Gatsby

Question 1

“Incorruptible dream” (LOSS)

Answer 1

• Determined to accomplish his dream or die trying.
• No one can change his mind, it is not a dream any more but his deluded reality.
• Ironic because she is completely corrupted by money, wealth, and is a manipulator.

Question 2

“If it wasn’t for the mist, we could see your house across the bay” (LOSS, COMMITMENT, GENDER, PAINS)

Answer 2

• Gatsby bought the house across the bay from Daisy and Tom as a result of his obsessive need to be close to Daisy.
• This highlights the extent of his beliefs that his future with Daisy is inevitable.
• The mist could symbolise Daisy and Tom’s facade of wealth and prosperity hiding their manipulative personalities.

Question 3

“Colossal vitality of his illusion” (LOSS)

Answer 3

• This encompasses the magnanimity of Gatsby’s dream.
• Daisy’s inability to reciprocate the love is not blameworthy; rather it is the far-reaching dream of Gatsby that affords him disappointment.

Question 4

“Five years of unwavering devotion” (ENDINGS)

Answer 4

• Illustrates the magnanimity of Gatsby’s delusion and his obsessive drive to be with Daisy again

Question 5

“He hadn’t used the pool all summer” (ENDINGS, COMMITMENT)

Answer 5

• He wanted to use the pool one last time before it gets drained, so leaves would not get into the pipes. That represents he still has the desire for luxury and still had the dream of achieving it.
• The drainage of the pool represents Gatsby’s entire dream of luxury diminishing.
• When Gatsby says he had not used the pool all summer, it means he never realized his dream.
• When he gets murdered in the pool, it represents that he was trapped because of his dreams.

Question 6

“[Gatsby] must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream” (ENDINGS, COMMITMENT)

Answer 6

• With this quote, Nick reflects on Gatsby’s last moments of life.
• The “old warm world” is the hopefulness of winning Daisy which previously drove his life’s journey and sustained his rise to riches.
• The idea of a “single dream” shows how devoted and genuine his commitment was to Daisy, which more or less meant all his eggs were in one basket, risking everything on her.
• Though it shows that he had a lack of realistic judgement, it is somewhat admirable that he was able to sustain his commitment to her so strongly.

Question 7

“He felt married to her” (COMMITMENT)

Answer 7

• Gatsby is deluding himself that after in fact only knowing her briefly, that he has compulsively committed to her.

Question 8

“Golden” (COMMITMENT)

Answer 8

• Highlights Daisy’s wealthy allure and superficiality.

Question 9

“Her voice was full of money” (GENDER)

Answer 9

• Highlights Daisy’s wealthy allure and superficiality.

Question 10

“Beautiful shirts” (ENDINGS)

Answer 10

• Shows Daisy’s superficiality and materialistic nature.
• She only loves Gatsby’s wealth, not him personally.

Question 11

“Daisy Fay” (PAINS)

Answer 11

• Highlights how Daisy uses her superficial nature to attract and brutally dismiss those around her.

Question 12

“I did love him once, but I loved you too!” (ENDINGS, GENDER)

Answer 12

• Highlights Daisy’s façade of helplessness, and her manipulation of those around her.

Question 13

“They were careless people Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money and vast carelessness” (ENDINGS, PAINS)

Answer 13

• Highlights their recklessness and carelessness to everyone around them, especially those of a lower class.
• Their excessive wealth has not allowed them to appreciate others around them; they are consumed.

Question 14

“Whatever it was that kept them together” (ENDINGS, PAINS)

Answer 14

• Nick is unable to give a reason apart from their dual carelessness to why Tom and Daisy are still together, this emphasises their flawed and manipulative characters.

Question 15

“Cold chicken” (PAINS)

Answer 15

• Shows how their relationship has been reduced to a stale shadow of what it once was- it has been destroyed by their lack of respect, and infidelity.
• Their wealth and excessive lifestyle has poisoned their marriage.

Question 16

“Watching over” (COMMITMENT))

Answer 16

• Shows Gatsby’s continual protectiveness over Daisy, even when she is not committed to him anymore.

Question 17

“Hot whips of panic” (LOSS, GENDER)

Answer 17

• This quote reveals Tom’s fears and conservatism as well as his recklessness.
• He is happy to keep a mistress, provided she is from a lower class so he can exploit her.
• His relationship allows him to fasten his grip on society, and maintain the status quo by emasculating George Wilson.

Question 18

“Drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game” (LOSS)

Answer 18

• Nick introduces Tom as someone who can never live up to the glory of his youth
• His life only had purpose when he starred in a famous college football team
• In the present, he is clasping onto every morsel of upper-class life and indulgence in order to convince himself he is at his peak of life, when really he drifts without a clear sense of direction (lost generation).

Question 19

“Get on the next train” (PAINS)

Answer 19

• Imperative, domineering language.
• Views Myrtle as a possession of his.

Question 20

“Sprees” (GENDER, PAINS)

Answer 20

• Tom shows how arrogant and possessive he is dismisses his own cheating, immoral behaviour in order to dismiss Gatsby’s claim that he and Daisy are going to run off together.
• Trivialises and normalises his affairs as unimportant matters.

Question 21

“Repeating the past… Of course you can!” (COMMITMENT)

Answer 21

-Gatsby this to Nick in order to convince both himself and Nick that he could recapture Daisy Buchanan, his former love.
- However, some of Fitzgerald’s critics argue that, on a second level, Fitzgerald is asking this question of his own audience.

Question 22

“Bought her cold cream and a small flask of perfume” (COMMITMENT, GENDER)

Answer 22

• This exhibits Myrtle’s materialist nature and how her consumerist reasons to be with Tom. Also shows her superficiality.
• Shows how easily Tom “buys” Myrtle as a commodity, and uses her to satisfy and maintain his masculine hegemony.

Question 23

“Disappear together immediately on reaching the apartment” (GENDER)

Answer 23

• Highlights the sexual dominance of Tom and Myrtle’s affair.

Question 24

“Chamber maid” (GENDER)

Answer 24

• Tom Buchanan chooses his affairs to be lower class women so that they can be exploited and the subservient figure in the relationship.

Question 25

“Honeymoon” (ENDINGS)

Answer 25

• Shows Tom’s disrespect to Daisy, he commits infidelity moments after they are married.

Question 26

‘It’s a bitch” (ENDINGS)

Answer 26

• Tom’s class anxieties are in part allayed with his relationship with Myrtle.
• In Myrtle, he finds an opportunity to assert his dominance.
• His financial status further allows him to control her; he chooses her apartment, gives her a stipend, and essentially buys her as she buys her “bitch” of a dog.

Question 27

“But of course I’ll say I was” (PAINS)

Answer 27

• Gatsby says he will dishonestly admit to driving the car that killed Myrtle, even though it was Daisy.
• Without hesitation, he admits to this, something that he knows will put him in great danger, and ultimately causes his death.

Question 28

“She carried her surplus flesh sensuously” (PAINS)

Answer 28

• Myrtle is viewed as an object for purely sexual purposes.