klipspringer’s playing of love songs and he shows Daisy the spot where her light glows in the mist. Nick perceives his possible disquiet at this point and muses on the attainment of the dream: ‘perhaps it occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever… Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.’ Only as he says goodbye does Nick really discern trouble in Gatsby: ‘Almost five years! There must have been moments that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams…’ The pair are left in peace, he is bewitched by Daisy’s siren like Death-less song and Nick leaves them together.

• Daisy:

After her excited and conspiratorial conversation on the phone, Daisy’s arrival is interesting. I tis raining, yet her car is open. Unusually she is not white in this scene – her hat is lavender and her wet hair lies like a ‘dash of blue paint’ tasking her out of her usual colour palette – possibly she is about to be eclipsed by the grandeur of Gatsby’s world. After the ‘conscientious’ beginning to the party, Nick leaves and only once he returns do we see a change. Daisy has been weeping and Gatsby is becoming radiant. When she arrived Nick was bewitched by her voice, now it is clear that the emotion is real and unfeigned – ‘her throat, full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of her unexpected joy’.  Nick is clear: she is not bewitching anyone now. She is bewitched. There are signs of her recognition of Gatsby’s immense wealth and consequent attractiveness – for example Nick notices her ‘brass’ buttons gleaming. In the face of Gatsby’s ‘enormous place’, even Daisy’s wealth and golden charm is downgraded. When she weeps into the shirts, she may be weeping for the missed opportunity – this is wealth, not polo ponies, not pearl necklaces can compete with this display of hedonistic materialism. She realises what she might have missed out on. If she is enchanted by material belongings, she is able to recover by the end of the chapter. She whispers in Gatsby’s ear. He is attentive. As Nick comments, ‘that voice held him most, with its fluctuating, feverish warmth, because it couldn’t be over dreamed.’ Daisy in actuality might disappoint – the voice will never lose its ability to enchant.

• Nick:

Functioning as a pandar for this relationship, Nick sees much, comments less and feels little. He observes Gatsby’s emergence from the cocoon of nervousness and recognises the painful significance of the attainment of the dream and the loss of the power of the longed-for object. He guides the reader towards an understanding of the central idea of the attainment of the dream being its own destruction and slips away, leaving the lovers to their new-found world of pink clouds, silk shirts and ‘in between times’.

Ideas:

The central idea of the Dream being destroyed by its attainment is explored in this chapter for the first time. Gatsby’s quest for his grail could be said to be over – he has Daisy and the pair are left alone with their love, but as Nick says at the end of the chapter, ‘as I watched him he adjusted himself a little, visibly’. All has now changed. He has, in a way, wound back time and reclaimed Daisy, yet in doing so he has lost one of his ‘enchanted’ objects and one might feel that he has one less reason to exist.

The idea of the pursuit of material evidence for a successful and happy life is clear from the shirts and Daisy’s evident thrill at the sheer size of his mansion suggests that in New America, the world of post-war profit seeking, the arriviste of West Egg can indeed top the old money and old ways of the East.

There seems little doubt that Gatsby and Daisy were, and are, in love, yet his quickly built façade and her deeply ingrained love of wealth – and possibly of ‘pure’ or ‘cold’ white wealth – will need to be reconciled. At present both are happy and it seems a good place to leave them –despite the thunder in the air. Even as she is entranced by the ‘dull gold’ of the hairbrushes, the adjective suggests that in her presence all else has lost its lustre for Gatsby.