Chapter Five

Question 1

What do Nick and Gatsby arrange?

Answer 1

A date to invite Daisy for tea.

Question 2

Who does Nick tell Daisy not to bring?

Answer 2

Tom

Question 3

What is key about this chapter?

Answer 3

It’s the turning point at the centre of the novel where the former lovers meet

Question 4

What is the reunion between Gatsby and Daisy like? What does Nick do?

Answer 4

Awkward and uncomfortable
Nick leaves the room

Question 5

What happens when Nick returns?

Answer 5

they decide to visit Gatsby’s mansion

Question 6

What does nick do after a brief tour of the mansion?

Answer 6

Leave Daisy and Gatsby alone together

Question 7

What is Gatsby’s house at the beginning of the chapter and how does Nick describe the scene? How does Gatsby behave in contrast

Answer 7

“blazing with light”.
Describes the scene in a dramatic tone, reflecting his fear that his house was “on fire”.
Gatsby’s response is casual and distracted: “I have been glancing into some of the rooms”. - He’s preoccupied with the idea of finally proving his worth to Daisy

Question 8

How does the chapter end (light)

Answer 8

Another image of electrical lighting: “All the lights were going on in west egg now” - foreshadows realisation

Question 9

In the central part of the chapter, how do the two reunited lovers provide a different sort of light to electrical lighting mentioned previously in the chapter?

Answer 9

Gatsby “literally glowed” and the room fills with “twinkle-bells of sunshine”.
The contrast between electrical and ‘natural’ lighting emphasises the lovers’ joy and gentle innocence at this point in the novel

Question 10

How does Fitzgerald use pathetic fallacy to suggest their reunion won’t be a happy fate?

Answer 10

It’s marred by “pouring rain” and a “damp mist”. It only rains twice in the novel, the other time being Gatsby’s funeral

Question 11

Why does Nick turn down Gatsby’s business proposition at the beginning of the chapter?

Answer 11

Suspects it’s illegal, but his main reason for doing so it that he feels Gatsby is trying to pay him for a “service to be rendered”.
Nick seems to care less that the business is probably illegal than that Gatsby is only offering it to him out of a sense of duty

Question 12

How does the contrast of the men’s two gardens next to each other symbolise the difference in their characters?

Answer 12

Gatsby’s neatly mown “expanse” has a pristine appearance, symbolising the way his glossy lifestyle covers up the less respectable “little business on the side”
Nick’s unkempt garden suggests that he’s less concerned with appearances and is a more honest character

Question 13

How is it suggested in this chapter that Nick’s morality has a limit and isn’t consistent?

Answer 13

Nick’s feelings of disgust for the hedonistic behaviour of the east have been overcome by his fascination with it

Question 14

What proof is there in the novel that Nick is morally corrupt?

Answer 14

• In chapter 2 he witnesses Tom and Myrtle’s affair even though he claims he doesn’t want to.
• In chapter 5, he helps Gatsby arrange a private meeting with Daisy, which makes him complicit in their affair.
• The misted windows of his house during this meeting could symbolise his inability to see that his complicity is immoral

Question 15

What does Fitzgerald question about Nick?

Answer 15

whether he’s become a part of the society he has such distaste for

Question 16

Why is it significant that when Gatsby meets Daisy he nearly causes a clock to fall from the mantelpiece?

Answer 16

The clock is significantly already “defunct” - time has stopped for Gatsby because he’s fixated on the past

Question 17

How does Gatsby seem determined to re-create himself in the image of a European aristocrat? How does this corrupt the core of the American Dream?

Answer 17

He imports his shirts from England, decorates his house with “Marie Antoinette music rooms and Restoration Salons” in the style of French and English royalty, and has a replica of “the Merton College Library” at Oxford University
This corrupts the core of the American Dream - instead of wanting to celebrate the determination of the American working man, Gatsby seems to want to be part of the high society of the old European hierarchy

Question 18

What happens to Gatsby’s adopted persona in this chapter?

Answer 18

It begins to break down

Question 19

What view does Fitzgerald present of Gatsby?

Answer 19

A sympathetic view of Gatsby in a vulnerable position

Question 20

Why does Fitzgerald dramatically change the adjectives used to describe Gatsby?

Answer 20

To create an entirely different image of the character

Question 21

What is Gatsby’s normally calm exterior replaced with?

Answer 21

“suppressed eagerness”
He’s nervous about being left alone with Daisy and tries to stay close to Nick: “He followed me wildly […] and whispered ‘Oh God!”

Question 22

What is Gatsby’s carefully considered language replaced with?

Answer 22

An “automatic quality”. Even his well-rehearsed phrase “old sport” is almost forgotten: “he added hollowly, ‘… old sport”.

Question 23

How is the reader shown Gatsby as his party guests never see him?

Answer 23

As the nervous and likeable lovesick fool

Question 24

How does Daisy’s presentation in a positive light lend the chapter’s tone?

Answer 24

Together their behaviour and language lend the chapter in an innocent tone

Question 25

What is Daisy’s voice and behaviour like when she meets Gatsby? How does this affect her persona?

Answer 25

Her voice becomes “artificial” and her behaviour becomes “frightened but graceful” when she meets Gatsby - she’s genuinely shocked and doesn’t know how to react.
Her elegant persona breaks down

Question 26

How is it shown Daisy is overwhelmed with feelings?

Answer 26

She cries “stormily”, suggesting deep emotions

Question 27

How is Daisy’s romantic nature revealed? What does this imply?

Answer 27

She admires the “sparkling” and “pale gold odour” of flowers, and is enchanted by the “pink and golden billow of foamy clouds”. Her focus on nature implies that there’s more to her than just a love of material possessions

Question 28

How does Nick highlight Daisy’s materialism compared to Gatsby’s idealism?

Answer 28

Nick tends to analyse Gatsby’s emotions and actions on a deep level, but presents Daisy’s behaviour in a shallow, descriptive manner.
Eg he describes Gatsby as having been “at an inconceivable pitch of intensity”, whereas Daisy is just superficially described as admiring her surroundings: “Daisy took the brush with delight and smoothed her hair”

Question 29

Why is Gatsby is desperate to maintain his adopted persona?

Answer 29

Appearances mean everything to Daisy

Question 30

How does Gatsby try to present himself and his home in a luxurious way and why does he do this?

Answer 30

To appeal to Daisy
He wears a silver shirt with a gold tie to emphasise his wealth, and he claims that he worked in drugs and oil because they’re respectable lines of business

Question 31

How does Nick contrast Daisy’s priorities with Gatsby’s?

Answer 31

Gatsby’s “consumer with wonder” by Daisy and doesn’t even notice his possessions. He pays so little attention that he “nearly toppled down a flight of stairs” - also shows that Daisy is the real deal (old money), whilst all his possessions are “fake” (new money)

Question 32

What does Klipspringer playing ‘Ain’t we got fun’ highlight?

Answer 32

the meaningless of all of Gatsby’s possessions now that he ‘has’ Daisy, the only thing of true value to him

Question 33

How is the popular song ‘Ain’t we got fun’ an ironic commentary on Gatsby’s meeting with Daisy?

Answer 33

Jokes about the resilience of the working class using the argument that if you already have nothing, no one can take anything from you.
It highlights the excess and unhappiness of the wealthy Gatsby, who has everything he wants