Gatsby Quotes - Short Term/Hollow Relationships Flashcards
Nick describes the romantic tales he hears: “abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men”
Chapter 1, Page 4, top
“The air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names”
Chapter 3, Page 27, top
“The groups change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath”
Chapter 2, Page 27, 1/3rd down
Description of the dancing at Gatsby’s party: “old men pushing young girls backwards in eternal graceless circles, superior couples holding each other tortuously, fashionably, and keeping in the corners - and a great number of single girls dancing individualistically”
Chapter 3, Page 31, top
Tom’s reaction to Myrtle’s death: “As we walked across the moonlight gravel to the porch he disposed of the situation in a few brisk phrases”
Chapter 7, Page 91, top
Daisy: “‘Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now - isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.’ She began to sob helplessly. ‘I did love him once - but I loved you too.’”
Chapter7, Page 86, bottom
Daisy accepts Tom’s proposal: “Doubtless there was a certain struggle and a certain relief.”
Chapter 8, Page 96, 2/3 down
Nick ending his relationship with Jordan: “I don’t know which of us hung up with a sharp click, but I know I didn’t care. I couldn’t have talked to her across a tea-table that day if I never talked to her again in this world.”
Chapter 8, Page 99, 1/3 down
“A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about… like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees”
Chapter 8, Page 103, 1/3 down
A random partygoer rings the house and learns of Gatsby’s death: “There was a long silence on the other end of the wire, followed by an exclamation… then a quick squawk as the connection was broken.”
Chapter 9, Page 106, 1/3 down (bottom of block)
Meyer Wolfsheim explaining why he isn’t attending Gatsby’s funeral: “When a man gets killed I never like to get mixed up in it in any way. I keep out”
Chapter 9, Page 9, 2/3 down
Jordan’s reaction to the break up: “You threw me over on the telephone. I don’t give a damn about you now, but it was a new experience for me, and I felt a little dizzy for a while.”
Chapter 9, Page 113, middle
Jordan: “You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person.”
Chapter 9, Page 113, 2/3 down
The funeral: “Nobody came”
Chapter 9, Page 111, 1/3 down
