In the first paragraph of chapter three, we learn that this is Nick’s first experience of a Gatsby party. Unlike the majority of the other guests, the reader knows that Nick has been formally invited by Gatsby himself.
The author gives a very detailed description of the party, the guests and the surroundings. He uses many poetic devices, which gives the passage a very dream-like tone, and an almost unrealistic quality:
‘…men and girls came and went like moths…’
The use of the word ‘moth’ in this context, as a simile, gives an impression of the restlessness of the guests. Moths drift aimlessly around, until they are drawn to the light. Similarly, the rich and beautiful guests of Gatsby’s party wander aimlessly until they are drawn to another suitably attractive guest.
Fitzgerald’s careful choice of vocabulary fully displays the dazzling surface wealth of Gatsby and his guests. The description is so perfect, it almost encourages the reader to think of a holiday advertisement, whilst concealing the party’s sleazy immoral reality:
‘…watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft…or taking up the sun on the hot sand of his beach…two motor-boats slit the waters…’
In addition, the descriptions of the setting (Gatsby’s garden) give the passage a very romantic surface gloss; again, as if the author is trying to sell the idea of the party:
‘In his blue gardens…among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.’
Fitzgerald’s idea of ‘blue gardens’ gives a mystical air to the location’s description. The mention of stars remind the reader that there is much beauty in the reality of nature, which is something that the rich guests take for granted as they drift along in their dream worlds.
Although the rich guests are oblivious to anyone who is not included in their world of expensive materialism, the reader knows that without the lower class servants working hard behind the scenes at Gatsby’s parties, there would be no trivial entertainment for the rich at all. This emphasises the total contrast between the worlds of the rich and the ‘normal’ characters illustrated by Fitzgerald in the novel.
Until now, the author has made no mention of the lower classes. They are introduced to the reader as their roles in the party preparation are shown to us, through descriptions of the various tasks they have to carry out. This is the first time we see the reality behind the superficial glamour on the surface:
‘…on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops…repairing the ravages of the night before.’
This shows us that the parties are regular events, held every weekend by Gatsby. It is also the first hint of the utter waste, carelessness and immorality that lurks beneath the surface of this seemingly wonderful lifestyle:
‘…conducted themselves according to the rules of behaviour associated with an amusement park.’
The guests cause havoc and leave destruction in their wake. The words ‘toiled all day’ show that the servants work for hours trying to correct the damage left by the rich folk, giving the impression that they are totally oblivious to the effort required to prepare for a huge party.
To them, glamorous parties are everything, but Fitzgerald is anxious to remind us that there is a much more important world surrounding the fake, shallow world in which Gatsby’s guests are so engrossed:
‘The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun…’
Fitzgerald wants to emphasise the point that not only do the servants have to prepare the party, but also once the guests are gone, they must continue to work hard to maintain the seemingly effortless perfection. Every week, the labour of the servants in preparing the party, and the effort of those undoing the damage left in its aftermath, is taken for granted by those who enjoy it.
The idea that the rich are unaware of the hard work put in by the poor, as they have never had to work hard, uncovers another contradiction. Despite toiling for hours on end working for the rich, who should pay them well, the servants never earn enough to enjoy the lifestyle of their employers. Though we are led to believe that hard work pays off, this novel suggests the opposite.
The word ‘ravages’ immediately tells us that everything has been completely destroyed by Gatsby’s guests. This demonstrates their utter carelessness, and shows they have lost all perspective concerning money. They are so conceited and self obsessed that they no longer have respect for other people’s property, due to the fact that many of them arrived at the event without even being invited. ‘Ravages’ also hints at the seedy affairs going on at the party between the ‘young female guests’ and the ‘stouter and more stable’ gentlemen. What started as order has been reduced to total chaos by the immoral upper class.
The triviality of these people is made obvious through their actions:
‘…introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew eachother’s names.’
The wealthy live for these empty parties and are happy to drift through life without any real purpose; this is displayed clearly by the ‘unrestful’ Buchanans. However, there is almost a sense of contrast between Gatsby himself and his guests. We know that, unlike the rest of the rich society, he does have a goal in mind. His sole purpose and determination to succeed in living this kind of life, though empty for most, is to be with Daisy again.
In the following paragraphs, we see that for every pleasure enjoyed by the wealthy, there is some kind of harsh reality to be faced by someone else:
‘There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges…if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler’s thumb.’
Fitzgerald highlights the blunt realism of ‘pressed two hundred times by a butler’s thumb’ through the irony of this statement.
Everything seems to be done to the excess, and this is emphasised through Fitzgerald’s descriptive techniques:
‘…a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low and high drums.’
The constant repetition of the word ‘and’ conveys the idea that nothing is done by halves.
Sumptuous language is even used to describe the food at the party:
‘…glistening hors-d’oeurve…and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold.’
The word ‘bewitched’ gives an air of romantic mystery to the description. This seems ridiculous, because the author is referring to food, but the impression conveyed is that only at Gatsby’s parties would you find such luxury.
Fitzgerald’s descriptions do dazzle the eye with wealth and opulence, as we have seen, but it is through Nick that we are brought down to earth, as he exposes the truth and reality behind it. Gatsby’s vision of ideal love is more deeply hidden beneath the glamour, and we soon find out that it is the ordinary reality of love that shatters his dream.
Tom and Daisy Buchanan are a rich couple that we quickly become familiar with. Due to Gatsby’s unrealistic hope for a life of love with Daisy, the Buchanans have a huge influence on him, and contribute substantially to his death, both emotionally and physically.
