Chapter Five Flashcards
What do Nick and Gatsby arrange?
A date to invite Daisy for tea.
Who does Nick tell Daisy not to bring?
Tom
What is key about this chapter?
It’s the turning point at the centre of the novel where the former lovers meet
What is the reunion between Gatsby and Daisy like? What does Nick do?
Awkward and uncomfortable
Nick leaves the room
What happens when Nick returns?
they decide to visit Gatsby’s mansion
What does nick do after a brief tour of the mansion?
Leave Daisy and Gatsby alone together
What is Gatsby’s house at the beginning of the chapter and how does Nick describe the scene? How does Gatsby behave in contrast
“blazing with light”.
Describes the scene in a dramatic tone, reflecting his fear that his house was “on fire”.
Gatsby’s response is casual and distracted: “I have been glancing into some of the rooms”. - He’s preoccupied with the idea of finally proving his worth to Daisy
How does the chapter end (light)
Another image of electrical lighting: “All the lights were going on in west egg now” - foreshadows realisation
In the central part of the chapter, how do the two reunited lovers provide a different sort of light to electrical lighting mentioned previously in the chapter?
Gatsby “literally glowed” and the room fills with “twinkle-bells of sunshine”.
The contrast between electrical and ‘natural’ lighting emphasises the lovers’ joy and gentle innocence at this point in the novel
How does Fitzgerald use pathetic fallacy to suggest their reunion won’t be a happy fate?
It’s marred by “pouring rain” and a “damp mist”. It only rains twice in the novel, the other time being Gatsby’s funeral
Why does Nick turn down Gatsby’s business proposition at the beginning of the chapter?
Suspects it’s illegal, but his main reason for doing so it that he feels Gatsby is trying to pay him for a “service to be rendered”.
Nick seems to care less that the business is probably illegal than that Gatsby is only offering it to him out of a sense of duty
How does the contrast of the men’s two gardens next to each other symbolise the difference in their characters?
Gatsby’s neatly mown “expanse” has a pristine appearance, symbolising the way his glossy lifestyle covers up the less respectable “little business on the side”
Nick’s unkempt garden suggests that he’s less concerned with appearances and is a more honest character
How is it suggested in this chapter that Nick’s morality has a limit and isn’t consistent?
Nick’s feelings of disgust for the hedonistic behaviour of the east have been overcome by his fascination with it
What proof is there in the novel that Nick is morally corrupt?
- In chapter 2 he witnesses Tom and Myrtle’s affair even though he claims he doesn’t want to.
- In chapter 5, he helps Gatsby arrange a private meeting with Daisy, which makes him complicit in their affair.
- The misted windows of his house during this meeting could symbolise his inability to see that his complicity is immoral
What does Fitzgerald question about Nick?
whether he’s become a part of the society he has such distaste for
Why is it significant that when Gatsby meets Daisy he nearly causes a clock to fall from the mantelpiece?
The clock is significantly already “defunct” - time has stopped for Gatsby because he’s fixated on the past
How does Gatsby seem determined to re-create himself in the image of a European aristocrat? How does this corrupt the core of the American Dream?
He imports his shirts from England, decorates his house with “Marie Antoinette music rooms and Restoration Salons” in the style of French and English royalty, and has a replica of “the Merton College Library” at Oxford University
This corrupts the core of the American Dream - instead of wanting to celebrate the determination of the American working man, Gatsby seems to want to be part of the high society of the old European hierarchy
What happens to Gatsby’s adopted persona in this chapter?
It begins to break down
What view does Fitzgerald present of Gatsby?
A sympathetic view of Gatsby in a vulnerable position
Why does Fitzgerald dramatically change the adjectives used to describe Gatsby?
To create an entirely different image of the character
What is Gatsby’s normally calm exterior replaced with?
“suppressed eagerness”
He’s nervous about being left alone with Daisy and tries to stay close to Nick: “He followed me wildly […] and whispered ‘Oh God!”
What is Gatsby’s carefully considered language replaced with?
An “automatic quality”. Even his well-rehearsed phrase “old sport” is almost forgotten: “he added hollowly, ‘… old sport”.
How is the reader shown Gatsby as his party guests never see him?
As the nervous and likeable lovesick fool
How does Daisy’s presentation in a positive light lend the chapter’s tone?
Together their behaviour and language lend the chapter in an innocent tone
