continued
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“the lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is play yellow cocktail music…” The colour yellow has ominous overtones. Be aware of it!!
- We can notice the sea imagery again – “sea change of faces and voices…” – “swirls and eddies of people”, Tom talks later about meeting “all kinds of crazy fish” at these parties and its significance is illuminated at the end of the novel “So we beat on, boats against the currents…”
Look at the description of the party “The lights grow brighter… constantly changing light.” In what ways does is resemble the party at Myrtle’s flat?
We can compare the incessant moving and drifting going on in both parties:
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Myrtle’s party: “The little dog was sitting on the table looking with blind eyes through the smoke, and from time to time groaning faintly. People disappeared reappeared, made plans to go somewhere, and then lost each other, searched for each other, found each other a few feet away.”
- Seems rhythmical – compare with the tidal movement of the sea.
- Gatsby’s party: “Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word. The groups change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath; already there are wanderers, confident girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable, become for a sharp joyous moment the centre group, and then, excited with triumph, glide on through the sea-change of faces and voices and colour under the constantly changing light.”
Myrtle and Gatsby’s parties
- Chaos and disorder, symbolising wider chaos in society, is also evident in comparing the two parties.
- Myrtle’s party: “Then there were bloody towels upon the bathroom floor, and women’s voices scolding, and high over the confusion a long broken wail of pain. Mr McKee awoke from his doze and started in a daze towards the door. When he had gone halfway he turned around and stared at the scene – his wife and Catherine scolding and consoling as they stumble here and there…”
- Gatsby’s party: “I looked around. Most of the remaining women were now having fights with men said to be their husbands. Even Jordan’s party, the quartet from East Egg, were rent asunder by dissension. One of the men was talking with curious intensity to a young actress, and his wife, after attempting to laugh at the situation in a dignified and indifferent way, broke down entirely and resorted to flank attacks…”
IMPRESSIONS OF THE PEOPLE AT GATSBY’S PARTIES?
‘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 name.’
- Insincere, superficial, false, feign interest, vain, artificial, make grand gestures
- ‘…they conducted themselves according to the rules of behaviour associated with an amusement park.’
- Defines their frivolity and vulgarity at the same time.
‘They were at least agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key.’
- Materialism/greed/wealth have corrupted society
- ‘I like to come,’ Lucille said. ‘I never care what I do, so I always have a good time.’
- Shallow people, careless, irresponsible
- ‘…there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world.’ Nick is scathing here/ironic/such people are loud, vulgar, conspicuous, lack any refinement or subtlety.
- It is interesting to note the marked difference which still exists between the classes ‘East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gaiety.’
- Here we have the ‘staid nobility of the countryside’ juxtaposed against the colourful, modern frivolity of ‘new money’.
Description before Nick meets Gatsby?
- ‘Old men pushing young girl backwards in eternal graceless circles…’
- ‘Superior couples holding each other tortuously, fashionably and keeping in corners.’
- ‘People were doing ‘stunts’ all over the garden’
- ‘happy, vacuous bursts of laughter rose towards the summer sky.’
- ‘floating in the Sound was a triangle of silver scales’
- ‘…rowdy little girl, who gave way upon the slightest provocation to uncontrollable laughter.’
- Nick tells the reader ‘I was enjoying myself now. I had taken two finger bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental and profound.’ Nick is obviously drunk and is being ironic. This is a cynical moment. He is extremely unimpressed by these people – they are anything but profound!
What does the man with the owl eyed spectacles find so fascinating about Gatsby’s books?
- He is surprised the books are real believing they only give an illusion of a library which does not really exist. This could be extended to the grandeur of the party itself – an elaborate, theatrical spectacle. Owl eyes is suggesting that Gatsby’s whole life is merely a show, an over-flamboyant extravaganza, where everything is played out, nothing is real. People adopt facades, every gesture is rehearsed, every vocal nuance practised.
- Another point to be made is that the books themselves, although real, have not been cut; they are in the same condition as when he bought them. Those books have never been opened or read. Fitzgerald shows that Gatsby has all this knowledge at his disposal, yet does not use it, remaining in his ignorant state of complacency. This foreshadows Gatsby’s short-sightedness in relation to his dream and his death.
GATSBY’S SMILE
- Enigmatic quality in the smile, just as his character remains quite mysterious for the reader:
- ‘It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it…with an irresistible prejudice in your favour…’
- Gatsby is obviously attractive and in contrast to the people that surround him he is set up to be more genuine, more likeable.
- But, then this very positive impression changes:
- ‘Precisely at that point it vanished – and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd.’
- Suddenly Nick is forced to notice the theatrical quality of Gatsby’s smile. This will not be the last time that contradictions are evident when describing Gatsby – ‘elegant’ and ‘roughneck’ seem incongruous. Later Nick talks about Gatsby’s ‘pink rag of a suit.’ Beneath the veneer of glamour/wealth/materialism Gatsby’s past reveals a lesser social status, one which even now he is at pains to hide completely.
At what points do we see Gatsby as an isolated figure?
- Fitzgerald has delayed our introduction to Gatsby until this chapter. This is done to enhance our intrigue, the mystery and enigmatic quality of his character. Furthermore, it parallels the surrounding whispers and gossip he inspires from the party guests themselves. His persistence in remaining aloof and separate from his guests seems at odds with the lavish expenditure and effort gone into his parties.
- His figure in Ch 3 – “…my eyes fell on Gatsby, standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another with approving eyes.”
- The image of Gatsby’s isolated figure is one which recurs throughout the novel.
- Here he grows ‘more correct as the fraternal hilarity increased.’
