The Great Gatsby Chapters Five & Six ENG4U: Wilson Learning Objectives Understand the importance of rain in this chapter and how it is a metaphor for emotional release Think about the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby and how this is portrayed by Fitzgerald Identify Gatsbys anti-climactic feelings towards Daisy
Find out Gatsbys backstory Consider the awkwardness of the Tom-Daisy-Gatsby relationship Chapter Summary Nick organises a meeting at his house between Gatsby and Daisy Alone with Nick, Gatsby discloses that the
money which bought his mansion was made in just three years Gatsby gives them a guided tour of his house, displaying his possessions, especially his expensive, imported clothes Nick muses on the nature of Gatsby's desire for this woman, and remarks on the intensity of their relationship, eventually he leaves them alone Chapter Summary Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Nick organises a meeting at his house between Gatsby and Daisy Alone with Nick, Gatsby discloses that the money
which bought his mansion was made in just three years Gatsby gives them a guided tour of his house, displaying his possessions, especially his expensive, imported clothes Nick muses on the nature of Gatsby's desire for this woman, and remarks on the intensity of their relationship, eventually he leaves them alone Reporter wants to learn more about the celebrity Jay Gatsby Readers discover information about his past Real account comes from Nick who is our most honest
man you will ever meet Gatsby meets guests including Tom at his house. They leave without him Tom and Daisy attend Gatsbys party together. Gatsby is upset as Daisy not happy. Wants to make things as they once were Nick describes the meeting between Gatsby and Daisy from the past Gatsby obsesses to recreate/relive the memory Gatsbys Blazing House Gatsbys house is like a beacon of light to Daisy, in the same way that her green dock light is a source of
spiritual satisfaction to him. He seems like a man who is afraid of the dark or of the ghostliness that comes from an empty house. For Gatsby, the show of his home must go on to face off the darkness troubling him. His life is essentially empty notice how he talks about glancing into some of the rooms in his house, as if checking to see that everything is perfect.
His home is a showpiece, an emblem of spiritual death. Gatsby and Daisy are reunited It rains throughout chapter 5 (and throughout chapter 8). The connections between these two chapters become clearer towards the end of the novel. Rain is a striking metaphor for spiritual release and this chapter is full of examples of this. Rain and Gatsby's Relationship with Daisy
At 4pm, when Daisy arrives, the rain has cooled to a damp mist. The connections of cool and damp to Daisys character are clear from the previous chapter, where we learned that her feelings for Gatsby faded as his letter became a damp pulp. At the height of Gatsbys discomfort when Nick finds the tensions too unbearable to remain indoors it is again pouring. When Nick returns, Daisy and Gatsby have happily reacquainted. Significantly, the sun shone again, there are twinkle bells of sunshine in the room and Gatsby is again an ecstatic patron of recurring light.
Rain and Gatsby's Relationship with Daisy As Gatsby falls into an anti-climax, Daisy begins to cry. The introduction of the symbol of Gatsbys shirts is very important here. Daisy breaks down at the sight of Gatsby throwing almost obsessively his shirts onto his bed. Rain and Gatsby's Relationship with Daisy 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 a many-coloured 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, with monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head
into the shirts and began to cry stormily. Rain and Gatsby's Relationship with Daisy Daisys moment of release when the soft rich heap dumbfounds her occurs at a moment of wonder and disappointment. Gatsby is, by now, running down like an over wound clock, a result of having spent so many years obsessing over Daisy at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. His sense of sadness and anti-climax combines with Daisys sense of wonder and awe. Shirts connect to time she received pearls from Tom. Mixture of happiness and tears (sunshine and rain) provides a rainbow depicted by the multicoloured array of
shirts on the bed. Gatsby's Relationship with Daisy The episode in which Gatsby and Daisy are reunited in his mansion is significant. It is an encounter that carries an enormous amount of weight in the novel and, discloses to us that Daisy falls terribly short of the ideal version lodged in Gatsby's heart and imagination. It might seem obvious that Gatsby and Daisy have a lot of catching up to do, and would feel the need to talk at length, yet dialogue is kept to a minimum. Their feelings for one and other are communicated through their actions and
through what remains unsaid. Gatsbys Anti-Climax We get the feeling in this chapter that, despite Gatsbys sense of wonder and awe at Daisy's presence, he nonetheless experiences an unusual sense of emptiness and disappointment. Nick makes particular reference to the light at the end of Daisy's dock, the colossal significance, of which, has now vanished forever.
For Gatsby, that light had been a tantalising, spiritual beacon to light his way to Daisy, now that he is within his grasp, it has reverted back to the ordinary. Gatsbys Anti-Climax Gatsby seems to revel in the electric intensity of reaching for an object more than grasping it: I saw that the faint expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby's face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. Five years! There just have been moments even on that afternoon when Daisy stumbled short of his dreams not through her fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart. The trajectory of Gatsby's dream is such that the object of that dream Daisy falls short. This is part of Gatsby's tragedy pursuing a dream that he, himself, has made unattainable.
The Clock Gatsby himself is referred to as an over wound clock in this chapter, which ties him perceptibly to the idea of the passing of time. When he enters Nicks house, he behaves very like a wooden stiff actor, full of unrealistic gesture and poses in a strained counterfeit of perfect ease 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.. The deliberate use of negative adjectives to describe these clocks defunct and over wound reinforce the idea that Gatsby has a skewed and unrealistic idea of time itself. For him, time must have stopped and rewound to the point where he lost Daisy to Tom Buchanan. Old Money, New Money The conflict between Gatsby and Tom, new money and old money, continues to build, especially in Chapter 6. Here, Gatsby fails to understand the old money
behavior of insincere politeness; he mistakes it for actual politeness. Old Money hides its cruelty, and calls it good manners. Nick has clearly come to sympathize with Gatsby against Tom. Toms disdain for the party is to be expected. But that Daisy has a bad time suggests that Gatsby might not so easily be able to recreate their love. There may be too many obstacles Perceptions, Reality, and Superficiality Dan Cody, Gatsbys mentor, transformed himself into a millionaire, but underneath the veneer of material success he remained the pioneer debauchee (a person given to excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures)
Perceptions of the Daisy by Gatsby versus the reality of the situation The fake politeness of Tom versus Gatsbys interpretation that it was genuine Why is Fitzgerald pressing the theme of Perception vs Reality so often? What lessons is he trying to teach? What is the reader supposed to gain from this novel?
