Gatsby:
Gatsby isn’t introduced until chapter 3 when he is shown as a gentlemen with a mystery to him.Gatsby’s character represents as a wealthy man who lives in a big house in East Egg, at least from the outside he is seen this way. Nick describes Gatsbys appearance as,“Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt and a gold-coloured tie”. However the reader learns throughout the book that his life as an adult has been purely making unrealistic dreams for himself to get Daisy back.
Gatsby goes to war and we know this because he says this to Nick when they first meet.“I was in the Sixteenth Infantry until June nineteen-eighteen”. Another quote that shows Gatsby was an officer is when Jordan explains to Nick the story of seeing Daisy and Gatsby together before he disappeared off to the war. She says; “The officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wanted to be looked at … his name was Jay Gatsby”.
This was the breaking point of Gatsby because by going to war he lost a very important part in his life which was Daisy. It is an event that causes problems and other significant events to take place. Gatsby appears a well accomplished man at the start to the book but as we read on we learn a different side to him. Eventually the reader realises Gatsby is a determined boy with dreams of winning back Daisy. Gatsby held onto hope right until the end, this was represented as a green light, and it appeared many times being Gatsbys form of hope for Daisy.“If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay… You always have a green light that burns at the end of your dock”.
“ Gatsby bought that house so he was across the harbour from Daisy”says Jordan. “ He half expected her to walk into one of his parties”. Gatsby makes a life revolving around being with Daisy again and these quotes from Jordan support that. Gatsby sees through his eyes with a filter of Daisy cast over them.
At the end of the book Nick describes Gatsbys final perspective as;“He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about…”. This shows the reader that Gatsbys perspective had completely changed.
Through his eyes he now sees a world where Daisy is fake and non existent. She is described as a grotesque rose, Gatsby saw her beauty and elegance but didn’t see the thorns and how dangerous the she could be. No longer does his house or the green light mean anything to him, everything that had mattered to him no longer does.
Daisy:
Daisy is pictured as someone who is chasing money, she puts money above happiness. Although she is seen as a beautiful yet charming person who Gatsby wont give up on, she isn’t a very nice person on the inside. She is selfish and shallow but yet the author shows her as if she is worthy of Gatsbys affection and devotion. Daisy is seen as a soft, innocent person who is displayed in white clothes making her a idea of an angel. Nick describes seeing Daisy for the first time in the book as, “. . . her dress rippling and fluttering as if she had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house.”
Daisy is associated with the colour white very often throughout the film. Her white dress, the white car and white flowers. By Daisy being associated with white she is shown as a soft, graceful woman. Reality is she is living a life feeding off her husbands money, loving the benefits rather than finding her true happiness.
When Daisy says “I hope she’ll be a fool,” she says, “that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”, referring to her daughter; this shows her set of mind. She is implying that the world is no place for a girl or a women and to be beautiful and attractive will get you a lot further than brains in Daisy’s sense.
However she states to Gatsby she finds love after their reunion but this means nothing because she has no intentions to be with him. West Egg isin’t where she belongs, she cannot be apart of the “new money” concept because society would just not accept it and neither would Daisy. In chapter 7 when Gatsby states Daisy and his love to Tom, this is all nothing but a laughing stock. No matter what Daisy was always going to run back to Tom for the comfort, reputation and security his money could bring her.
Daisy helps me to understand illusion because she is represented as a rose. She is shown beautiful on the outside yet dangerous and ugly on the inside. This is shown because a rose is seen as a beautiful flower, yet if you get up close and touch it you will hurt yourself from the thorns, this relates back to Gatsbys love for Daisy. Gatsby admires Daisy but when he associates himself with her he just ends up getting hurt.
Nick:
Nick is the narrator however he doesn’t see everything that happens in the novel. He can almost be seen as an unreliable narrator because he isn’t present in a number of certain events. Nick starts out in the novel as naive and hopeful about his summer. As the summer goes on he meets people who are more free-spirited than himself, leading him to begin to compare his life to the people around him. But after the deaths of Myrtle, Gatsby and Wilson Nick becomes regretful and angry as he protects Gatsbys legacy against a harsh society. Nick loses hope and innocence by the end of the book. Nick becomes taken by Gatsby admires him and idealizes him. He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Nick is Daisys cousin and lives in West Egg making him a working class man. However he has ties to Daisy