The reader realises that Daisy married Tom for financial and materialistic reasons. Their house is lavish:
‘Their house was even more elaborate than I expected…Georgian Colonial mansion…’
and they too are as restless and careless as the other wealthy characters in the novel:
‘They had spent a year in France for no particular reason…drifted here and there unrestfully…’
Once again, the exterior of Tom and Daisy’s life looks perfect, but ‘drifted here and there unrestfully’ shows that despite all their money, they are dissatisfied. Not only does their vast wealth not bring happiness, but we also find out that their marriage is also in ruins, even though on the outside they seem like the perfect couple.
Not even their marriage can hide the sordid reality of Tom’s sleazy affairs:
‘’Tom’s got some woman in New York.’’
In chapter four, we get a glimpse into Gatsby’s emotional past. We learn that his hopes of a loving reunion with Daisy, despite the fact his vision of ideal love far exceeds the bounds of reality, are not totally unfounded.
Jordan Baker, a friend of Daisy’s, recounts the story of Gatsby and Daisy’s romantic history to Nick, our objective narrator:
‘…and she (Daisy) was sitting in it with a lieutenant I had never seen before. They were so engrossed in eachother that she didn’t see me…The officer looked at Daisy…in a way every young girl wants to be looked at…His name was Jay Gatsby…’
Although Daisy had clearly been in love with Gatsby, she has moved on during the several years in which they have been apart. Gatsby’s false hope is reliant on impressing Daisy with his wealth and success. Their first meeting is arranged by Nick, so that Gatsby can show her he now has the money that prevented them from being together previously:
‘…’He wants her to see his house,’ she explained.’
For Gatsby, his possessions are like enchanted objects, as each was bought in his quest to regain Daisy’s love, and their value to him rests only in her opinion of them.
The reader knows that Gatsby’s vision of ideal love is unobtainable, not only because no woman can compare to the personified perfection that Gatsby believes Daisy is, but because she is married to, and has a child with, Tom.
The start of Gatsby’s emotional decline begins the first time he meets Daisy (chapter five) since becoming rich. He has put her on so high a pedestal in his dreams, that reality can never match it. When he sees her as an ordinary human being, behind her superficial glamour, it is the first time we see a member of the wealthy society being hit by the truth of reality.
Gatsby assumes that Daisy does still love him, and truly believes that she never loved Tom. He is so desperate for her to confirm this, he aggressively puts words into her mouth:
‘You never loved him.’
But the reader knows that as soon as Daisy suggests that she did love Tom, Gatsby’s dream has been completely destroyed, and his whole world has lost its meaning:
‘’I did love him once-but I loved you too.’ Gatsby’s eyes opened and closed.
‘You loved me too?’ he repeated.’
We see now that although she does love him, the mere fact that she loved someone else as well has completely crushed Gatsby. Instantly, Daisy’s love is made imperfect.
By displaying his total devastation, we do see Gatsby’s vision of ideal love, but once again, reality pulls both the reader and our main character back down to earth.
At the end of the novel, Gatsby is shot by Wilson, the husband of Myrtle. Although Myrtle is killed by Daisy who is driving Gatsby’s car during the accident, the Buchanans allow Gatsby to take the blame, thus clearing their own names. Gatsby accepts this unjust accusation, because of his love for Daisy. Even though she has not lived up to his expectations, he still hopes that they will be together, and his love for her remains indestructible.
He has lived his life without any real friends, surrounded only by the superficial people arriving uninvited to his parties. In complete contrast to these magnificent events, where his house and gardens were teaming with people, his funeral attracts only Nick and Gatsby’s father. The irony of Gatsby’s funeral reveals another contradiction, as well as the incompassionate nature of the rich who only think of themselves, because although Gatsby’s guests could turn up uninvited to his parties, when they are invited to his funeral, they show no commiseration for his death. Not even Daisy comes to pay her respects to the man she loved and who died because of her:
‘…Daisy hadn’t sent a message or a flower.’
Gatsby’s death, at the end of the novel, is really the pinnacle of the entire story, and the ending is what the book has really been all about: Gatsby’s eventual realisation, which comes all too late, that reality can never compare to the dream he has held on to for so long. Only his own death can show him the harsh truth of life and its tragedies:
‘…and shivered as he found out what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass.’
The reader has learned that true morality exists only for those who are not materially conscious, and in effect, we can see that there are two kinds of morality - for the rich, and for the poor. This is demonstrated clearly by Nick, who, as a member of the ‘less rich’ society, is consistent in his moralistic stance throughout the novel, continuously drawing our attention to the actions of the corrupted indivduals that cause Gatsby’s eventual death.
Daisy, by killing a woman in Gatsby’s car, represents the fact that unmaterialistic people are often downtrodden by the wealthy. The rich themselves believe that money can buy them everything, including, as in Daisy’s case, a guilt-free conscience.
An underlying contradiction of the novel is that Gatsby’s rich guests all thought that happiness rested in money, but the truth was that it does not, and never will. For Gatsby, the source of his happiness rested in love, and whilst the rich minority took everything, including love, for granted, Gatsby never did, and it proved to be his demise. The novel’s biggest contradiction shows that although love is the source of life, in this instance it has killed a man in his quest to find it.
Kate Cockburn
Bibliography: ‘The Great Gatsby’, F.Scott Fitzgerald (Penguin Modern Classics).
