Chapter 7: " I glanced at Daisy, who was staring…So we drove to the death through the cooling twilight" Explore how the language used in this passage describes Gatsby's defeat and its symbolic significance.

“ Her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage she had had, were definitely gone.” This is the final indication that Gatsby has been defeated, as now even Daisy has lost the courage to run away with him.

  We realise that after Tom becomes self-assured that he will not be losing his wife, he gains authority as he orders Gatsby and Daisy to take Gatsby’s car to drive back home. Gatsby’s defeat is re-highlighted as he acts in the way Tom orders him to “without a word”.  Fitzgerald uses a simile to describe Gatsby and Daisy’s departure “like ghosts”. This implies they were both hollow as they left without saying a word or creating a sound. Fitzgerald also writes: ”Isolated, like ghosts, even from our sympathy” suggesting that there is a link between the end of Gatsby’s dream and the shutting down of human sympathy on him. At this point, Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship seems to be the wrong one, not Tom finding out about it. We perceive Daisy as taking the wrong action when she starts telling Tom that she is planning to leave him. At the same time, we start viewing Gatsby as possibly being the ‘villain’ who is trying to break up Tom’s family, even though as a reader, we approached Gatsby and Daisy’s formation of their relationship as the content element of the novel.        

   After the departure of Gatsby and Daisy, Fitzgerald refers to the passing of time without notice as Nick remembers his birthday: “I just remembered today is my birthday”. This suggests that time passes by rapidly without the realisation of the characters. He becomes conscious of what he hasn’t achieved in the time that past, and his brutal standing as he witnesses Gatsby’s dreams dieing and his physical death afterwards without taking action to help his friend or possibly feeling guilty for not stopping his friend of forming a relationship he disapproves of from the first place.  

   Nick as the narrative appears to us disapproving of Daisy’s actions and the relationship she and Gatsby had, even though he was physically involved by helping the couple assemble. He describes Jordan a woman who he could form a relationship with as she is wiser than “ever to carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age”, unlike Daisy. He therefore, appears to be disapproving Daisy’s approach, even though he has been the one arranging the meet-ups of Daisy and Gatsby of which has formed their relationship.

   As the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy starts coming to an end, the relationship between Nick and Jordan starts to take formation. This may be intentionally done by Fitzgerald to possibly imply the never-ending cycle of these types of relationships taking place in the East Egg. Another example is when Wilson finds out about the relationship his wife is forming with Tom. Fitzgerald portrays East Egg as full of people who deceive their partners and do not accept mixing with others from a lower class or social standing.

   Gatsby has not only lost Daisy but he has also been defeated by Tom as he has not been accepted in the social class he was willing and making his money to become part off. Even though he has money, a magnificent house and other luxuries but he does not have any real standing. The green light shines from East Egg to West Egg enticing Gatsby towards what he has always wanted.  The barrier that the water creates between these worlds in symbolic of the barrier that keeps these people apart from one another and from much of what they want.    

   This passage presents Gatsby’s defeat not only by losing Daisy, but also by the time that has past whilst he tired to gain money to please Daisy, and by the fact that he did not fit in with the social class of East Egg.